Tag: local artists

  • “Let It Linger”: Ama fuses Nepali cuisine with familial comfort

    Bright orange traffic cones and freshly-paved concrete outline a modern, glass-paneled hotel near the upper edge of Lower Allston. Inside, customers, consisting of families, students, business workers and more, gather at Ama, the new Nepali-inspired restaurant that opened just last month inside The Atlas Hotel.

    The restaurant’s design reflects its roots in Nepali heritage and comfort. Nepali prayer flags gently sway on the restaurant’s ceiling. Gray curtains between dining areas allow privacy for guests. A small corner fit with couches and coffee tables offers guests a casual lounging spot. Fuzzy, curving red and gold walls bring warmth to every area of the restaurant.

    Ama’s bar is plastered with multi-textured red and gold material, designed by architects at Marlon Blackwell. Photo by Joe Farfan. 

    On a recent Monday, Nyacko Pearl Perry and Biplaw Rai, co-founders of Ama, sit at a wooden table in the warmly lit “Living Room,” a free third space between the hotel and the restaurant. Perry and Rai, who currently own one other restaurant Comfort Kitchen, are not only business partners but spouses with a three-year-old son. Perry’s family has lived in Allston for three generations, and she says that she wants the restaurant to align with the community’s needs. 

    “What we’re hoping for is that everybody feels like this is their space,” Perry said. 

    Both her and Rai have been working closely with local businesses and artists to bring their vision to life. Above the tall potted plants hang abstract paintings by Allston-based artists — works that Perry herself has handpicked.

    “This is literally a family business,” Perry says. “We really want to be a space where someone wants to bring that caregiver who needs to be cared for once.”

    The restaurant’s name is the Nepali word for “mother” and is named after Rai’s own mother. 

    “I think out of everyone in our family, my mom is the person who cooks,” Rai says. He smiles behind a goatee and takes out his ponytail. He’s laid-back and approachable, a supportive leader who gives his workers freedom and guidance, Renato Rodriguez, Ama’s food and beverage director, says.

    Rai’s parents work in the kitchen at Ama. Almost everyone calls them “Ama” and “Papa”. The restaurant’s culinary director, Shelley Nason, describes Ama as a “tough mom who cares about you and will put you in your place.” 

    Papa makes momo — Nepali dumplings — in the kitchen. Nason, who develops almost every dish, has left the momo untouched. 

    “[Papa] is very passionate about those momo,” Nason said. “It’s the way their family makes it, which is important.”

    The Pork Momo comes with six momos and a tomato achaar sauce for 14 dollars. Hearty ginger and scallion dominate each two-bite snack. Every momo is carefully wrapped in a stretchy, translucent, almost buttery skin. The subtle mala kick in the tomato achaar sauce adds a heavenly vibrance to this earthy dish. Those front-of-the-tongue flavors are familiar to me — just a little taste of my parents’ Chinese dumplings in each bite. 

    Left: The Pozole Verde, part of Ama’s soup series “She Knows the Way”. Right: Papa’s Pork Momo with tomato achaar sauce on the lunch menu. Photo by Joe Farfan. 

    The restaurant differentiates itself from others by sticking to the classics, Rai says. Instead of rushing service, he wants guests to enjoy a full experience. 

    “Our tagline is, ‘Let it Linger,’” Rai says. “You don’t have to have a white tablecloth and three suits to have that service. You can still have that service by being kind and really listening attentively to the guest.”

    Part of Rai and Perry’s effort to offer a slow, comfortable experience is reintroducing soups to the restaurant industry. 

    “If you go to most restaurants these days, you will not find soup on the menu at all,” Rai said, “But [soup is important to] every culture and every family.” 

    The Pozole Verde is one of two soups on Ama’s menu. It’s a green, earthy stew with vegetables and braised pork inside a poblano pepper and tomatillo broth base. Each flavor feels controlled — you can taste the spice underneath that herbal soup and the sweetness from the pork. The crispy tortilla served on the side adds a nice crunch. It’s kind of a hot, savory cereal. 

