A Moveable Feast

Kevin Kelly first experienced the heady hustle and bustle of restaurant life when he was in his teens and got a job at Allium Restaurant.

“I was kind of immediately hooked on the atmosphere and energy. It was a lot of fun,” he said. “I was hyper-involved with the restaurant business in the Berkshires from the time I was 14 until I was 19 and went to college. I started bussing tables and before I left I did every kind of job.”

“I’ve been fortunate that from my beginning in food business, I have had to wear all of the hats. I was very intentional about learning every position.”

When it came time for college, he opted for Babson College, a business school located in Wellesley MA that emphasizes entrepreneurship. But the lure of restaurants would not leave him alone.

“I was working in restaurants the entire time I was there. It was really something I loved. At Babson I was exposed to a lot of different possibilities-I had a lot of thoughts and ideas- but it was hard to conceptualize not being part of the food industry. I thought I might work at something else during the days and at restaurants at night. Then I thought, ‘Why don’t I just work in restaurants.’”

So that is what he did. He worked in Boston, cooking in some of Boston's most highly awarded kitchens as he finished his degree. His dream was to eventually have a place of his own but upon his return to Great Barrington, a town where his lineage goes back some 10 generations, he concluded that starting a new restaurant was not sustainable.

After spending a month working through concepts, he realized that the economic landscape of Berkshire Country didn't fully support opening a traditional restaurant. Setting aside plans to open his own bricks-and-mortar establishment, he began to look for creative answers to his situation.

“I came up with the idea of After Hours GB, a restaurant without a home. During the hours that brick-and-mortar businesses are non-operational, there are still significant overhead expenses. What I do to counteract that is to create a financial relationship with the brick-and-mortar locations to host my own creative dining experiences within their space. I work collaboratively out of existing places during the hours they are closed,” he said.

The collaborative arrangements benefit both sides of the equation. “Pretty much from the beginning, I was always exploring how we can benefit each other. If one wins, we both win,” he said.

He makes different arrangements with different business owners, depending on the type of event that is being staged. “It can it be a revenue share, sometimes we split the sales, for some events it’s a portion of ticket sales—it all comes back to, ‘We are both involved in this. Can we bring more value if we work together than if we are working separately,’” he said.

He has taken his moveable feasts as far north as North Adams MA and will be coming down into Connecticut to do a future event at the White Hart in Salisbury. “And I am looking to go over the border into the Hudson Valley. I might do a dinner on a farm, in a restaurant, in a cocktail bar or a café,” he said.

How does he find places to set up. “I grew up here and my family has been here through the generations. Either the businesses know someone I know or they know my family. It’s been really good pursuing meaningful relationships.”

He has a number of venues to which he has returned repeatedly. For instance, this fall he has been offering “First Wednesdays” at GB Eats, Friday dinner plus late nights (5PM to midnight) at Marjoram & Roux and Sunday Suppers at Guido’s, all in Great Barrington. Saturday dinners have been offered at Paige’s Place in Otis MA.

He does all his preparatory work in the commercial kitchen at Thornwood Inn and has a commissary kitchen that he takes to the venue on the day of the event. “We have our own equipment so it comes back to a menu design that is extremely curated. It can take on any shape.”

The scope of the menu “really comes down to the ability of the space. I’ve done events at farms where they have nothing all the way up to full-service restaurants with everything. I’m absolutely having fun with the challenges.”

Service styles can range from a la carte, plated meals to passed hors d’oeuvres and family-style banquets. He prefers to produce family style dinners for larger events.

After Hours will celebrate its first anniversary Wednesday December 4 from 7PM until midnight at GB Eats, 282 Main Street, Great Barrington with dinner, drinks and dancing. The evening will feature a menu of the “best of” After Hours’ offerings as well as live music performed by singer/songwriter Jordan Weller and a late-night DJ set by Soren Smedvig.

The menu will be offered a la carte and seating is limited and available on a first-come-first-served basis. Additional standing-room and to-go options will also be made available.

Other upcoming events include a Friendsgiving dinner at the Doctor Sax House in Lenox on November 23 from 4 to 8PM; a Thanksgiving Dinner Box to go, priced at $50, presented by After Hours and Berkshire Bounty out of Plate it Forward’s location at 453 Stockbridge Road.

With the end of his first year of business, Kelly is reflecting on what will come next. “At this point in the year, this has been testing a concept. I plan to go through to the end of the year and then look back and see what we can do next. I think this is a good start. Being able to have a (brick-and-mortar) restaurant would be great but a restaurant being sustainable with the traditional model is still very, very difficult. I’m acknowledging where there needs to be a change.”

He concludes that there is still more room for businesses to grow in the Berkshires but that the area is saturated with options. “We have a lot of options for dining. Most businesses are trying to have own their identities but, in the end, working together we’re more powerful.”