lenox: cafe lucia, an iconic high-end downtown restaurant and celebrity hangout, has quietly closed its doors, nearly four decades after it was founded by jim lucie, who passed away four months ago.
The quiet closure was announced in a notice posted at the entrance by Nadine Atalla, Lucie’s co-owner since 1993. Atalla, her widow, had operated the restaurant for what turned out to be its final season, reopening it a few days after lucie’s death.
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“It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that we are now closed,” read one notice, which was signed “nadine & Jim.” “We had a great career, almost 39 years. …I am so grateful for all the love and support you have given me during this very difficult and successful season after losing my husband, partner and founder on June 13, 2021.”
Thanking the restaurant’s “family of friends, staff and customers, new and old,” Atalla described Lucie, 76, of Lee, as “a very warm, generous and joyful man, a teacher and mentor that a dream and took it to the stars.He loved and was loved by so many and his legacy will live on in the hearts and memories of so many employees and patrons.”
atalla was not available for additional comment.
second in longevity to the former terry moore mill in south egremont, which opened in june 1978, cafe lucia was among the longest-running berkshire restaurants under the same individual ownership.
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80 Iglesia Street, a destination for upscale Italian cuisine, with its own parking lot and expansive patio and garden for alfresco dining, is for sale from Ryan Salame. The Sandisfield native has taken over two other downtown restaurants: Olde Heritage Tavern acquired from former owner John McNinch last April in a $1.5 million real estate transaction and Firefly Gastropub, leased from restaurateur Laura Shack in summer 2020 for $300,000.
salame, 28, is a cryptocurrency entrepreneur based in the bahamas. He is a 2012 graduate of Monument Mountain Regional High School and holds degrees from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Plans for the former Café Lucía have not yet been announced, he said by email. details are expected to be revealed by the end of the year.
the restaurant has drawn tanglewood luminaries such as john williams, seiji ozawa, leonard bernstein, andre previn, and many boston symphony orchestra staff, ever since a 1985 new york times article listed it as the venue Ozawa’s favorite for dinner.
“Yes, we have the celebrities,” Lucie told the eagle in 2019, “and not just from the music world. but we have been very lucky, and our general clientele is very special, with its highly cultured palate. it’s like a nightclub.”
“There are nights when all the clients know each other,” added Atalla. “When john williams returns to the berkshires, on his first night he always comes here and tells us, ‘it’s like coming home.’”
In November 2016, after an eight-year hiatus from November to May, Lucie revived off-season dining with a lower-priced “Winterlude” menu featuring pizza and burgers, “Lasagna Wednesday,” and half slices of regular menu favorites aimed at a local clientele looking for a night out “and not have to break the bank to do it,” he said.
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“You have to keep it fresh and vital,” he said at the time, “but there’s a basic core menu that you fill out with daily specials, while still staying true to what you’re doing, so our regional style of food Italian has always been simple and based on the ingredients.”
Lucie described her and Atalla’s style as “hands-on, sometimes almost micromanaging,” noting that “it’s a physical and mental business, it’s exhausting on multiple levels, like being afloat in the ocean, riding the wave, with recessions every few years.”
cafe lucia opened in the former honey sharp art gallery and ganesh cafe on may 15, 1983, when lucie, a native of teaneck, n.j., was 38 years old. After leasing the space, Lucie bought the property in 1989.
according to the lenox historical commission, the building, originally a farmhouse, was built around 1853 and has been modified and renovated many times since.
lucie had started out as a school adjustment counselor at norwood. but, seeking a career change, she learned the restaurant trade as a waiter, prep and line cook and then apprentice chef. She honed her skills as Director of Food and Beverage at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge and for a brief stint as General Manager of the Northampton Hotel.
shortly before her 73rd birthday, lucie told the eagle she couldn’t conceive of not working.
“being around young people keeps you young,” he said.
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