Valley Bounty: The legacy continues: Blue Heron’s commitment to fresh, local cuisine

Blue Heron Restaurant and Catering, tucked into the old town hall in Sunderland, is a lot of things to a lot of people. It’s a special-occasion destination for couples, families, and friends; a homey standby for regulars; a celebration of the seasons for local food lovers; and for the team of people who make it all happen, it’s a true culmination of passion, commitment and love.

Today, Blue Heron is owned by Nick Ruggiano and Justin Mosher, but the Blue Heron story begins with original owners, Deborah Snow and Barbara White, who opened the first incarnation of the restaurant in Montague in 1997. Within a few years, the current owners were helping to run the kitchen: Nick Ruggiano served as chef de cuisine, and Justin Mosher as sous chef.

In 2001, Snow and White began the process of moving the restaurant to its current location in Sunderland, and Nick moved on to other things while Justin stayed, ultimately becoming executive chef. Twenty years later, when Snow and White began thinking about retirement, that early duo of Ruggiano and Mosher were the obvious choice to carry on the Blue Heron legacy.

“This place was built by two progressive and wonderful women who were thoughtful about where they wanted the business to go in their retirement,” says Ruggiano. “There was a lot of conversation about shared values.”

Carie Ruggiano, Nick’s wife, who provides administrative and front of house support for the restaurant, identifies the core of those shared values: “We want this to be a place that anyone can feel welcome, come with who they love, and be cared for.”

The food is central to those shared values as well. “Justin and I had been daydreaming about buying the Blue Heron back in 2001, and there’s no other place locally that has always excited me as much,” Nick Ruggiano says on his decision to return. “A lot of my culinary training is embedded in French cuisine and classical technique, but my heart is in more of an Alice Waters, Chez Panisse approach of a mom growing food outside and preparing it for her family: fresh, fresh, fresh. What’s the food we can pick up fresh that day and make it into something beautiful for someone to enjoy that night?”

The importance of carrying on these essentials – freshness, quality, excellence, welcoming and conscientious service – was obvious when Ruggiano and Mosher took over ownership in 2022. But beyond that, the new owners had big decisions to make about the direction they would take this beloved mainstay. “We knew we didn’t want to make any big changes when we took over,” Ruggiano says. “I didn’t want to change a thing other than being a fresh set of eyes and updating up a few details.”

Even now, a couple of years on, Ruggiano says, “A lot of the clientele expect the same thing whenever they come in – they’re coming in for their favorites. Deborah’s tomato pie has to come back every year. So a lot of longtime signature dishes still remain: the scallops, the ricotta toast. Our goal has been to keep the foundation that people love and add the seasonality and playfulness on top of that.”

Seasonality and fun spins on the menu are aided greatly by the long-term relationships the Blue Heron team has with local farms and food producers. Their menu features a long list of local and regional supplies, and Nick Ruggiano reels some of them off the top of his head: “We’ve been buying cream from John at Mapleline Farm in Hadley since the ’90s, and we always have Great Hill blue cheese and maple syrup from Leyden and Colrain. We try to get the majority of our produce in season from Warner Farm just up the road, and we work with Black River Produce which can source from way more local farms. If a local vendor shows up with a flat of morels or fiddleheads, we’ll work that into the menu. We try to stay as local as we can, and it’s always a bit of a puzzle to figure out who has what, in the amount we need, and when and how we can get it here.”

Running a restaurant well is not only about ensuring a special experience for guests. The quality of life for the people behind the scenes is equally important – and that, in turn, is visible in the dining room. Ruggiano says, “everything has to be done with love because it ends up on the plate.”

“This place isn’t just one or two people, it’s everyone who works here,” says Nick Ruggiano, who wanted to shout out every staff person in this piece, but was stymied by space limitations. Many longtime staff members stayed with Blue Heron during the transition: notably B.J. Wallace, who has been essential to Blue Heron’s success in both front and back of house roles; Kristin Henry, who serves as general manager and catering director; Paul Margotta and Lisa Smith, who have run the bar collectively for over a decade; and the team of professional servers that bring the dining experience of Blue Heron to life. They have also welcomed new folks, including Jonathan Zuraw, chef de cuisine, and a trio of exceptional young line cooks who make magic happen every night.

Looking to the future, Ruggiano says, “Ultimately, I want it to be the same place it is, and also to continue to foster an environment of education and harmony within the community. We want to continue to perpetuate something that is slowly being lost — the true meaning of culinary expression, which is growing the food, and preparing it with love, and eating it with loved ones.”

In the end, that is what keeps everyone at Blue Heron going. “One of the coolest things about being here is that there’s so much joy inside these walls from 5 to 9 p.m.,” Nick Ruggiano says. “People are so happy. They come here to celebrate special dates, birthdays, anniversaries, and it feels like a real privilege in the world we’re living in to see people experiencing that kind of joy.”

Claire Morenon is the communications manager for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). To find more Local Hero restaurants, see CISA’s online guide at buylocalfood.org.