 About Us
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You can never tell where a drive in the country will lead.
One fall day in 2002 I passed through the village of Southfield with my daughter Emily on our way to look at a piece of country property she was thinking of buying. At the time I was living in Manhattan, a transplanted Californian, filmmaker and struggling writer, who had moved east to jump into the final crazy days of the dotcom boom. By 2002 the Internet business had imploded and I was spending weekends licking my wounds on visits to the Berkshires, staying with Emily who had recently moved to Great Barrington to practice Vet Medicine. Like many before me, I was quickly smitten with this wonderful corner of New England and thinking I'd like to move here myself. I had rationalized: "I could live in the Berkshires and do what I’m doing almost as easily as being in Manhattan or LA." Actually, it wasn’t remotely true, but it had a nice sound to it. At the time, the thought of owning a country store dedicated to good food wasn't even a glimmer in the furthest recesses of my mind.
After exploring an idyllic pine grove on a river bank that Emily was thinking might be the building site of her future cottage, on our way back to Great Barrington we stopped in Southfield to look around. The village was, and is, nothing more than a collection of lovely clapboard houses, a one-time buggy whip factory transformed into a flourishing antique market, a firehouse and the Southfield Store. As we pressed our noses against the store's front window glass, it was clear that the store was closed. Not for the day, but really closed. An index card Scotch-taped to the window read, "Store and House for Sale," and listed a phone number. Not sure what I would do with it, I copied down the number.
Some weeks passed, and on another weekend visit to Emily, curiosity got the best of me. I called the number on the index card and not much later found myself being shown around the store by owners David and Barbara Lowman. Grocery shelves with leftover canned goods, near empty wine racks, a classic old deli case and a collection of branded soft drink coolers stood like lonely sentinels. The place had that funky long-closed musty smell and looked a little like it had been abandoned when the news hit that the world was coming to an end. Needless to say, I fell in love. "Why are you selling," I asked, trying to keep my excitement in check. After 20 years, the Lowman's told me, they had had enough. I, on the other hand, had not.
About a year and a half and much work later, on a sunny day in early June 2004, the Southfield Store reopened. Now under the ownership of yours truly. A great deal happened in that interval, but the store itself tells the story much better that I ever could. No longer a classic New England general store with a single gas pump out front, the Southfield Store is now very different, and yet somehow the same. A new kind of "general store" maybe—or at least one guy’s vision of what a small Berkshire village needs in the way of a place to shop for food and sundries, get something to eat and hang out. Happily, after an extended interlude without a store, there is once again a place for residents and visitors alike to gather in the village of Southfield and share some of the beauty and hospitality of life in the Berkshires.
 |  | Early Summer in Southfield |
The Southfield Store is - at the same time - a solo endeavor for proprietor, Tim Newman, and a family business. Solo in the sense that Tim has no one to thank but himself for sucumbiing to his fantasies and enthusiams. (Creating an outpost dedicated to good food, wine and the joys of the table out of a closed New England general store in a tiny hamlet in the Berkshires is not an activity for the faint of heart.) Family in the sense that – without a master plan, legal documents or enumerated responsibilities – Tim’s grown children, Emily, Jim and Matt have rallied around and helped the fledgling proprietor in ways far too many to enumerate. (For this he is eternally grateful - sometimes luck, fate, karma - call it what you like - really is in play.) Because of them the “experience” of the Southfield Store is far more interesting (and a lot more fun) for visitors and staff alike.
Tim Newman - Proprietor
One time ad-guy (as a callow youth) and later a TV commercial and music video director, Tim's abiding love of good food and the pleasures of the table were his reason for taking on the challenge of renovating a closed New England general store and transforming it into the unexpected and wonderful country resource for dining, delicious prepared food, fine groceries and diverse wines it has become. A native of Southern California who has, on and off, lived and worked in New York City, Tim discovered the Berkshires on visits from Manhattan to spend weekends in Great Barrington with his daughter Emily. Owning and running the Southfield Store represents a complete departure from all his past life experiences. "A post-college year spent bumming around Europe set the stage for my life-long romance with food and wine and of dining as one of life’s great pleasures." After years of chasing back and forth between New York and Los Angeles and running around the country and beyond shooting commercials and music videos, Tim has settled in the rural southern Berkshires. "Running the Southfield Store has given my fascination with all things culinary a challenging and wonderful outlet of expression. And living here has allowed me, for the first time in my life, to experience the rhythm of country living where neighbors really are neighbors."
