Bistro 186 Closes

We ran into Ed Vadas and Sue Burkhart on Friday night. For months, they have played a weekly gig--their act is called Ameri-MF-Cana--at the Bistro 186. Why were they busking out on the sidewalk, instead of setting up inside? "The owner always comes by early and lets us in," they explained. "He's twenty minutes late. That's not like him."

Turns out the Bistro is no more. Rumor on the street? Back rent owed. Too bad...the Bistro 186 was starting to develop as a great place to catch local musicians playing early evening gigs.

Hilton Garden Inn gets Financing

From the Daily Hampshire Gazette:

NORTHAMPTON - After months of discussions with bankers from the United States and abroad, the development group planning to build a 101-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel downtown has secured financing right in its own backyard.

Shardool Parmar, the president of Pioneer Valley Hotel Group, said his company received a financial commitment letter this week from Berkshire Bank of Pittsfield.

Here are links to local reporting on the issue:

Chad Cain on Gazettenet

Fred Contrada on MassLive
update 6/22 from Contrada

For full video of Planning Director Wayne Feiden's presentation of the revised hotel scheme to the city council on June 18, visit Daryl LaFleur's Northampton Redoubt on the Valley Advocate website.

The hotel plans were the center of some serious controversy two summers ago,
when it was revealed that the the city had issued the hotel developer a special permit for the project before site plan review, a violation of the city's own rules.