By Neil Turitz
Photographs by Joyce Makdisi
Above: Nikki Kowalski, a server at Fern in Lakeville, CT, brings a happy energy to her tables.
When we go out to dinner, we think about the food, the location, the ambience, but how often do we stop to consider the service before we pick a place to eat? The truth is, a server can make or break your dining experience, which is why it’s so important to recognize good service when you see it.
We’ve seen it and we want you to see it, too, which explains why we’re featuring five of the best servers in the region. They come from different places and have different backgrounds, but share two things in common: they care deeply about you and your experience at their restaurant, and they are extremely good at their job. May you be so lucky as to have one of them take care of you some evening. And for God’s sake: remember to tip generously!
NIKKI KOWALSKI
Fern
It’s somehow appropriate that a server as skilled as Nikki Kowalski is also an artist, specializing in greeting cards (@artbynicolek). Greeting cards celebrate special moments, convey a hopeful message, or even give you something you didn’t know you needed, just when you needed it. Kind of like a special meal out with the right server to guide you through it.
“I’ll be honest, restaurant work isn’t what I want to do with the rest of my life,” she says, “but no customer knows that when they come in here. I honestly care about the customer, I care about the service they get, I care about their experience. They’re coming here to enjoy themselves, so I should do everything in my power to make that happen for them, even if I’m having a bad day.”
Kowalski gives some of the credit for that attitude to the restaurant itself and her co-workers at Fern. This was, after all, the first place she worked that had a culture of success, with specific training for the right way to do things—from the steps of service down to how water is poured at the table. It not only fosters a good working atmosphere, it also means a certain kind of person is going to work there.
“They really make you feel like you matter,” she says. “[Restaurant managers] Barbara [McCarthy] and Ash [Walston] care about you as people, and that really makes an impact on performance. I get excited to go there to work, and that definitely makes it easier for me to bring a happy energy to the people who come in.
“I think being in tune with emotional awareness and having empathy helps with this type of job, for both the clientele and the people I work with,” she continues. “If you put good out, you’re going to get good back.”
SAMANTHA BOURASSA
Public
Sam Bourassa has hospitality in her blood. When your dad is a chef and your mom works in a bakery, it makes a lot of sense that you’d somehow follow in their footsteps. A Berkshire native, Bourassa grew up in Hancock and has worked all over the county, in places like Zucchini’s in Pittsfield, and Frankie’s and Pizzeria Boema in Lenox, before landing at Public in North Adams two years ago.
It also helps if you’re an extrovert who enjoys interacting with people on a nightly basis, both the kind she might never see again and those who become valued regulars. Throw in the fact that she loves networking and socializing, and the work fits her like a glove.
“It’s opened up avenues for me, thanks to the people I’ve met and the connections I’ve made,” she says. “For instance, I know most of the department heads at Williams College and MCLA, people I would not normally have met.”
It’s sort of ideal for someone who plans to open an Airbnb in the next few years, taking everything she’s learned and putting it into action, running her own operation on the acre-sized patch of land in Hancock where she grew up.
“I’m going to get my sommelier license, and have a little mini homestead at my house,” she says of her grand plan. “I want it to be this inclusive experience, where I have animals and a garden where you can go out and pick your own food. I’m really interested in permaculture, fruits and vegetables that will grow seasonally without any need for human interaction.”
It’s the perfect direction for someone whose whole life has been about hospitality and taking care of others, even if only for one night at a time.
SARA ESKO
Sibarita’s
Al Pacino’s classic Michael Corleone line, “Every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in,” perfectly describes Sara Esko’s life as a server. Not that she’s complaining.
“I love it,” she exclaims. “I’m addicted to it. If the hours were a little better, I think I’d do it forever. I just took my son to New York City for the weekend, we had two amazing servers who were just out of this world, and that’s what he left talking about. I just thought to myself, that’s why I do this.”
Esko started as a 14-year-old at Elizabeth’s in Pittsfield. After a decade there, she went to college and got herself a normal, regular day job.
“I said, ‘Ah, this is it, I’m never going back to waitressing again,'” she recalls. “Then I used to go to Ye Olde Forge a lot, and they were hiring one night a week. I thought I’d do that, and that one night was more money than my Monday through Friday!”
