I used to spend a lot of time walking the streets of Amherst, MA back when I worked as a sales rep for the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Last night my son Sam and I drove over to the college town to see what was new, after a good dinner at the restaurant that was known as Amherst Chinese until about four years ago…now it’s Formosa, but the atmosphere and the food is mostly the same. Our tour began after dinner as we gawked at this gigantic apartment building going up on Spring Street, across from the Inn on Boltwood.
Amherst only has a very small parking garage that almost nobody uses.This 58-unit apartment complex on Spring Street is right across from the Inn on Boltwood, construction work is ongoing. It’s being built by Archipelago Investments, the people who built the massive five-story buildings in other parts of town.
Judie’s was once the most popular restaurant in town, but the large space will become Amherst Oyster Bar in 2022.
We walked up South Pleasant Street and most of the stores were the same, but as we crossed over to North Pleasant we began to see the new entities popping up.
Bart’s Ice Cream is no longer at its old location, a new cafe is coming to this spot in 2022.
One of the most popular places in downtown Amherst we discovered is The Spoke, where students stand in long lines waiting to get in. At one time the uptown bars like the former Delano’s were the hot spots, but this and the former Lit bar have taken over.
The Spoke is where the Umies want to go these days.The town has added these map kiosks that provide info about what you can find in town, a good idea I think.Insomnia cookies has replaced Glazed as the late-night sweet spot in town.This little rice restaurant replaced a really great Vietnamese restaurant that I used to frequent several years ago, located in the alley off North Pleasant St.Hazel’s Blue Lagoon is a very popular bar down the same alley. Kids were lining up 20 minutes before the doors open last night.Formosa is an excellent value for a lot of Chinese food for not a lot of money.
Max, good overview but Formosa is vastly different from Amherst Chinese. I frankly disliked AmChi saying that it tasted like your housemate just got a wok. No sauces, great quality vegetables to be sure, but prepared so simply it wasn’t worth it to me.
Formosa is a more authentic and has much more interesting food. Well cooked and well flavored. During the pandemic, I used to order about six dishes for takeout and my wife and I would eat them for lunch and dinner for several days. I felt good about the size of the order for them and the taste of the order for us.
Amherst has changed a lot in the last 5 years. Add to it the way the town and the campus pushed back on out of control students and it’s a good town again. Sure, there are rambunctious and oblivious college age drinkers, but we were pretty oblivious (at least I was) back in the day. It’s the yelling, fights, obnoxiousness, and vandalism that they clamped down on.
April 22, 2022 @ 1:52 pm
I thought I knew Amherst, but I don’t even know were that parking garage is!
April 22, 2022 @ 10:04 pm
It’s on Boltwood walk, behind down the alley near Antonios on North Pleasant St. Nobody ever parks there since all of the spaces are reserved.
April 25, 2022 @ 8:50 am
Only the spaces on the lower (underground) level are reserved.
April 27, 2022 @ 5:57 pm
Max, good overview but Formosa is vastly different from Amherst Chinese. I frankly disliked AmChi saying that it tasted like your housemate just got a wok. No sauces, great quality vegetables to be sure, but prepared so simply it wasn’t worth it to me.
Formosa is a more authentic and has much more interesting food. Well cooked and well flavored. During the pandemic, I used to order about six dishes for takeout and my wife and I would eat them for lunch and dinner for several days. I felt good about the size of the order for them and the taste of the order for us.
Amherst has changed a lot in the last 5 years. Add to it the way the town and the campus pushed back on out of control students and it’s a good town again. Sure, there are rambunctious and oblivious college age drinkers, but we were pretty oblivious (at least I was) back in the day. It’s the yelling, fights, obnoxiousness, and vandalism that they clamped down on.