SummerHarvestWeb - Flipbook - Page 21
For a $15 cover, visitors had the promise of brilliant weather,
great tunes and a music-festival atmosphere. During the outdoor
season, Bernie’s, located at 125 Hillside Road, hosts bands on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through October or even December,
depending on the temps.
A Bernie’s regular since his high school days in the ‘70s, Keith
Holland of Green Pond sat with friends in front of an overturned
log with seats carved into it. “Bernie’s is a great old roadhouse
with wood floors, beer smell on the walls, and the bathrooms
haven’t changed,” he said. “I go, have a couple of beers, listen to
good music. No food – just beer and good bands. Since they
opened up outside, it’s been phenomenal. It’s the first outdoor
show this year – a perfect day.”
Soon, This Old Engine (TOE) took the stage with the opening
chords of the Dead classic Good Lovin.’ A barefoot guy in green
shorts strummed his air guitar. A woman with a leg brace sat up
front with her foot propped. All around, spectators sat at wooden
tables crafted from the trunk of a 356-year-old felled oak tree that
once graced the property. Bernie Wallace Jr., the second-generation owner, lounged on a swing and took in the happenings.
The roots of his family’s business date back to 1899, the year
of Chester’s centennial, when it was called the Depot House at
Muskrat, near a train stop and owned by Charles Cumback, according to the Chester Historical Society. Seven years later,
Lorenzo Current, a butter man who worked at a nearby creamery,
bought it and named it the Anthracite Hotel, after the coal local
trains transported. It became a traveler’s or a transient place,
where rail workers stayed and enjoyed hot meals, along with a
BRJ 2023
21
