In my neck of the woods (western MA), the following are the places that we like to frequent/drool over/sometimes even travel an hour to get to.  In my eyes they are the super-heros of my hood.  It took quite a while to try these all out and determine who would make this list and who would not.   I’ve attempted to break them out into categories for you, but some certainly fall into more than one.

general

• belly of the beast, Northampton, MA
• bread euphoria, Haydenville, MA
• coco, Easthampton, MA
• hope and olive, Greenfield, MA
• lattitude, West Springfield, MA
• the dream away lodge, Becket, MA
• the gill tavern, Gill, MA

fancy pants

• alina’s, Hadley, MA
• blue heron, Sunderland, MA
• food 101, South Hadley, MA
• the farm table, Bernardston, MA
• the federal, Agawam, MA

french

• bistro les gras, Northampton, MA

pub

• daily operation, Easthampton, MA
• five eyed fox, Turners Falls, MA
• hillside pizza, Bernardston, Hadley and South Deerfield, MA
• local burger, Northampton, MA
• northampton brewery, Northampton, MA
• pic’s pub, Holyoke, MA (pizza)
• riff’s joint, Easthampton & Turners Falls, MA
• the peoples pint, Greenfield, MA

latin flare

• bueno y sano, Amherst, Springfield, Northampton, West Springfield, MA
• mesa verde, Greenfield, MA
• mission cantina, Amherst, MA
• mi tierra, Hadley, MA

raw

• iya, South Hadley, MA
• moshi moshi, Northampton, MA
• osaka, Northampton, MA

breakfast

• esselon, Hadley, MA
• jakes,  Northampton and Amherst, MA
• sylvesters, Northampton, MA

bakery

• hungry ghost bread, Northampton, MA
• small oven bakery, Easthampton, MA
• tart baking co., Northampton, MA