Dakota Steakhouse closes

PITTSFIELD – The Dakota Steakhouse has closed, leaving its approximately 50 employees out of work.

Located on the Lenox-Pittsfield border, the Dakota has been a Berkshires institution since 1984. Once a part of a group of six restaurants located throughout the Northeast, the Dakota was the last still in operation.

“The handwriting has been on the wall for awhile,” said Doug Hartnett, who’s been the general manager at the Dakota for the last 14 years.

The company that owns the Dakota, DWH1 LLC, was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy for nearly two years, and Mr. Hartnett said the company appeared to have not cleared its financial troubles after exiting Chapter 11.

Mr. Hartnett said the Dakota employed about 20 full-time and 30 part-time employees at the time of its closing, and the number of employees increased to 100 in the busier months. He also noted that many employees had been with the Dakota for over a decade.

“The average lifespan of our employees was about 12 years,” said Mr. Hartnett. “People have grown up here. I’ve seen babies born, I’ve…been to weddings.”

Mr. Hartnett found out that the Dakota was closing on Tuesday, April 23 and made the announcement to his employees on Saturday, April 27.

“Everybody was crying and hugging,” said Mr. Hartnett, when describing the employees’ reaction to the news.

The Dakota’s last day of service was on Sunday, April 28 and because word had gotten out that the restaurant would be closing, it was packed.

“We were just slammed busy,”said Mr. Hartnett.

He also said that employees who weren’t even scheduled to work pitched in on their own accord: “They started busing tables, they started bartending. It was really nice.”

“Definitely,” he said when asked if he’d like to continue to work with his staff. “We’re like one big family.”

“If anybody’s out there who has jobs, I have lots of veteran, skilled employees,” said Mr. Hartnett, adding he’d already been able to find jobs for some of them. “They’re all ready and willing to go.”

He also said that a large number of people have been calling about the Dakota gift cards they will no longer be able to use.

“I’ve literally gotten over 150 phone calls today [about gift cards],” said Mr. Hartnett.

“I really am trying to empathize with the fact that you might have had a $50 gift card that you lost but I…have a 15-year employee who’s unemployed,” said Mr. Hartnett. “I have no problem sleeping at night knowing that we’ve always done right by our guests.”

As for the Dakota itself, Mr. Hartnett said it’s there for anyone who wants to invest: “If someone….walked in here right now, with money, this place is ready to go. We could be open two weeks from now again.”

He also said the restaurant had been making a profit.

“If you asked me, generally, were we making money – of course we were, we made money,” said Mr. Hartnett. “There was nothing we did here that caused us to go out of business. We still do way more business every night than anybody else in Berkshire County.”

As for the future of the building, Mr. Hartnett says he expects a commercial real estate broker will try to market and sell it. All of the equipment will be included with the property, and Mr. Hartnett described it as a turn-key operation.

“You can literally walk in and open the doors and start cooking and be ready to go,” he said.

As for Mr. Hartnett himself, he will be looking for another job, although he would love to work at the Dakota again if it is reopened: “If this comes back to life, it’ll be a nice opportunity for me; if it doesn’t, it’ll be a nice opportunity to do something else.”

DWH1, the Dakota’s parent company, did not respond to The Beacon’s request for information at the time of this issue’s publication.

“It’s really been our pleasure to serve everybody in The Berkshires for as long as we have,” said Mr. Hartnett. “Hopefully we’ll be back some day, but if not…we have a lot of fond memories to take away from this place.”

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on May 2, 2013. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry