Joga Cafe finds success with urban-style menu, entertainment

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Joga Cafe, at 23 Eagle St. in North Adams, brings a new, more urban approach to dining and entertainment to the city, and has proven quite popular this summer. Daniel Weissbrodt and Liz Canarozzi co-own the business. Weissbrodt was born and raised in North Adams. He went to Pine Cobble School and then Drury High School. His fiancee, Canarozzi, is from Texas. They basically had no formal food background until they decided to open a cafe. “And we just came up with menus,” he said. “In New York I had friends who owned restaurants who helped us figure out what are some nice, simpler but exotic meals. So we just came up with our own menu. “And then a good friend of mine, Pete Belmonte ... who is an executive chef in New York, helped us make the menu pop, and helped it jump,” Weissbrodt said. “He was our consultant on the menu and the food. And he still is, and we’re still working through and adding and subtracting. It’s going to constantly evolve.” “We make everything fresh,” he said. “Nothing comes out of a can, nothing comes out of a jar. Everything’s made that day.” On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Joga Cafe is open from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch. The cafe closes from 2:30 until 5 p.m., then reopens from 5 to 10 p.m. On Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays it keeps the same schedule, but the cafe stays open until 2 a.m. It is closed Sunday. Call 664-7122. Joga currently employs nine people. An urban-style menu “We offer what we are calling an urban eclectic or a worldly eclectic menu, of like panini sandwiches, tramezini sandwiches,” Weissbrodt said. He explained that in New York City “dinner is usually the lighter meal of the three, because it’s usually eaten later. “New York, you don’t eat at five, six, seven o’clock — you eat at nine, ten, eleven o’clock [for] dinner. So you go out for something light,” he said. “So our menu was something that is very popular in the city, and becoming popular here for people who don’t want to eat a ton, even though they end up taking half of the meal home, because it’s still a pretty large meal.” “We notice that we’re getting a big vegetarian crowd. And there’s nowhere for vegetarians to eat,” he said. “There are virtually no choices for them.” “It’s wonderful,” he said. “We’re doing really, really well.” Joga cafe carries about 40 wines, about 20 beers from all around the world, as well as some local brews. Art on the walls “According to our customer base, we’re becoming the Club Helsinki of North Berkshire, which is wonderful,” Weissbrodt said. “Last night we had Catfish Blue, and it was absolutely wonderful. They were a little loud, but those are things that you work out and figure out decibel levels and volume and things like that.” Large paintings currently gracing the cafe’s walls are by Ward Lamb of Pennsylvania and include portraits of such diverse figures as Mike Tyson, Miles Davis, Marilyn Monroe, and Pope John Paul II. The art is for sale and possible buyers have expressed interest in some of the paintings. The adult alternative Why did he and his partner start a business in North Adams? “Too much was happening, and being from here I couldn’t sit by and just watch it all happen,” he said. “Why North Adams? The main question that I’m asked is, ‘Why North Adams?’ And my main answer is, ‘Well, why not?’ ” Joga Cafe’s clientele includes individuals and couples from North Adams. The cafe includes live music and DJs, but is largely jazz and blues different from the usual music in the club scene. The cafe has a small patio but doesn’t allow smoking indoors. It doesn’t show sports on television, but rather shows computer animation collections, silent film — things more for ambiance and background than anything else. “We’re getting people who want to dance, but can’t go to the local dancing places, because it’s just not their scene,” he said. “So we’ve created our own scene. We’ve tapped out our own niche.” “It’s just the adult alternative,” he said. During lunches, he said the clientele is 80 percent from North Adams; for dinners they’re drawing a lot of preshow event crowds from MASS MoCA and people from the area. At night the mix is 50-50 local to people from outside of the area, and for events on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays the ratio is 90 local to 10 percent visitors. “The after-event crowds from MASS MoCA, word’s starting to spread,” he said. “People over there are saying, ‘After the show, go head on over to Joga Cafe on Eagle Street they’ve got a live band tonight or they’ve got jazz tonight.’ ” Weissbrodt wanted to make sure to thank city officials for all of their help. “The support that we’ve gotten at city hall has been extremely good,” he said, adding that Mayor John Barrett III also has been very supportive. “He’s been very vocal on the radio and very vocal in the papers about new businesses and where the city’s headed and where it’s got to go. And just it’s nice to figure into those equations.” A changing downtown There have been some questions about noise from the cafe at night, Weissbrodt said. “It’s just jazz and blues, you know. It’s not fights, it’s not yelling and screaming and people tossing each other around outside. It’s music and it’s in the downtown, and the downtown’s changing,” he said. “If you want the ‘for rent’ signs back and you want the ‘for sale’ signs back and the quiet little downtown, well, that’s not going to happen. It’s not. “People are going to start paying some good money to live near this activity, whether it’s my place, whether it’s 55 Main, whether it’s Il Tesoro or Gramercy Bistro, the whole downtown is changing,” he said. “And next year I can almost guarantee that more places are going to be applying for live music licenses, and more places are going to be applying for entertainment licenses, and more people are going to want the downtown to be a vibrant downtown. “The downtown shouldn’t have to close any longer at five o’clock,” he said. “There should be stores open until seven, eight, nine o’clock at night. There should be people out walking, coming in here to hear some music, going into the Gramercy Bistro and Il Tesoro for dinner and then coming here for a drink afterward and some live music. “That’s the way a downtown is supposed to be. It works beautifully in Great Barrington. It works beautifully in Northampton. It works beautifully on the Cape and everywhere else that I’ve been. But for some reason here the downtown still closes at five. It’s kind of odd being the only act in town that has noise coming out of it. But it’s all good noise.” Weissbrodt is not worried about how the cafe will do in winter. He has plans. “We’re still going to do live music, and we’re going to do theme nights of calypso, and salsa, merengue, reggae, jazz, blues, things like that,” he said. “The food’s going to change a little bit, but it’s going to be better. Things are going to go out of season, but we’re going to have other additions.” “We’re going to add to our wine list; we’re going to add to our beer list; we’re going to add to our hot drink list,” he said. “Nothing’s going to change, it’s just going to get better. We’re just going to offer more for people to do.” Successful TV careers Weissbrodt said he and Canarozzi live upstairs over the cafe; they are converting it into a wide-open loft apartment. Canarozzi was a successful production manager in New York City, and Weissbrodt continues a career as a puppeteer. “We met on a TV show called The Book of Pooh. I’m also a puppeteer for Jim Henson Productions and the Walt Disney Company,” he said. “I’m in negotiations to do a feature film at the end of the summer, and I have to do a Christmas episode of The Book of Pooh.” “She wanted to walk away from the city and from that production career. Now, she’s her own boss, and she’s got her own thing. And we only have to answer to one another, which is pretty nice,” he said. “But I wasn’t ready to completely walk away from it. It’s enjoyable. I got paid to play with toys, you know, and fairly handsomely.”
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McCann Recognizes Superintendent Award Recipient

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

Landon LeClair and Superintendent James Brosnan with Landon's parents Eric and Susan LeClair, who is a teacher at McCann. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Superintendent's Award has been presented to Landon LeClair, a senior in McCann Technical School's advanced manufacturing course. 
 
The presentation was made last Thursday by Superintendent Jame Brosnan after Principal Justin Kratz read from teachers' letters extolling LeClair's school work, leadership and dedication. 
 
"He's become somewhat legendary at the Fall State Leadership Conference for trying to be a leader at his dinner table, getting an entire plate of cookies for him and all his friends," read Kratz to chuckles from the School Committee. "Landon was always a dedicated student and a quiet leader who cared about mastering the content."
 
LeClair was also recognized for his participation on the school's golf team and for mentoring younger teammates. 
 
"Landon jumped in tutoring the student so thoroughly that the freshman was able to demonstrate proficiency on an assessment despite the missed class time for golf matches," read Kratz.
 
The principal noted that the school also received feedback from LeClair's co-op employer, who rated him with all fours.
 
"This week, we sent Landon to our other machine shop to help load and run parts in the CNC mill," his employer wrote to the school. LeClair was so competent the supervisor advised the central shop might not get him back. 
 
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