The Stone House Tavern, a restaurant in Accord owned by Linda Bradford and Al Roberts, has begun to add live music to their repertoire, allowing customers to enjoy music with their dining experience.

“People love it,” Bradford said, “We have a very good turnout, we operate it respectfully. It's dinner-friendly music. People come, they sit at a table, they're eating dinner, having a drink, listening to music. Some of them, they're dancing. It's just a nice, fun evening out.”

Bradford says about half of their performances are bands, and the other half are solo performers. Live performances take place on Friday and Saturday nights when the weather is good enough that people can dine outdoors. They also have open mics on Wednesday, which Bradford described as “acoustic and mellow.”

One example is Soul City, a local rhythm and blues band, which has performed at Stone House Tavern.

“All the members in the band are older,” Bradford said, “but they really attract a lot of people, a lot of people come out and like to dance to old rhythm and blues songs.”

On April 19, the Stone House Tavern will feature Krisha & Jim, a duo who play folk, rock, and jazz music, and, after that, a Bossa Nova and West African blues-inspired soulful R&B band called Groove Gathering.

Feedback has been positive, although a neighbor aired out concerns at the last Rochester planning board meeting. The neighbor told the board that loud music is played until late at night five nights a week, and that they were using Sand Hill Road illegally.

Bradford maintains that both charges are false. Performances, she maintains, are completed no later than 9:30 p.m., are “dinner friendly” and “volume is kept at an appropriate and respectful level.”

To play live music, they have to follow guidelines set by the town, including a decibel limit.

According to Bradford, they haven’t had noise complaints from any of the other town residents, including the tenants who live in the rental properties behind the restaurant. Since the meeting, they provided a statement to the town board responding to the complaint about the use of Sand Hill Road.

“From the summer of 2023 until the present, all traffic for the restaurant comes directly from 209 on the newly constructed road,” the statement reads. “Since the summer of 2023, we have NO staff using Sand Hill Rd., we get NO deliveries via Sand Hill Rd., we ‘encourage’ NO customers to use Sand Hill Rd. and have NO rv’s or cars parking on Sand Hill Rd.”

The Rochester planning board discussed creating a sound ordinance, and Bradford said their restaurant received support from the community.

“There were some people that said very nice things about us and felt that we were being unfairly treated,” Bradford said, “Because [the music is] not super loud.” Feedback on social media has been positive as well.

Ultimately, Bradford hopes that the conflict can be resolved and wants “peace” with their neighbors – and to continue letting diners enjoy the music.

“I’m not looking to start a war,” Bradford said. “We want to be good neighbors. We want to run our business. We're not looking for trouble, and we certainly are not the wild and crazy place that's open till the middle of the night. It's just not us.”

They recently met with Erin Enouen, the town supervisor, who, they say, told them that as long as they are doing what they agreed to do in terms of the volume and time of the music, they’ll be fine.

Recently, they added extra soundproofing.