| Popular
Pizza Place Moves Up Green Street
 By
Jessie Fredlund ’07
Though it changed its name and
moved up the way, Green Street’s popular pizza place
remains a regular stop for many in the Smith community.
For many years, pizza and other
oven-baked dishes from the restaurant formerly known as College
Pizza, at 86 Green St., have been lunch and dinner for those
in the Smith community.
Now called Pizza Amore, the restaurant
still serves up pizzas, grinders and salads for lunch, dinner
and in between, but from its new location a few doors up,
at 18 Green St., where it took up residence in November.
Co-owners Harun Iyigel and Eyup
Atmaca changed the restaurant’s name two years ago when
they bought the business. They knew they would also eventually
have to move the restaurant out of the Smith-owned building.
The college announced plans in 2004 to clear space at the
corner of Green Street and Belmont Avenue to construct a new
building for engineering and the sciences, named Ford Hall.
Pizza Amore
co-owner Harun Iyigel |
With assistance from Smith College
at every step of the relocation, the Pizza Amore owners conducted
a smooth move, closing for only two days and recently re-opening
the restaurant with a new look. Smith assisted the owners
in preparing the new location (also leased from Smith), and
in acquiring the necessary permits from the City of Northampton.
Smith also helped finance the restaurant move.
“We are really part of
Smith College,” says Iyigel, who estimates more than
a third of the restaurant’s customers are from the Smith
community. “We are proud to serve Smith College and
the students. We try to help students in any way we can.”
One way the restaurant helps
Smithies is through a 10 percent student discount on meals,
which the restaurant began when it moved. The restaurant has
expanded its menu, and soon plans to add more soups and lunch
specials.
Iyigel is happy with his restaurant’s
new location closer to West Street, which, he notes, is more
visible to Northampton residents. The restaurant also gained
a basement and opened the space to its kitchen so that customers
can see their food being prepared, and even offer suggestions
to the chefs.
Suggestions seem right in line
with the restaurateurs’ friendliness. “We tried
to create a friendly atmosphere,” says Iyigel. “We
know [Smith] students and faculty by name.”
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