By AVIVA LUTTRELL
Recorder Staff
GREENFIELD — Drawing on their backgrounds in organic vegetable farming, art and music, a Charlemont couple has opened a new bar and music venue in downtown Greenfield featuring unique homemade drinks and infusions, well-known bands and a down-home vibe.
Owners Wendell Rheinheimer and Shana Totino opened The Root Cellar, below Mesa Verde at 10 Fiske Ave., last week. The two are collaborating with a small group of friends on the venture, which was born out of a small, one-day music festival called the Barn Bash, held at the couple’s farm in Charlemont over the past four years.
“This bar project kind of grew out of a desire to give a permanent home to that little festival,” said Cassandra Purdy, a collaborator on the project and a longtime friend of Totino. “The idea was to create a new music venue and bar in this community that fits the personality of Greenfield moving forward.”
The space, with red and black walls and a checkerboard motif, features a large bar, stage, dance floor and cozy booths in the back. Rheinheimer, a professional artist and screenprinter who owns Moonlight Designs — located in a studio above the venue — made the booths himself from repurposed oak church pews he got in Springfield.
There’s also an outdoor patio area where patrons can smoke and drink or get a breath of fresh air.
The venue, which was home to a number of clubs in the past, including Allure Night Club and Drop Zone, was completely gutted and overhauled, according to Purdy. The owners say they are aware it had a certain reputation in the past, but believe those memories will fade fast for anyone who comes into the new space.
The Root Cellar will feature live music every night and its team is working with national music booking agency Simon Says Booking to bring in well-known acts, such as The Alchemystics, Adam Ezra Group and Shakedown.
“They’ve already filled up the next two months with really good acts on Friday and Saturday nights,” Purdy said. “We’re just going to draw on our friends and connections for all the other nights so people can be sure to see something happening here any night they come in.”
Members of the local band Bella’s Bartok will curate the venue’s Tuesday jazz night, according to Purdy, while Wednesday nights will feature Peace & Rhythm presents eclectic music, including funk, rock, jazz, world, etc. Thursday is funk night.
“We’re looking to build a regular music scene here in Greenfield where people can stop in and always have some sort of live music experience,” Rheinheimer said.
Using local products is also a priority at The Root Cellar. The venue works with businesses like People’s Pint, Katalyst Kombucha and Stoneman Brewery, as well as local orchards and growers. Bar manager Rob Sullivan said he plans to keep several local breweries on tap, rotating their different styles. Stoneman Brewery also made the venue its own house beer, called The Root Cellar IPA.
“We’re just using all the local resources,” Purdy said. “It’s such an incredibly rich area for breweries, musicians, drinks of all sorts, farms. … We’re really trying to draw on the local richness to make the bar something the community responds to.”
Behind the bar, there are three large glass jars filled with infused liquor, which Purdy described as a combination of cocktail and tincture. She said because of Totino’s interest in medicinal plants, the venue is serving several herbal-inspired cocktails including Sunshine Daydream, made with dandelion, lemon, turmeric and vodka; Fire on the Mountain, made with chilies, cinnamon, maple and whiskey; and The Roots, made with ginger ginseng, burdock, hibiscus, local honey and vodka.
Instead of using Pepsi or Coca-Cola products, the bar serves GUS sodas and uses homemade soda syrup in flavors like lemon balm and strawberry rhubarb. Even most of the hard liquor is local, from Berkshire Mountain Distillers.
“We’re just trying to use really quality products and stuff that’s local in keeping with the culture of the community here,” Purdy said.
Totino came up with the name of the venue, according to Rheinheimer.
“It’s a basement, but it does have some natural light,” Purdy explained. “It has some windows onto the train tracks. It’s kind of a play on words because it’s a cellar and we’re all interested in roots music. It’s like good things grow from the roots.”
She said a goal of the venture is to create an inclusive, affordable place with something for everyone that helps bring healthy, positive change to Greenfield.
“It’s sort of a sweaty dance party one night and an acoustic set another,” she said. “We can have both those atmospheres going on here and something to please everyone — drinkwise and musically.”
The Root Cellar is open Tuesday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Live music begins at 8 p.m. For a full schedule of shows, visit:
rootcellarbar.com
You can reach Aviva Luttrell at: aluttrell@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 268
On Twitter: @AvivaLuttrell