    One of the most recommended menu items on the lunch menu is the duck fried rice. It’s a comforting hodgepodge of their sweet, crispy duck confit, garlicky greens and egg topped with sunflower sprouts. It’s another playful experiment with texture. The crispy duck and bits of crispy rice complement the fluffy egg and springy sprouts. Small hints of spice from the chili oil bind this hardy dish. 

    Each item on the menu is crafted with story and relatability in mind, Rai said. 

    Perry lights up as she recalls fond memories of her grandmother’s pineapple upside-down cake, which inspired the menu’s Brown Butter Pineapple Cake. For 12 dollars, it could easily be a two-bite dessert. The vegan cake is fluffy and slightly moist, topped with coconut cream and maraschino cherries that brighten the taste. The salted pineapple caramel sauce drapes every flavor in buttery, savory richness.

    A behind-the-scenes look at Ama’s back-of-house team. The restaurant’s open kitchen design allows diners a glimpse at the people preparing their meals. Photo by Joe Farfan. 

    In the future, Rai said he plans to “take more breaks.” His partner laughs, but it’s true. The pair has two restaurants and a son to care for. Despite this, the couple is already thinking about ways to expand. For instance, diners can expect new menu items and a new art installation in one of the restaurant’s spaces in the next six months, Perry said.

    Another restaurant is also already in the works, Perry and Rai said. Fox Club, opening in April 2026, will be a rooftop bar in The Atlas. Perry is excited to install more local art in the space.

    Photo by Joe Farfan. 

    The first six months of opening a restaurant can be stressful, Perry said. Rai and Pearl said they wanted to elevate the comfort of the guest experience at Ama by including a coat check and three meals, seven days a week.

    “I think at the end of the day, it’s like, can we show up for each other in 2026?” Perry said, “We need spaces where we’re doing that, and we hope to be one of those spaces for folks.”

  • Alchemy Station Launched at Western Avenue’s Allston Labworks

    Alchemy Station, a consulting firm and art studio that supports local artists to realize this dream in the Allston community, launched their Allston location earlier this year at the Allston Labworks (280 Western Ave).

    The duo Kate Anderson and Suzi Hlavacek of Alchemy Station works with artists to create spaces that are grounded in the context of the community. “When we work with our clients, we really want to get a sense of […] goals for their space,” said Anderson. “So, for example […] it could be a hotel, and it’s in a historic building, and they […] want to tell the story of the history of the neighborhood.” 

    Anderson and Hlavacek founded Alchemy Station in 2022. Prior to that, Anderson had been a member of the Entrepreneurs Organization where she learned the skills she needed to run a business from human resources to contracting. However, Anderson credited a book called Start with Why by Simon Sinek as a motivating factor toward launching her own company.  

    “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it,” she said. “A lot of people don’t even know why they do what they do.” That philosophy carries over to the ethic Anderson and Hlavacek established with their artists.

    They enlisted the help of Miki Diminico, managing director of King Street Properties, to help them find a studio large enough to function as a collective for early-career artists. 

    Alchemy Station offers more than space. Anderson and Hlavacek work closely with artists throughout the creative process, as well as with practical issues, such as helping them find studio space or referring clients to reasonably priced framing businesses.

    Stephen Hamilton, of Roxbury, Mass., is one of Alchemy Station’s residential studio artists. His work centers around African art practices of sculpting, weaving and dying and mixed media. His pieces often require space, and Anderson and Hlavacek were willing to accommodate him.

     “I am one of the artists who participated in the Boston Public Art Triennial,” said Hamilton. “Through [Alchemy Station], I was able to get the space that I needed to work on […] the project.”

    Four years after they opened, Alchemy Station have been attempting to engage the Allston community by recruiting upcoming artists through organizations such as the Harvard Ed Portal and the Artisan’s Asylum.

    King Street Properties facilitated Alchemy Station’s expansion by working with the city’s Office of Arts and Culture, where they have received feedback on potential expansion and targeted marketing.

