AMHERST – A new restaurant specializing in Japanese food will be coming to a storefront that has been vacant for more than a year in downtown Amherst.
Ichiban restaurant will be locating at 104-106 North Pleasant St., most recently the site of All Things Local, which closed in October 2015.
The Select Board on Monday unanimously agreed to issue an all-alcohol license to its owner and manager, Hang Zhang “Simon” Wang, who also runs the Ichiban Chinese and Japanese Restaurant in South Hadley and Ume Asian Bistro in Longmeadow.
The decision to grant the license was made even though there was concern from the Select Board about two violations in which the restaurant allegedly served alcohol to minors at Ume in 2013.
Select Board member Andrew Steinberg said he wants to assure that there won’t be problems at the new Ichiban in a college town where numerous underage people may attempt to procure alcohol.
Amherst attorney Thomas Reidy, who represents Wang, said the restaurant would hire workers certified in Training for Intervention Procedures (TIPS), which promotes safe serving of alcohol, and purchased an electronic scanner for IDs.
Restaurant management is also developing its own internal procedures. “One of the policies Simon has in place now is to make sure everybody is ID’d,” Reidy said.
Select Board Chairwoman Alisa Brewer said she doesn’t want a repeat of what occurred at another Amherst restaurant, Panda East, where managers purchased ID scanners, but then didn’t always use them, leading to the serving of underage drinkers and a suspension of its license.
“I do caution management of the restaurant to not rely on TIPS training alone,” Steinberg said.
Reidy said Ichiban will feature electric steam pots that will allow food to be cooked by waitstaff at each of the tables in the restaurant, which will seat up to 96 customers.
No sauces or oils are used in the preparation of the food. “It’s a much healthier, cleaner type of cuisine,” Reidy said.
Barry Roberts, who owns the building where the restaurant will locate, said a dehumidifier system will be installed inside the 1,600-foot restaurant to remove steam.
The plan is to have the restaurant open by December 1.
Meanwhile, a new Chinese restaurant is planned for the former site of Baku’s African Restaurant at 197 North Pleasant St.
LiLi’s, which will have homestyle Chinese food including noodles and burgers, is expected to open before Christmas.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com
