AMHERST — A Tibetan restaurant is nearing completion in a Main Street space that formerly housed Mom’s Dumpling and Noodle, a Chinese restaurant which closed in March.
The co-owner of Himalaya Friends Corner restaurant said he hopes it will be open later this month at 61 Main St. It will be the only Tibetan restaurant in Amherst, and will offer yak meat from a high-altitude farm in Colorado.
The menu will be mostly Tibetan dishes, but will also have Indian, Chinese, Bhutanese and Nepali influences.
The restaurant is owned and managed by Kunga Gyaltsen, his half-brother Sonam Gyatso Bhutin, and their friend, Karma Tsering. Gyaltsen, the primary owner, is a native of Tibet, where he was once a Buddhist monk. He said he moved to Blacksburg, Virginia, in 2005 for “political reasons,” and started Himalayan Curry Café while there.
“I loved to cook when I was young,” he said. “I used to watch the cooking channel… and say, ‘Why can’t I do that?’”
Gyaltsen ran that restaurant for several years before selling it to a business partner, looking for a better location in a college town. His current partners then joined him from India, and they agreed to take over the lease from the owner of Mom’s Dumpling and Noodle a couple of months ago.
While Gyaltsen has hired contractors to do some of the heavy lifting and duct work in the restaurant, he and his two co-owners did much of the interior remodeling themselves. This has included building benches and tables, repainting, repaneling the walls of the dining room and replacing the old hardwood floors.
There is still work to be done. Contractors were installing ventilation ducts and hoods for the kitchen last week, and the restaurant still must pass an inspection before it can open.
The menu is ready to go, with most meals in the $7 to $10 range. Many of the recipes are traditional Tibetan food that Gyaltsen used to cook at home. The food will contain no MSG or artificial flavors, he said.
“My parents are really good cooks. I have some recipes from my mom,” Gyaltsen said.
He said that if everything goes according to plan, he hopes the restaurant will be open by the end of the month. Until then, Gyaltsen hinted that he hopes to have a booth ready for the Taste of Amherst on the town common Thursday through Saturday.
Gyaltsen said he also plans to obtain a liquor license after the restaurant opens.