    The artists themselves engage with the Allston community as well. “Part of my work as an educator has been developing programming workshops for Black and brown communities in Boston centered around themes that are important in my practice as an artist,” said Hamilton. 

    As the enterprise continues, Anderson and Hlavacek hope to inspire artists to see themselves beyond their role, applying their skills as storytellers, teachers and entrepreneurs.

  • Exhibit at The Local Hand focuses on the way literature inspires art

    The Local Hand on Dorchester Avenue was the venue for an art show inspired by the novelist Octavia E. Butler on May 30.

    Artists, curators and guests gathered last Thursday (May 29) at an Ashmont gift shop and gallery to mark the opening of a show featuring pieces inspired by Octavia E. Butler’s novel “Parable of the Sower.”

    “Pages to Palette,” on display at The Local Hand through June, features works from 13 local artists, with 10 of them exhibiting and selling their original pieces and three “honorable mention” artists selling prints of their work. The show includes paintings, pottery, and mixed-media pieces.

    Michaela Flatley, owner of The Local Hand, handed each of the 10 main artists a $500 check at the opening reception – something that, she said, is not typical for art shows. She said it was important for these artists to be paid, regardless of whether their work sells.

    “It’s very core to my mission at The Local Hand to pay artists and to make sure that they’re compensated for their cultural contributions,” Flatley said.

    The shop was packed with guests coming and going throughout the two-hour reception. The event was held in collaboration with Just Book-ish, a Dorchester bookstore that will host a discussion about Butler’s work on June 22.

    The collaboration just made sense, Flatley said. “It’s art inspired by literature and a very important book. We just felt like we were aligned on what we wanted this event to be and also who we wanted to give a platform to.”

    She said the idea of curating an art show inspired by Butler’s work came from her neighbor, Lisa Graustein, one of the featured artists, who said that “Parable of the Sower” was chosen in part because of its relevance to current events.

    Written in 1993 but set from 2024 to 2027, “Parable of the Sower” chronicles the life of Lauren Olamina, a hyper-empathetic Black teenager living in a post-apocalyptic United States devastated by a climate crisis and social inequality.

    “They gave us an indication 30 years ago that we were going to be at the level of patriarchy and white supremacy that we’re in now nationally,” Graustein said. “We were like, ‘Wow, you’re a prophet,’ but we didn’t want to internalize the message.”

    Ann Schauffler, a guest at the opening reception who saw an opera performance based on Butler’s Parable series, called the book relevant and powerful. She said she loved seeing artists’ comments in response to the book at the show.

    The novel’s 1998 sequel, “Parable of the Talents,” features a president who uses the slogan “Make America Great Again,” something the event organizers made sure to mention during an announcement at the beginning of the show.

    “Butler believed that if we paid close enough attention, we could then see the destruction that was before us, and if we look directly into the abyss, we could elect to change it,” the poet and JustBook-ish co-owner Porsha Olayiwola said during opening remarks.

    In “Parable of the Sower,” Olamina creates a religion called “Earthseed,” with tenets centering on adaptation and change. Some of the artists featured at the exhibit applied the theme of “change” to their work. 

    Liliana Marquez created her piece out of a cabinet door sample and pieces of rubber wall base. While she created a second life for these materials, she said they changed her as well.

    “This piece is about mutual change — about how we, like the Earthseed in ‘Parable of the Sower,’ can adapt, rebuild, and create something more just and harmonious,” she said.

    Flatley finds art to be not only a sign of resistance but also a tool that allows people to come together. “Art is always important, especially in times of political turmoil or any sort of existential dread,” she said.

    Artist Sherwin Long stands next to his piece, Earthseed 21, last week in The Local Hand. Jacqueline Manetta photos

    Sherwin Long, another featured artist, said he believes that creating art that addresses themes of social inequality can disrupt complacency.

    “To be a part of a show that allows us to express these notions and even touch upon these topics, this is what art is about,” Long said.