The Soul of a
WHALE
PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN
The Prairie Whale’s bar, just inside the front door, shows the intimacy of the space.
What would Great Barrington be like without The Prairie Whale? Restaurateur Matt Straus thinks we’re lucky we don’t know. BY MATT STRAUS GREAT BARRINGTON “If you want to know the essence of
business, nothing is a fluke. Even if you tried to add something artificial — some
crannies than one ever will see. From the bar, just inside the front
a restaurant in the Berkshires, visit it
flashy sconces, a breed of beef from
door, in the center of the space, there
after the weather turns,” said nobody,
Japan that nobody’s ever heard of — it
are modestly sized dining rooms — six
ever, so far as I know. But, it was an
wouldn’t work anyway. At age nine, a
or eight tables each — to the left and
inescapable impression on a recent night
restaurant is what it has wanted to be all
the right, and nothing more. There is an
on Main Street in Great Barrington:
these years, and never more transpar-
intimacy to the space, conferred by the
The first flakes of snow were falling
ently so than when life turns inside in
low ceilings, and perhaps by inheritance
after dark, and I peered into the organic
the colder months.
— courtesy of the families that probably
machinery of The Prairie Whale. I say organic because the restau-
One gets the feeling when seated somewhere in the colonial-style home
rant just celebrated its ninth birthday,
that is The Prairie Whale that there are
and after nine years in the restaurant
many more rooms, alcoves, nooks and
22 Berkshire Landscapes I SPRING 2022
lived in the house since the early 18th century or before. On the evening of a recent visit, an easygoing Monday night, memories
