image description — Glen Rutan puts finishing touches on an icy Easter basket at last year's Winterfest.

Winterfest Returns To North Adams' Downtown

Staff ReportsiBerkshires
06:32PM / Thursday, February 24, 2011Print Story | Email Story

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Winterfest returns downtown Saturday.

The 14th annual celebration features chowder tasting, ice skating, horse-drawn wagon rides and more to fight cabin fever.

The main attraction is a Chowder Hop with tastings throughout downtown. A map will be available with directions to participating restaurants offering free samples and ballots to vote on the best chowder.

The participating restaurants are the Freight Yard Pub, Taylor's Restaurant, Tastefully Simple, Petrino's Cafe, Red Herring, Big Shirl's Diner, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Aramark Dining Services, North Adams Regional Hospital Dining Services, Desperados, the Hub Restaurant, Boston Sea Foods Restaurant, Bounti-Fare, Gringos, the Berkshire Food Project, Gramercy Bistro and RUB.

Ice sculpting will be on Main, Holden and Eagle streets from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. Hoosac Bank is again offering hot chocolate, cookies and face painting from 10 a.m. until noon and horse-drawn wagon rides up Main Street from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m.

The Northern Berkshire Girl Scouts will host winter carnival games from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. and First Congregational Church will be selling cups of hot chocolate and giving stained-glass window tours with the profits going to the church's ministry programs from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m..

MCLA Gallery 51 will host a free paper-making workshop from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. The workshop will teach participants how to make paper from garden plants.

Slider, the SteepleCats mascot, will make an appearance on Holden Street and the team will hold a raffle.

Ronnie's cycle will provide a display of snowmobiles on the sidewalk throughout the day on the Berkshire Plaza and Petrino’s Cafe will have live music from late morning into the afternoon.

Christo's Famous Pizza will offer samples of its special soup and other restaurants and stores are planning specials for the day.

The Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Skating Rink will have a free ice skating party from 7 to 8:50 p.m.

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North Adams Restaurant to Closing in Two Weeks

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
02:18PM / Wednesday, November 04, 2026

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A downtown restaurant announced on Wednesday that it will be closing.

In a Facebook post, Door Prize stated its last day of service is Saturday, Nov. 14.

"We are not making this decision lightly and wish there was another way forward," read the post by owners Bryan "Swifty" Josephs and Jenny Klowden.

"We feel great pride for our successes and for a wonderful year of serving our community. Now on to the next adventure!"

They also thanked their staff and patrons who enjoyed their food

The restaurant opened over a year ago in Hotel Downstreet after Josephs and Klowden previously had a residence at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, where they sold some of their signature dishes, as well as working in area restaurants, bringing their food to farmers markets and operating a catering business.

The two named the restaurant after a John Prine song that they danced to at their wedding. Josephs described their fare as European comfort food, with one of their most popular dishes being pierogies.

They also successfully renovated the covered porch outside the restaurant for dining, raising $7,000 through a Kickstarter

While their post did not allude as to why they are closing, iBerkshires has reached out for more answers.

The 90-room hotel has reportedly been sold, with a closing expected by the end of the month. Owner Peregrine Group put the former Holiday Inn up for sale earlier this year after purchasing the property for $4.45 million in 2021. According to reports in The Berkshire Eagle, the cost of renovations to the 55-year-old property put a dent into revenues that limited the hotel's ability to cover obligations.

It's not clear if this has anything to do with the restaurant, which operates as a separate entity.

"We are not looking for a public discourse on our business model or the closure," the Door Prize post states, inviting patrons to personally contact the Josephs or Klowden rather than comment on the posting.

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