The Whately Inn has lived many lives as a long list of town staples. What started as a pitstop for stagecoaches in the 1600s shapeshifted to a post office and private home in the 1820s before it found its name, “Whately Inn,” in 1961. Every weekend, burlesque performers and bands shook the inn’s walls twice a day at the restaurant and bar.
The Whately Inn’s head chef and owner, Stephen S. “Chip” Kloc III of Florence, grew up watching these performers in his grandfather’s restaurant. According to Kloc, 65, the performances typically included a three-piece band, an emcee and dancers.
“It would be a whole act,” Kloc said from across his restaurant’s bar. Between the ages of 3 and 11, Kloc remembered acts like the Ink Spots and Natalie Cole arriving from helicopters, Kloc’s grandfather’s signature special treatment for his acts from Boston and New York. When the dancers stepped off stage, Kloc rented them towels for a quarter each.
He compared the dancers to “today’s belly dancers … but a little more risqué than that.”
When Kloc walked downstairs on Sunday mornings to the restaurant after a weekend of shows and hungry crowds, he would step over the trash and glasses scattered on the floor from post-show parties lasting late into the night. He said his grandfather locked the doors so guests could continue filling their glasses.
“It was fun living here,” Kloc said with a smirk. “I just love meeting people.”
When his grandfather lost the Whately Inn in 1971, Kloc’s father, mother and two brothers moved on. His father opened a liquor store and Captain’s Table, a restaurant in Northampton. Then, in 1978, when the building rolled back onto the market, Kloc’s father bought it back.
But when Kloc’s dad and namesake called his son in 1978 asking if he come work for him at the Whately Inn, it was not an immediate “yes” from Kloc. As a well-paid chef for the now defunct Mr. Steak Corporation in Northampton at only 18, Kloc had some reservations.
“I was very happy, I had just bought myself a brand new Trans-Am, and my father goes, ‘Hey you want to come work for me?'” Kloc recalled. He said he remembers responding with, “No way, you divorced my [expletive] mother, I’m not coming to work for you!”
But Kloc changed his mind and returned to his old home, starting as a dishwasher before eventually taking over the restaurant in 2010.
When he took the reigns, Kloc installed mini-splits, handicap bathrooms, outdoor seating, a new ceiling, and replaced all of the kitchen equipment.
“My father was a great believer in Krazy Glue and duct tape,” Kloc said before unleashing another belly laugh at his bar stool.
Besides the necessary updates inside and outside, Kloc kept the inn’s character, from the woodwork sourced from trees in town to his father’s menu.
“I wanted to keep things as historically accurate as possible,” he explained.
The restaurant’s “Baked Stuffed Lobster” recipe remained their signature, a dish with the same breadcrumbs, mushroom and soaked stuffing from Kloc’s grandfather’s recipe. On the menu, visitors can pick from other artifacts like frog legs and au gratin potatoes.
Kloc said, “being consistently consistent” sets his restaurant apart from his competitors. “If you come here once, you can always get what you came here for before,” he said. Every night, about 85% of the diners are familiar faces, according to Kloc.
When diners order at the Whately Inn, they choose between five-course meals, another pillar of the restaurant from its past.
Kloc said his father “just wanted to make it all inclusive, and I’ve held that philosophy ever since.” He added, “It’s tough,” with another chuckle.
Between dish deep dives, Kloc’s mother called. After checking in on her, he told her, “I’m working, so I’m having a great time,” with a grin.
As the home of decades of family history, Kloc described the Whately Inn, with 30 to 40 employees, as a “white tablecloth” family restaurant. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Kloc and a few stragglers working late at the restaurant often played pool at Casper’s Pizza & Brew after closing the inn’s doors. Kloc said he even attended a few Red Sox games with his employees.
“It’s a very close-knit, family-oriented business,” longtime dishwasher Jim Allen of Leverett said. Allen joined the inn seven years ago after moving nearby. He expected the inn to be a temporary fix between jobs. “I’ve been here ever since,” he said with a smile.
“I’ve been lucky enough that they’ve welcomed me into their family,” Allen added.
