The main dining room is decorated with a historic feel.
ADAMS, Mass. — The wait for wiener schnitzel, kasespatzle or hahnchen gerostet is over.
The Haflinger Haus in the former Harrington's Restaurant on Commercial Street is open for business with a menu filled with Austrian favorites. The restaurant and inn had a soft opening on Monday — opening for the dinner hours.
"It's got charm," said 25-year restaurant business veteran Dan Dougherty, who is the general manager. "It reminds me of walking into 1925."
The historic building was purchased last December by former Selectman Donald Sommer as a "reclamation project." Sommer and his family purchased the building for $110,000 and has put what Dougherty estimates is about $100,000 worth of renovations into it. The goal, Sommer previously said, is to "bring life into the building" after it has sat dormant since 2010.
Sommer hired Alexis Girhiny, former director of career services and instructor at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, as head chef. Girhiny boasts more than 25 years in culinary including two stays in south Germany, where she learned to cook Austrian food.
"I lived in a town that borders Austria for six years. I understand the whole 'hearty' culture," Girhiny said on Thursday.
There are four rental rooms upstairs.
Sommers often travels to Austria, which is his heritage, and owns Haflinger horses, for which he named the restaurant and decorated with photos of — bringing that culture to a town that has no other restaurants like it.
The Haflinger Haus will be open from 5 until 9 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and from 5 until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. It will be closed on Mondays. The tavern will open at 4 p.m. The menu is available below.
Once reconstruction is completed on the porches, which Dougherty said will "hopefully be completed in a month," there will be outdoor seating. Four upstairs rooms were renovated for rental so the restaurant operates as an inn as well.
The last two operations out of that location, once the Adams Rest Home, went into foreclosure. The first was Silvia's Inn and the second, Harrington's Restaurant. Succeeding where others have failed will be based on providing "good food, good service at a fair price," Sommers previously said.
Pittsfield.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
MEMBER SIGN IN
.jpg)
Stephanie Farrington of