Birdie (left) and Nick Joseph holding a $10 BerkShare
By Katy Sparks
I caught up with co-owners/co-chefs Birdie and Nick Joseph while they we’re prepping for another busy day at their jewel-like, three-season food stand on Route 7 in Great Barrington. They kindly gave me some of their precious prep time to talk about local food, community and their abiding love of New England seafood.
KS: I learned that you are both graduates of the Culinary Institute of America. I imagine at one point the world was your oyster. What brought you here to this area, and what was the journey like?
NJ: Well, I’ve pretty much been here all my life—born and raised in Sheffield. And I started young in this business. I was recruited to wash dishes at age 14.
BJ: Me too— I also got into this business at 14!
KS: And are you both still enjoying it since that early start?
BJ: I think we still enjoy it because we do it for ourselves. It’s really enjoyable to have control over the menu, the specials, and of course our employees‘ well-being.
NJ: The cooking is the easiest part. Everything else from the facility to the management and anything that needs to be repaired takes up a lot of our time and can be challenging. We most enjoy feeding people and seeing the lines and crowds. At the end of the day, that’s very validating.
KS: And judging from the menu you source a lot of your ingredients locally?
NJ: Yes, we do our best to buy local. We get all our dairy from High Lawn Farm in Lee, summer produce from Freund’s Farm Market in East Canaan, and Ted Dobson has fired up his mesclun greens again— he also brings us radishes, zucchini, and arugula. The coffee we serve is from FogBuster in Greenfield. And Birdie’s mom grows the edible flowers we use.
KS: So, it becomes a local happening in a way?
NJ: Yes, we want to be a part of the community.
KS: And how is it going for you to be a part of the BerkShares local currency program?
BJ: We like working with BerkShares, and we find them easy to spend in the community—we love using them at different restaurants or Ward’s Nursery. And we find that a lot of our regulars spend them with us.
NJ: This past spring’s promotion with BerkShares was really successful, and we’d love to do it again! Maybe this fall?
KS: And what do you do during your off-season? What does that look like?
BJ: A lot of hockey drop-offs! And travel—last year we took a family trip to Jamaica, and we just have more family time in general. And mom and dad need R&R trips too. We love to get to the coast.
NJ: We go to the Cape a lot, and like to stay at the Chatham Bars Inn. We might do an oyster tour at Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury—we’re big fans of Wellfleet oysters. Then by March, we start to think about our upcoming season here and things we want to tweak or change. Birdie’s good about coming up with new ideas.
BJ: Merch and Ambiance. And maybe in our next lifetime we’ll open an oyster bar. But in the summer here, we already do a lot of seafood dishesl; we get same-day delivery from Wulf’s Fish in Boston, so we can offer fried clams, fried oysters, fish sandwiches, lobster rolls, crab rolls and crab cakes.
KS: Do you have any new business ideas on the horizon?
NJ: We’re thinking of maybe extending the season with heated tents so we could do some more fall-inspired dishes like braises and seasonal specials.
BJ: But we’re not doing dinner. We have two young children we love to spend time with.
KS: Since you only have outdoor seating at this point, I’ll bet you’re the right people to ask where you get your weather forecasts.
NJ: I’m a weather fanatic. We have to keep a real close eye on it. I follow The Weather Channel and AccuWeather. If it’s just going to be a shower here or there, it doesn’t really slow us down. Only storms with lightning tend to affect business.
BJ: Our take-out game is strong!
