By the time students of the Five Colleges arrive in Amherst for their spring semester, The Spoke will be planning its grand opening of a new nightclub.
Spoke Live, located at 1-11 Pray St. will open its doors come Feb. 1, according to Spoke Live owner Chad O’Rourke. It will feature a 100-foot bar, dance floor and a variety of liquor options and seltzers.
“My vision here is to become the entertainment district of downtown Amherst, especially as more development happens,” said O’Rourke. “It’s going to be the nightclub of Amherst.”
The new nightclub is behind The Spoke at 35 East Pleasant St., which first opened in 1984 and was bought by O’Rourke in 2017. Throughout roughly seven years of ownership, he’s been renovating and expanding the bar, making the business one of the top 16 college bars in the country last year according to fans of the multimedia outlet Barstool Sports.
The idea of opening a nightclub came to O’Rourke after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Additional liquor licenses became available in Amherst, and he wanted to provide more entertainment for local college students.
“Amherst got decimated from everything like everybody did,” O’Rourke explained. “I was hoping after our closures that somebody would come in and open more bars in this town because we need it…there’s 500 kids standing in line at every single bar and nowhere for them to go.”
The three-space commercial building that O’Rourke purchased for his nightclub was vacant for over three years, after it was home to a general cleaners, a laundromat and Old Town Tavern which closed in 2019, according to a document from Amherst’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). The maximum occupancy for The Spoke Live is 587 people, said Robert Watchilla, staff liaison and planner for Amherst’s Zoning Board of Appeals.
With ownership of the property, O’Rourke has torn down the walls, giving the single-story nightclub more space with a 3,000-square-foot polished and stained concrete dance floor, and shiplap board walls. To complement the aesthetic, the long bar will have a black granite top. Mirrors will be mounted behind the bar, and lights will hang in front of it.
“We consider [The Spoke] to be our pub with the tap display and wall of fake IDs and a lot of posters and signs up on the wall,” O’Rourke explained. “In [The Spoke Live] it’s going to be very clean. You won’t see neon signs and beer posters.”
There will be a raised DJ booth and a single VIP area, with a separate bouncer and server for special events. Public bathrooms and coat rooms will be available, and employees will have their own bathroom and back entrance.
When O’Rourke approached the Town of Amherst to apply for his licenses last year, members of the ZBA and Planning Board had found the project to be “favorable.”
“There’s a recognition on the part of the town officials that students need something to do,” said Amherst’s Planning Director Chris Brestrup. “And the alternative to a spot like this might be for someone to try and have a party in their private home or their apartment, and this … would be a more controlled environment.”
“We’re always trying to find ways to bring students to downtown,” Watchilla added. “[O’Rourke] is giving people more variety, adding one more choice to the nightclub and bar scene, and that will help with the long lines.”
Once opened, Spoke Live’s regular hours will be Thursday through Saturday from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sundays the nightclub will be closed except on long holiday weekends, when it will be open from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
The Spoke is open seven days a week from 2 p.m. to 1 a.m.
O’Rourke is looking to hire people as bartenders, security and barbacks. If interested in becoming a bartender or barback, email [email protected]. People interested in being a part of security can email [email protected]. In-person interviews will occur on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 at The Spoke.
Liesel Nygard can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @LieselNygard.
