NORTHAMPTON – This summer, customers at Northampton’s restaurants on Strong Avenue can enjoy a brand-new outdoor dining space right on the street.

Homestead chef and owner Jeremy Werther said he and his restaurant teamed up with their neighbors to set up the area.

“It is a collaboration amongst a bunch of businesses here on Strong Avenue and Pearl Street including Homestead, Eastside Grill, Familiars, Local Burger and Progression Brewing, those are the primary restaurants involved in Summer on Strong,” he said. “It was a team effort coming up with a plan to make something work we believe is beautiful and beneficial to Northampton as well as businesses trying to come back from the longest 16 months of being in business.”

Werther added, “It’s essentially an expanded dining space for the restaurants and hopefully a safe space for people to come congregate and check out some of the retail stores on our street as well. It is a fun community garden for people to hang out in.”

Werther said the initiative was funded by the businesses on Strong Avenue and did not receive any grants or funding from the city.

“The funding we all put into this has been paid 100 percent through the businesses and donations, there was zero city tax dollars or grants allocated for this, so it was the businesses collaborating to fund this so we would like to see some of that come back so we can do this summer after summer,” he said.

A week into the initiative, Werther said the dining space is off to a good start.

“We think it has been pretty positive, things have been pretty busy for all of the businesses that are involved. It is an awesome place to come sit throughout the day. Familiars is open in the early part of the day, Local Burger comes on at lunch, and then Homestead and Eastside both open for dinner,” he said.

By teaming up with his neighbors for the project, Werther said he is fulfilling one of the reasons he chose Northampton as the place for his business.

“It is fantastic, it is exactly why I opened a business in the Northampton area. I wanted to create relationships and community. To be doing something this powerful and exciting as a collaborative group with our neighbors is heartwarming, it’s great teamwork and comradery, and it has strengthened the business and personal relationships amongst the owners and management as we pull through this together,” he said.

Werther said he is excited to share this new outdoor dining space with the public.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to share an exciting outdoor vision, to get people excited about dining again, and to give them a safe space to do that outside for people that are not comfortable coming back inside. It gives us an opportunity to expand our clientele base and give the public an opportunity to come back out and eat,” he said.

Along with providing a space for outdoor dining, every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday there will be live music free for everyone dining at one of the participating restaurants.