Emily Newman - Daughter, Small Animal Vet, Next Door Neighbor and Baker
If it were not for Emily moving to Great Barrington a several years ago to practice veterinary medicine and her father's many visits, the current incarnation of the Southfield Store would not have come to be. As if fated, shortly after Tim had signed the contract for the Southfield Store in early 2003, the house next to the store came up for sale and Emily decided to buy it. Without the benefit of any "grand plan" she became the store's, and her father's, next-door neighbor. In addition to her touch with animals, Emily happens to be a wonderful baker. Given her proximity to the Southfield Store kitchen, this has been a piece of great good fortune for the proprietor as well as the Store's many customers who are now addicted to her scones, muffins and cookies.
Jim Newman - Youngest Son, Student and End-of Week Chef
When not attending classes part time at UMASS Amherst or painting houses in the summer, Jim weekly turns out exceptional food that has garnered raves from our many regular customers and visitors to Southfield. Come for Sunday Brunch and try his Huevos Rancheros or to one of our Friday Dinners to see what we mean. (And check out his unfinished masterpiece-a fanciful rendition of Southfield and its environs in the form of a mural gracing the walls of our rest room.)
Our Great Staff
Without the wonderful crew that works with us in the kitcn and up front, the store just wouldn't be what it is. Our thanks to Chef Addison who keeps turning out exceptional food that has our customers coming back time and again; and to Manny and Matt who help make the kitchen purr (okay, loudly sometimes). And in front, to Christine, Laurel and Megan for their good humor and grace. (We'd be remiss if we didn't mention our wonderful neighbors Sara and Amy who kindly consent to being pressed into service when the going get's tough.) They all embody the friendly, informal atmosphere we so much want the store, and Southfield, to embody. We thank them for the delicious food we're putting on the table and for their way with you, our customers. We think they're great and hope you'll agree.
 | Emily and Jon's Vegetable Garden, the source of much fresh produce for the Store. |
According to oral histories, the original Southfield Store building was built about 1907. Little is known about the owners in those early years. What is known is that in 1928, the building was destroyed by fire.
At that time, Dudley Turner, owner of the Turner and Cook Whip factory just down the road from the store, also owned the store and supervised it’s rebuilding in the aftermath of the fire. The rebuild store apparently shared the same footprint as its predecessor and is the same building, with only minor changes that we see today. The new building, which also included the Southfield Post Office, reopened for business in 1931.
In 1934, Turner sold the Store to the partnership of Gardner Rug and Tim Oates. In 1936, Mr. Oates sold his interest to Gardner Rug, who continued the Store’s operation with his wife, Dorothy—know to her many friends as “Dot”. Mr. Rugg died in 1967, and his widow soldiered on for several years before deciding to sell.
In 1970, Victor and Pearl Spigarolo of Waterbury, CT, bought the property from Dot Stevens, which by that time included the Store and the small house at the rear of the property.
Barbara and David Lowman bought the Store and house and took over the business in October of 1980. During the Lowman’s tenure, the Post Office moved to a ground floor of the Buggywhip Factory. The Lowman’s operated the store until October 2001.
Until its current incarnation, the Southfield Store had always been a general store, selling a wide variety of merchandise befitting a rural community—groceries, meats, gasoline, delicatessen, hardware, house wares, agricultural products, clothing and so forth. While sandwiches were an occasional item during the Ruggs’ tenure, with the construction of the Kolburne in 1968, they became a standard feature. That practice continued throughout the 2o years the Lowman’s operated the Store. And while there were no tables and chairs in the store, depending on the season and the weather, customers would often eat their sandwiches either in the Store or on the porch benches.
In November 2003, Tim Newman became the store’s owner and operator. Newman spent seven months on renovations and opened in June 2004. In all these years, we know of the Store being closed only after the fire in 1928 and from October 2001, when the Lowman’s retired and its reopening on June 3rd 2004.
Much has changed in Southfield—indeed in all the southern Berkshires—since the Lowman’s purchased the Store in 1980. New Marlborough Township, of which Southfield is a part, was “discovered” by a growing number of New Yorker’s eager to experience life in these gentle hills. Over the years, more and more families and couples with ties to New York City purchased homes or property surrounding Southfield to enjoy on weekends and for longer stretches during summer and ski season. Today something like forty percent of property owners in the area fall into this category.
With its reopening in 2004, the Store was transformed from a classic New England general store into a Cafe and Coffee Bar, with seating for 30 people and daily food service, as well a retail business offering fine groceries, an international selection of cheeses and cured meats, wine, beer and spirits, things for the kitchen and table and gifts.
Even with increasing number of second homeowners in the area and the store’s changed mission, it is comforting to know that former Storeowner Dot Stevens still resides in Southfield and occasionally comes to the Store for lunch or Sunday brunch.
 | The Southfield Store circa 2002. This was the original exterior style of store when it was built in 1929. |
 | The "new" Store, Summer 2004. |
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