The Egremont Fire Department is holding its annual Steak Roast on Sunday with help from local chefs Terry Moore and Dan Smith.
EGREMONT, Mass. — Fare at firefighter fundraising events range from pancake breakfasts to chicken barbecues and steak roasts.
Savoy used to do a lobster dinner and Lenox Dale has begun a kielbasa and shrimp boil. But the last firefighter's meal of the year this Sunday is prepared and cooked by chef-owners of local fine restaurants.
Every year since 1982, on the Sunday afternoon following the Columbus Day weekend, Terry Moore of The Old Mill creates the Egremont Volunteer Fire Department's steak roast.
He sources and orders and shops for the ingredients. Bakes the potatoes, Makes hot fudge sauce for 350, 450 sundaes and gets his friend Dan Smith, chef-owner of John Andrews Restaurant, to help with the grilling.
Volunteers prep the salad and decorate and set the fire station for the dinner.
"Fireman Bruce Turner flips the garlic bread. He's a master flipper," Assistant Fire Chief Jim Olmsted said. "And dessert is always a hot fudge sundae with Terry Moore's housemade hot fudge and SoCo ice cream."
Throughout the year, starting with Egremont's pancake breakfast on Palm Sunday, firefighters and their supporters in towns from tiny to merely small feed and entertain the public to raise the money to keep their volunteer departments going. Some have been doing so for 45 years or more.
Yes, town taxes pay day-to-day expenses but when a new truck — or a new fire house — is needed these classic, welcoming events bring in a few thousand extra dollars.
Moore uses his Old Mill restaurant in South Egremont to organize and prepare the finely made steak roast for the Egremont Fire Department. On the day of the dinner, Smith, from John Andrews Restaurant down the road in South Egremont, dons his chef's whites and grills the steaks.
Moore started doing steak roasts for the Fire Department in 1982 when the department needed a new fire truck.
"They came to me," he said. "I said, 'Let's get the community together and see what we can rustle up.'
"The dinner did not pay for the whole truck but it certainly was a help."
Menu
Seatings from 4 to 8 on Sunday at the fire station, 36 Main St.
► 14-ounce strip steak, mixed salad, baked potato, garlic bread, SoCo ice cream hot fudge sundae with Old Mill chocolate sauce, coffee, tea, soda. Diners may bring their own alcoholic beverages.
Tickets at the door: $22 adults, $11 children. Call 413-528-0971 for more information.
Acknowledging how much time has pass, Moore added with a laugh, "That fire truck has since been retired."
Moore came to the Berkshires after cooking on the old Queen Mary ocean liner and in New York City.
"I thought the Berkshires was a place needed a good little restaurant - this was '75, '76," he said. "The Berkshires are a great place. It's all to do with the people and, then, quality of life."
He came up with a really simple menu for that first dinner for the Fire Department.
"I grilled a 14 ounce strip steak. It's old fashioned," Moore said.
"I've been fortunate to be a very good supporter of the Egremont Fire Department. Really, it's for the lads of the company so they get some recognition from the community."
Smith said he's been involved with the annual fundraiser for the 24 years he's been in business.
"It's a volunteer department. They need funding to be sustainable for everything they do. That's why I support it. They volunteer their own time," he said. "The least I can do is volunteer my time for that one day.
"I go down there and grill steaks for them for the night. Terry orders the beef and cuts it and bakes all the potatoes and orders all the food for it. I've been, basically, the grunt man. I go down there and get burned," Smith said jokingly.
With the exception of the Berkshires' two cities, the county's fire departments are volunteer. A few towns, like Great Barrington and Lenox, have some paid staff.
And all the companies are looking for more volunteers.
"We could get more young people involved. We're open 24 hours, seven days a week — our doors are open," Olmsted said. "We're more than desperate. We're looking for help. There's all kinds of positions. You don't have to go into burning buildings. One of our female members has 16 years in the Army. We need pump operators, equipment handlers, safety personnel, all kinds of position are available. We all work as a team and we all do mutual aid for other towns."
"It's nice to have them given a little bit of recognition," Moore said about the dinner. "The highlight of the evening will be the ice cream sundae with our famous chocolate sauce."
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The Egremont Fire Department is holding its annual Steak Roast on Sunday with help from local chefs Terry Moore and Dan Smith.
