Caesar Ruiz (left) and Andrew Brow (right).
Photo credit: Wyckoff Country Club
HOLYOKE — The newly renovated Wyckoff Country Club will feature a rebranded restaurant with Chef Andrew Brow bringing his award-winning flavors to The Heritage Greens.
It was announced in February that area businessman and entrepreneur Cesar Ruiz acquired the Wyckoff Country Club in Holyoke for $2.8 million.
The 109-acre property, which includes an 18-hole golf course, a clubhouse and a restaurant, will remain as a country club and golf course under Ruiz’s ownership.
Ruiz said he was dedicated to bringing new life and energy to Wyckoff and said the restaurant and clubhouse will undergo an approximately $250,000 modernization and renovation.
Wyckoff Country Club recently announced that Brow would be joining Ruiz to serve as a Food and Hospitality Partner to focus on the renovated and revitalizated restaurant.
Known for his creativity and culinary excellence at HighBrow Wood Fired Kitchen and Bar, as well as The Kitchen by HighBrow at White Lion Brewing Company, The Heritage Greens will bring Brow’s creative culinary vision to life in Holyoke.
“We’re excited,” Brow stated, “We’re going to highlight local sourced produce and really focus on creative, healthy, tasty food. I have a great relationship with all the local farmers in Hadley.”
The Heritage Greens hosted a soft opening starting on May 14.
Brow talked about the soft opening and said, “We didn’t want to overwhelm anything, so we kept it quite soft and we’re still transitioning. We started off with doing the lunch menu from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and then we’re going to start introducing the dinner menu.”
Currently, the restaurant is open from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. when the rest of the country club closes, but the menu and future updated hours can be viewed at wyckoffcountryclub.com or the Facebook page for menus, weekly specials, event announcements and behind the scene sneak peeks.
Brow said he has a mobile pizza oven, so they’ll be offering pizza on the patio and bringing back the “famous” burger that people have been asking Brow for.
They also have concerts and other special events booked.
“We have something for everybody and we’re cooking from the heart here. We just want to feed everybody, make people happy and change lives one meal at a time,” Brow said.
The restaurant will be golf-friendly, offering a breakfast buffet Monday through Saturday. Lunch will be hybrid and have golf friendly food-like burgers and hot dogs, but other options as well for the public.
The dinner menu will also have a variety of options.
Brow began his culinary journey at Smith Vocational High School in Northampton in the culinary arts program. As a freshman, he cooked at the same level as the seniors.
He quickly got involved with a restaurant group and was a salaried chef manager at 18-years-old and helped open several restaurants.
After moving to North Carolina, Brow got hired as a “chef de cuisine” at a French bistro, which is what he described as, “where I began my fine dining aspect.”
Brow moved back to Massachusetts after his grandmother got sick and got a job managing a smoked fish company in Springfield. He then helped cook at Center Square Grill in East Longmeadow part-time, before becoming the executive chef, which also helped him develop his culinary skills further.
He explained, “That place gave me the ability — like a canvas — to kind of like find myself. I was able to create specials and really use the ingredients that I wanted to use and get creative. I came back from North Carolina with these French techniques and a different drive, a cleaner mindset, a cleaner lifestyle and I was just able to excel.”
Brow opened HighBrow Wood Fired Kitchen and Bar in October 2019 and now brings his talents to The Heritage Greens.
Brow texted Ruiz to let him know that he could help him with the restaurant at Wyckoff Country Club if he needed it. Ruiz texted him back immediately to discuss a job opportunity.
Brow stated, “I just know this is such a big platform that we can really make a difference in our community. It’s the first Latino-owned country club in New England which is pretty cool in the city of Holyoke, and just being part of a revival is exciting.”
