New look for Starving Artist Cafe

If You Go

Starving Artist Café

40 Main St. Lee, Mass.

413-394-5046 ple a reason that you’re going to eat something that’s local because you know how it was grown.

“It supports our local economy. It supports our local culture. It supports who we are as residents of Western Massachusetts and the Berkshires,” he said. “To see this project come together and hear about all the good work that’s been done it’s amazing.”

Schultz began working on the project a year ago when he joined Entrepreneurship

For All Berkshire County, an organization that helps entrepreneurs develop their business plans. As of late March, he had raised half of the project’s total estimated cost of $734,874 for construction and equipment through grants from a variety of sources, including two state agencies.

He’s hoping to raise an additional $60,000 through a crowdfunding campaign on the Patronicity platform.

Once the new building’s foundation is put into place, Schultz hopes to have the 30-foot-by-40-foot structure constructed and ready for a soft opening by December.

He sees the facility as a yearround aggregation and distribution hub for products produced by small farms across the Berkshires. The commercial kitchen will be a licensed facility geared to extending the shelf life, diversity and consumer appeal of local food items.

“During COVID we saw what happened with the supply chain,” Schultz said. “There were delays in everything. If you have local food production you have security. We can produce the food that we need.”

Red Shirt Farm is an organic, no-till farm that does not used pesticides or herbicides. Schultz grows vegetables, raises pigs, chickens and turkeys and operates the farm year-round under the community supportive agriculture model, a system where people buy shares in the farm in exchange for a portion of the produce.

Originally from the Boston suburb of Winchester, Schultz originally came to the Berkshires to attend Williams College. A teacher and administrator in the Pittsfield Public Schools for 26 years, Schultz dabbled in farming before entering the profession full-time when he retired in 2015. He believes the time is right for this kind of project.

“People want connection, they want local food, they want good nutrition,” Schultz said. “They want more plantbased diets. There’s a movement to more home-based cooking. They don’t want chemicals on their food.

“We think we have a very strong opportunity,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of people who do what we do.”

By scoTT sTaffor D

LEE — While the rest of the Berkshires were trying to recover from a wild snowstorm in midMarch, the Starving Artist Café was undergoing a serious renovation.

According to owner Emmy Davis, her husband, Ryan Davis, and three other associates spent two days plowing snow, and the rest of the week reformatting the customer service center and installing a new walk-in cooler.

“We needed more space for the kitchen and the coffee prep area,” she said. So they took out part of the former countertop and pushed it further out into the entryway, allowing for a more efficient production process and a more organized customer service experience. Add to that a bigger espresso machine — which allows baristas to make two cups of espresso at the same time — and a fourth crepe burner for more production capacity, the ultimate result is a better product with quicker service times.

But the new walk-in cooler is a really exciting addition, Davis said. It allows the restaurant to double its capacity of refrigeration space, always a valuable commodity in a commercial kitchen.

Davis is looking forward to the summer, when the business gets busy. The increased capacity and efficiency should help things go a bit smoother, she said. But first she needs to hire more staff to handle the seasonal demand.

The dining room doubles as an art gallery with a variety of ex-

Open: Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 8 a.m.-3 p.m.

Closed: Tuesdays & Wednesdays hibits focusing on local artists.

Sunday Brunch: 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Live music: from 11 a.m. — 2 p.m.

Part of the décor includes several pews from a former church down the street, giving the space a more unique ambiance.

The Starving Artist Café has been in the Main Street space for 12 years, since the aging building was restored and reclaimed for Lee businesses.

“We stay busy year-round because we’re right on the main drag,” Davis said. “And in the summer, we’re always busy. We get a lot of people coming in before a show at Tanglewood. And our Sunday musical brunch is really popular.”

Starving Artist Café specializes in crepes. They also offer sandwiches, soups and salads, with ingredients sourced from local farms. Vegan and gluten-free options are available. There is a full coffee menu, along with organic juices, smoothies and teas.

Davis said the mushroom pesto crepe is a popular item, although that changes from time to time. The most popular coffee drink is the latte, especially the maple syrup latte, of course made with locally produced syrup.

The newly installed features already seem to be charming the regular customers. A midafternoon visitor on Friday, a diminutive elderly woman, approached the new ordering counter with a smile, saying, “Ooo, this is new! I like it! It’s very nice.”