ADAMS -- Area residents know the Bounti-Fare Rest aurant is a community standby for dinner, catering and parties, but patrons may also rest assured that with three-year veteran head chef Alan Taylor, the restaurant is in both familiar and experienced hands.
Taylor, a Cheshire native, has worked in the restaurant business his entire adult life, and finds himself at 32 heading up one of the community's longest-standing eateries.
"The big thing is consistency," Taylor said. "When you come here you know it's going to be what you like, and it'll be the same every time. That's one thing about North County: People know what they want to eat. Being born and raised in Cheshire, I have a good idea of what that is."
Consistency, for the Bounti-Fare, is prime rib, seafood, salads and pasta dishes -- many of these generously covered in the restaurant's signature alfredo sauce, which Taylor calls "just fantastic."
Taylor says he hails from the "school of hard knocks," having worked his way up from a teen-aged dishwasher, to a server, prep cook and finally, head chef.
He's previously filled the top cooking role at Steeples in North Adams, Brew Works in Pittsfield and a restaurant in Jacksonville, Fla.
"It's great experience working in the city -- the weekend volume was regularly five to six hundred," Taylor said. "It makes you better."
Now, Taylor can be found on a busy night putting the finishing touches on each
In addition to the nightly detail and catering gigs, Bounti-Fare also serves lunch daily to Berkshire Arts & Technology Charter Public School on Commercial Street.
Taylor begins cooking the meal every day at 8:30 a.m., serving up school favorites like chicken patties, hot dogs and pizza -- but also incorporates such dishes as steak tips with peppers and onions over wild rice. Taylor says the program serves the restaurant well during the slower-paced winter months.
Regarding the future, Taylor hopes to continue broadening the restaurant's patronage, particularly among the young, by adding new dishes to the menu and hosting "beer dinners" -- five-course meal events where each course is served with different kinds of beer. Bounti-Fare owner David Nicholas has given Taylor the freedom to alter recipes and make additions to the menu.
Taylor's particular style involves many dishes cooked with beer -- a technique he picked up working at Brew Works.
"Everybody says cook with wine -- but with wine you have your basic ‘red' or ‘white' taste," Taylor said. "There's so much more variety with beer."
Menu adds like the six cheese & ale fondue and truffled macaroni and cheese are straight from his playbook. He also takes pride in the Italian nachos -- a fully-loaded nacho concoction that makes use of the restaurant's famed alfredo sauce.
"I'm thirty-two years old and I remember [the Bounti-Fare] from when I was a kid," Taylor said. "I'm glad to be here, I love my job, and I want people to enjoy and come back."
To reach Phil Demers,
email pdemers@thetranscript.com.
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