Valley Bounty: Fitzwilly’s Restaurant

Fitzwilly’s Serves Local Ingredients with a Side of Northampton History

Fitzwilly’s Restaurant offers seasonal, local food in an iconic downtown Northampton location. As summer explodes with local crops on the farm stands, Fitzwilly’s revised menu bursts with local tomatoes, corn, fruit, and much more.

Locals may be familiar with the history of the restaurant. As Fitzwilly’s celebrates their 50^th anniversary this year, co-owner Fred Gohr recently talked about the history of the business. It started when Roger Kirwood, a small business owner from Springfield, visited Northampton in 1974.

He found much of the town boarded up and an old bar where Fitzwilly’s now resides. Gohr explains that Kirwood “fell in love with the bones of the place, bought it, and spent months doing the work himself to expose the brick that was covered over with plaster.” The building is the Classical Revival Masonic Block, built in 1898. It housed the law office of Coolidge and Hemenway from 1898 to 1918 — yes, that’s Calvin Coolidge, who would go on to become the 30th president of the United States.

Fitzwilly’s Restaurant was born, with Kirwood drawing the name from a 1967 madcap farce that featured Dick Van Dyke and Barbara Feldon. Kirwood hired Gohr in 1978 for another restaurant in New Haven, where Gohr was attending the University of New Haven after his training at Johnson and Wales Culinary Institute. One weekend in 1979, Kirwood asked Gohr to come to Northampton to help out during some renovations. Gohr quips, “I came up for the weekend and I’m still here.”

Gohr worked in many roles until becoming general manager in the early 1980s. In 1988 Gohr and eight original partners bought the restaurant from Kirwood; today four partners own Fitzwilly’s, but only Gohr is involved in the daily operation.

In 1988, Kirwood bought the space next door and opened Pop’s Package Store. After a series of businesses came and went in that space, Gohr and his partners opened the Toasted Owl next door to Fitzwilly’s in 2004. The Toasted Owl is a sports bar that features “solid local food, but a more limited menu.” As Fitzwilly’s celebrates 50 years, the Toasted Owl celebrates 20 years.

Aligning with the seasons and working with local farms inspires the Fitzwilly’s kitchen team. Gohr says, “We like to push the envelope a little bit. That’s where the local produce comes in. We look forward every year to spring and local asparagus. We center all of our specials for a month on asparagus. We offer asparagus grilled cheese, grilled asparagus, or even an asparagus pasta dish. We buy cases of asparagus from John Boisvert Farms in Hadley, and we go through four cases of asparagus a week as long as it’s around.”

Local diners can return to Fitzwilly’s often and enjoy specials that change with the seasons. Gohr notes, “Once asparagus fades, the strawberries really kick in. We make strawberry shortcakes, and strawberry salads, and then it’s summer and the produce really arrives.”

The summer menu features a number of local produce items, plus every weekend the restaurant offers new specials with local ingredients. Fans who enjoyed Fitzwilly’s Mexican Street Corn from a Taste of Northampton will recognize this crowd-pleasing appetizer on the summer menu. Gohr says, “People just love it. First of all, it’s fresh, local corn. We do it with cojita cheese, cilantro, jalapeño crema, with a little bit of lime juice. It’s really delicious.”

There is no one theme that defines the menus of the restaurant. Gohr notes, “Our kitchen staff loves to get in the kitchen, play around, and come up with stuff.” Gohr continues, “Fitzwilly’s has always been known for good, consistent, affordable food for everyone.”

“We use local produce wherever we can. We have a wild mushroom grilled cheese on the menu with mushrooms from Mycoterra Farm in South Deerfield. That’s year-round because they grow indoors,” says Gohr. They recently offered a grilled peach salad with peaches from Outlook Farm. Some farms deliver, and other times, someone on the Fitzwilly’s team picks up from farms. Everything is seasonal: the scallop and sweet corn risotto changes to a butternut squash risotto for the winter as the yield from the fields changes with the weather.

Other local ingredients you’ll find in Fitzwilly’s kitchen include potatoes from Swaz Potato Farms and blueberries from Sobieski’s River Valley Farm. Gohr notes, “This is the first time we ever had three vegetarian sandwiches on the permanent menu. We do a blueberry grilled cheese, where our chef cooks it down with balsamic vinegar and local goat cheese from Thomas Dairy.” For Gohr, running the business takes him away from experimenting with local ingredients in the kitchen, but “when I get back in the kitchen, it’s a lot of fun,” he says.

Both Fitzwilly’s and the Toasted Owl feature a number of local beers, hard ciders, and wines. Artifact Cider, Berkshire Brewing, and many more make the local lineup at the bar. Indigo Coffee has roasted and supplied coffee to the restaurant for 30 years. The bar menu at the Toasted Owl includes treats like a Caprese flatbread made with local tomatoes or hand-cut French fries made with Swaz potatoes.

Looking back Gohr says, “Our amazing staff brings me joy. We have a number of long-term employees that have been with us for years and years. Right alongside that, the satisfaction of our guests brings me joy. We call ourselves the Fitzwilly’s Family—and our guests are part of that.”

Lisa Goodrich is Communications Coordinator for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, (CISA). To learn more about Fitzwilly’s Restaurant, check out their social media or website at https://fitzwillys.com.