2006: Amherst bar closes doors after 73 years - 11/28/2006
Amherst bar closes doors after 73 years
By: Owen Boss
Posted: 11/28/06
Barsie's, which has been a fixture in the Amherst bar scene since 1933, was closed indefinitely yesterday.
For many students, Barsie's was a popular stop along "club sidewalk," and will be sorely missed.
The owner, Judie Terapulsky, who owns the property where Barsie's was previously located, shut down the bar and plans to combine her current next-door restaurant "Judie's" into a larger facility.
The once vibrant display of college life lays a dark shell of what it once was. The front and back doors are locked, the once-used stools lay on top of tables and the fluorescent pink sign above the bar has been torn down. Students walking the sidewalk last night cupped their hands over their eyes and peered into the dark.
Michael Cartier, a senior hospitality and tourism management major at the University of Massachusetts, was left standing outside, bewildered last night.
"I was planning on going there tonight," he said. "I've been going up on Monday nights pretty consistently for the past three years.
"I guess I'll just go to McMurphy's or Delano's - it's just too bad that we no longer have that third option."
Barsie's, which had played its role on "club sidewalk" as an option for students along the same strip of No. Pleasant Street as "Delano's," "The Monkey Bar" and "McMurphy's," will now change their choice of bars from four to three.
Although the Amherst police department has recently begun using undercover officers inside of bars uptown in an attempt to stop the use of fake IDs, the closing of the bar was not related to the cracking down on this area of uptown Amherst.
Jessica Pierce, a graduate psychology student at UMass, had been working at Barsie's for the past three months. She claims that for her, like so many students in the area, the closing of the bar came as a shock. According to Pierce, many of the employees found out about its closing yesterday.
"I still have not heard from my boss," she said. "I had heard that they were planning on combining the bar with Judies, but I wasn't given a specific date."
Pierce, who had punched out late Sunday night, claimed that she had planned to work the remaining nights she was scheduled for this week.
According to Pierce, the bar was closed because the owner feels that she could make more money through renovating the property and expanding Judie's.
Terapulsky was given the award of Restaraunteur of the Year for Western Massachusetts in 2004. Judie's has been serving the Pioneer Valley for 29 years, and the restaurant is most popular for being the self-proclaimed "Home of the Outrageous Popovers."
Barsie's leaves behind a legacy that includes over 70 years of service to the Amherst community.
© Copyright 2007 The Daily Collegian