In other words, so much for her day job. She stayed at the Forge for a dozen years, quitting when she became pregnant with her third child. Once again, she was done with being a waitress. Then she saw Sibarita’s was hiring, a new restaurant in Elizabeth’s old spot (it has since moved to the Central Block in downtown Pittsfield), and the rest is history.
“I love being in the hustle and bustle, and love talking to people,” she says. “I’ve made so many lifelong friends in the business. I met my husband of 15 years doing this work.”
Even so, another change is in store: she’s one year away from a Master’s Degree in Education, and soon she’ll have her teaching license. Being away from her kids so much is enough to break even the most hardcore serving habit. That said, it’s not like she’ll stay away forever.
“I’ll have summers off!” she says, “I’m not just gonna sit around!”
ALEX MILLER
Bistro Zinc
Alex Miller has lived his life with a certain “wing it” philosophy, working under the assumption that, when he needs to figure something out, he will.
“I have a history of accidentally getting things right after doing some serious tumbling around,” he says. “I think of it like, when something comes up, particularly a situation that’s new, I’ll work my way through it. Like, can I bartend? Well, when I get there, I’ll probably have it figured out before anything goes haywire.”
This worldview has served him well, leading him through a rough adolescence in Cape Cod to the Berkshires, where he’s lived for the last 20 years, over a dozen of them working as a server, bartender, and manager at Bistro Zinc in Lenox. That’s a long time to stay at the same restaurant, but for Miller, it’s become a second home.
“We’re committed to consistency, and that’s something that I bring to my work,” he says. “Set up your station like you’re going to serve 1,000 people, and no matter what happens, you’re still going to be prepared. I also like working at a place that provides quality food and service, instead of trying to tweezer plate your way through hipster trends.”
He seamlessly carries those culinary qualities into other interests. Through the years, he’s found time to make a series of short films and, come the fall, will be pursuing a Master’s degree in Cinematic Studies at NYU. The master’s is the first step in what he hopes will be a longer journey to a Ph.D. and a teaching position at the university level. And even as he plans to commute to and from New York City starting in late August, he also recognizes that it will be awfully difficult to leave the place he calls home.
“I joke around that if I won the lottery, I’d probably still keep a shift or two,” he says. “The truth is, the people I work with, some of them are family to me, we’re all very close, and there are also regulars who have become real friends. That’s one of the things I love about this job. It keeps me tied to this place on a deep level.”
JEN BURRY
The Cliff House
Jen Burry lived in New York City for 20 years and, on her first date with her husband, Matt Hopkins, found herself talking about living somewhere else.
“I’m from the Finger Lakes and he’s from Vermont,” she says, “and we just talked about how we would eventually love to leave.”
Both are actors, and with the pandemic came a change in how they auditioned. Suddenly, being in the room with a casting director wasn’t possible, which meant people were self-taping their auditions and sending them in. This didn’t just revolutionize the casting game, it also opened the world to actors, who no longer needed to live in New York or Los Angeles to get work. That led Burry and Hopkins to the town of Otis.
“We picked the spot as a getaway,” she recalls. “We bought a piece of land and thought we were just going to camp on it, to get out of the city. Then, once the pandemic hit, we said, ‘Oh, we could actually leave the city and build a little cabin.’ Then we drove into Great Barrington and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, there are such cute towns here. Thank God I’ll be able to find a job in a restaurant!'”
She quickly did, first at Mezze in Williamstown, then Café Adam in Great Barrington, and now, for the past couple years, The Cliff House in Egremont. Only the highest class spots for Burry, who says, “I like to work at places where I would love to go to dinner, for a night off, or a special occasion.”
It’s that attitude that guides her work, as she recognizes that often, the people at her tables are there for more than just a night out, and that’s where her training as a performer comes in handy.
“Being an actor, I’m really good at reading the room—seeing when customers are checking out the place, interested in every detail,” she says. “I want to make sure I give them all the answers to their questions, as opposed to a couple who’s talking, haven’t even looked at the menu, they’ve kissed four times, they’re holding hands. In each case, it’s about giving them the things they want, anticipating their needs—all the great things a server does. I think I’m really good at that.”
