Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Get on your High Horse!

High Horse Brewery and Bistro, downtown Amherst

The High Horse Brewery and Bistro, managed by Jason DiCaprio, has opened for business in the former downtown location of Amherst Brewing Company, who moved a mile down the road into a larger location last August, space formerly occupied by the (less than) Leading Edge Health Club .

Amherst could actually use a few neighborly mature adult drinking establishments like ABC, High Horse, and the other bar Mr. DiCaprio runs in South Amherst, Moan and Dove.

And no, I do not think that's in the least bit hypocritical coming from the guy who has been on an evangelical crusade against "party houses" over the past year. B-I-G difference between businesses run by seasoned individuals concerned with long term stability and immature kids "blowing off steam" every weekend after all those arduous hours of study.

Springfield Republican reports

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

A bit touchy, aren't we?

Larry Kelley said...

Just anticipating...you.

Anonymous said...

Do you know when they open? I went by tonight and it still seemed under construction in there.

Larry Kelley said...

I believe they opened 12/31/11.

Anonymous said...

The problem we have is a drinking age that is too high. We have forced the 18-20 year old population into very anti-social drinking situations. It's not a coincidence that the increasing incidence of binge drinking has come AFTER the drinking age was moved from 18 to 21 years old.

A good share of the adult population grew up with a drinking age of 18. And a good share of us are nevertheless appalled by the behavior we see associated with student drinking. We need to reset the drinking age back where it was while at the same time instituting mandatory jail sentences for those who obtain alcohol for those under that age (so that the deterrent is crystal clear).

It's really time to stop the hypocrisy about drinking: 18-20 year olds can vote, they can go to state prison, they should be able to drink legally. Let's get the drinking out of the shadows and the crowd scenes.....and I will bet you that a large amount of the anti-social behavior we are seeing from students and their contemporaries would be reduced.

Anonymous said...

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.<-- Adopted by Mass. on Mar. 24, 1971.

I had not remembered that. I thought the voting age was still 21.

(By the way, it was students protesting the Viet Nam war who had a big influence on getting this law passed.)

However, having the rights of an adult brings responsibility to act as an adult who is not endangering himself or the public with chemical abuse.

I, too, agree that we need 'adult' bars -- where there is no binge drinking.

Anonymous said...

Is Anon 11:10 Rick Perry in disguise???? He too thought the voting age was 21. Glad to see he is out of the race.

Anonymous said...

I think 11:10 was sarcastic.
The point is that 18-20 year olds can vote and, if they care about the drinking age, they can use that voting power to lower the drinking age.

Anonymous said...

College kids drink the way adults did during Prohibition: binges of heavy drinking aimed at getting drunk, not low-key social drinking as part of some other activity.

Anonymous said...

They are still working on the interior as of today. I do not see how they could open anytime soon. I looked for a website or some other info but there isnt anything up yet.

Anonymous said...

The High Horse Bar upstairs is open nightly at 6pm, the bistro downstairs is still under construction. The beer is excellent!!

Anonymous said...

The High Horse Bar upstairs is open nightly at 6pm, the beer is great! The Bistro downstairs is still under construction, hopefully to be open sometime with-in the next few weeks.

Anonymous said...

Stopped there last night and it was chuck full of college age kids upstairs, with unbearably loud music. But I imagine the restaurant portion downstairs will be less wild. I wonder if they are going to continue to allow smoking on the upstairs veranda. Rather nasty to have to walk through a half dozen clouds of stink just to enter....not a nice welcome.

Anonymous said...

If I have to run a gauntlet of cigarette smoke to get into the restaurant I won't go.

Larry Kelley said...

That is sooooo 1990s.

Anonymous said...

It sounds like the upstairs is more of a bar atmosphere like The Moan and Dove, but does anyone know if the downstairs will be family friendly like ABC?

Lissa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Thomas Stratford said...

I was wondering why there are so many anonymous people posting.Why not post with your name, I'm proud of mine!As, long as we are respectable to each other, I say, why not?