NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Husband and wife restaurateurs Bryan "Swifty" Josephs and Jenny Klowden have been taking the long road to bring their popular comfort food to a permanent home.

 

They 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. That lead them to Hotel Downstreet, where they opened last month. 

 

"The farmers markets are located really, like right outside the front door of this space. So during those farmers markets, we kind of got the attention of the hotel here, and about a year ago, started talking to them about how to really fully activate and develop this space and put in a restaurant that would equally serve the community and the guests of the hotel," Josephs said.

 

The two moved to the Berkshires about four years ago from California. They fell in love with the Berkshires and wanted to bring another restaurant to the city.

 

"We moved here because we saw a general need for more restaurants here, and after being here and working the farmers markets and interacting with people for the last four years, we've kind of honed and changed our concepts a bunch, and we're really trying to be something that the people who live in this area can enjoy, and also be something different from what the other restaurants are offering," said Josephs. "Because this area has so many wonderful restaurants."

 

They really want Door Prize to be for the community and hope to add more events for people to enjoy. 

 

"Community is really, really, really important to us. It is a core value, and so we hope that we can foster lots of events and things within the community, host special events with, nonprofits, and work with the other restaurants to do exciting like curated events together, where we do, maybe some farm dinners, things like that, and involve more than just the tourists who come to town," Klowden said.

 

Josephs described their fare as "European comfort food, which means basically everything from pierogies to lasagna to grilled meats to ratatouille. We start with kind of an Eastern European base for our flavors, but expand out into French, Mediterranean, Greek, Spanish, a bunch of different types of cuisines from around Europe."

 

They were approved for their alcohol license in May, allowing them to take over the hotel restaurant formerly occupied by 413 Bistro. They recently opened the patio with a new look after raising nearly $7,000 through Kickstarter. 

 

"We just accomplished making our goal for a Kickstarter to set up our patio. We'd like it to be more, go longer seasons, not just summer," Klowden said. "So putting in some heaters, some new lighting, perhaps sound systems, so we can add music to the patio, which is something we'd really like to do, and then just adding a few more dinner services as well, as maybe some lunches as well. Currently we're open just five days a week. We'd like to expand that."

 

One of their most popular dishes is pierogies. They hope to expand their pierogi offerings in the future, especially now that they have the kitchen to do so.

 

"He makes the best pierogies," said Klowden. "And maybe looking into eventually doing some kind of packaged food and selling locally, and then maybe even nationally, our pierogies and our pickles and things like that, we have a huge kitchen, and so there's room for us to expand what we do for the catering. It could accommodate catering and manufacturing pierogies and items like that. So we have lots of plans."

 

Their pierogies are made with a sourdough wrapping and served with a special hot sauce Josephs likes.

 

"We serve them with some caramelized onions, some sour cream, and we make an in-house hot sauce based on harissa, which is a Middle Eastern hot sauce. It's not traditional to be served with pierogies at all, but it's something that I make at home and keep in the fridge," he said.

 

Their khachapuri, a Georgian cheese bread, is also popular and comes with a bit of a show.

 

"It's shaped like a boat, and inside the boat is filled with a mix of farmer's cheese and mozzarella and an egg yolk to make a cheesy, delicious sauce that you kind of tear the bread and dip it into the sauce," Klowden said.

 

Door Prize opened on July 18 with banners off the Main Street patio that declare they're open "against all odds." They said the name is very special to them.

 

"The name Door Prize, which is probably our most asked question, comes from a John Prine song that we dance to at our wedding and has a lot of meaning to us," Klowden said. "So we're each other's big door prize is one of the lines in it, and so this is our door prize to the community, and we're really excited to finally get open." 

 

The restaurant is open for dinner on Thursday and Friday, lunch/brunch from 10 to 2 on Monday and Sunday, and Saturday from 10 to 2 and 5 to 10. Contact the restaurant at 413-398-5040 or hello@doorprizenama.com. The menu is on the website here.