Comfort food, fast service, and reasonable prices -- seems like a pretty good recipe for success, right?
Add a great location to that mix, and the sky is the limit.
That was the vision local entrepreneur Pete Oleskiewicz had when he purchased the shuttered Miss Adams Diner in the
northern Berkshire County town of Adams back in August of 2020.
And since opening the doors for business in December of 2021, he's been seeing his plan come to fruition.
Connecting Point's Brian Sullivan paid a visit to this iconic eatery that's got a new lease on life.
It may not seem too long ago that the parking spaces on Main Street in Adams were a dime a dozen.
Lately, though, the sidewalks are singing a different tune and the spaces aren't so easy to come by.
So, why the uptick in activity?
Well, believe it or not, it may have a lot to do with the reopening of a once-dormant, landmark lunch counter.
Our downtown is built for places like this.
You know, we were kind of a restaurant dessert for a little while.
The diner has infused some more life into our downtown, and you're starting to see some of that pop up around the diner
to support it.
But this is so important to our community to have this particular diner carreopen.
It's a sentiment that's echoed by the sounds of forks on plates, orders coming through the kitchen, and the steady
hum of chatter emanating from the booths and countertop seats.
It was in August of 2020 that local restaurateur Pete Oleskiewicz finalized the purchase of the Miss Adams Diner.
But as he would quickly learn, that was just the first leg in the long journey to returning this once-great eatery to
prominence here in town.
Before I had bought it, the building was closed for four-and -a half-years.
You know, and I ended up buying the building, and after being shuttered for that amount of time, it needed some work
and needed updated wiring and some plumbing and equipment, roof work.
So, it was quite an adventure, getting the place ready to go.
But it took 15 months from the time I purchased the building until we opened.
But another big factor of that was trying to get staff.
But luckily, right, three weeks before Christmas, we -- I found a crew to that I had put together and we've been here
since!
This diner car is a Worcester model from 1949, and much of its history can be seen hanging on the walls, whether it's a
funny sign or a black and white photo from the day that the diner made it here.
But more often than not, it's all about the food.
Even for those customers who were a part of its history.
I don't know too much about the diner itself, other than it's got good food!
I came here as a young adult when I, back in the seventies.
And my wife and I, we don't go for big restaurants.
We like the hole-in-the-wall diners.
From coast to coast, diners have been a major thread in the American tapestry for over a century.
And for many of us, part of the American childhood experience, along with learning to ride a bicycle and throw
a baseball, was coming to a diner like this one with our families.
In this case, it's a mom taking her boys out for a special treat lunch at the counter.
Or here, three generations, all at one table, enjoying the outdoor eating experience.
Others took it a step further and decided that if they were going to be together forever, they might as well make it
official right here.
We were sitting at the counter one day discussing possible wedding venues and my boss said, "Well, why don't you guys
just get married here?" So, we --she printed out invites, we gave them to people that I knew that worked here and just
some of my regular customers.
Some of my family actually came from out of state and we ended up getting married in the back patio.
Since the inception of the diner in 1872 as a mobile food wagon for the overnight workers in Providence, Rhode Island,
everything about the diner experience is uniquely American.
From the coffee to the food, right down to the working class folks who tend to be the most regular customers.
The Miss Adams Diner checks all of those boxes.
It's a gathering place.
I chose the town of Adams to move to in 2006, and part of the reason was this diner car.
It was close to my house.
It was in walking distance.
And I saw it as a place where I could kind of get a cup of coffee and meet with neighbors and friends and just enjoy
life here.
Between running the diner during the day, his other restaurant, the next town over at night, and serving on the
North Adams City Council, the first priority for Pete Oleskiewicz should be getting a good night's sleep.
But his main focus is keeping his regulars happy and hopefully making new regulars in the process.
I'm hoping they come in and they enjoy their meal.
They have something good to say, they found that it was a positive experience.
The price was right, the taste was there.
And when they leave here, they talk to their friends and we can just continue on building more friends and more
relationships with people just to keep coming in.