image description — Amazing Pho has an ordering station inside the door as well as a photo opportunity and spot to leave notes about the eatery.

Amazing Pho Brings Vietnamese Favorites to Berkshire County

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
04:34PM / Saturday, March 15, 2025Print Story | Email Story

Amazing Pho opened in early February in the Center at Lenox, near Marshall's.

LENOX, Mass. — A local couple is bringing their love of Vietnamese food to the Berkshires.

Xiaoqing "Iris" Pan and Kang Chen, husband and wife, opened the Amazing Pho last month in the Center at Lenox on Route 7.

Though both are from China, they fell in love with Vietnamese cuisine and Pan would often travel far for some pho and three hours to Boston or New York to get a taste of milk tea, now something she sells at Amazing Pho.

"Everytime I go there I will bring six milk teas back here," Pan said. "I will drink one when I'm there and drink one in my car and drink one when I get home, and save another three for the next day because you're not going to drive three hours just for a drink."

In addition to milk tea and pho (noodles), the restaurant offers rice dishes, sandwiches (bahn mi), dumplings and salads. It also offers vegan and gluten-free options. Prices range from about $10 to $20 plus add-ons.

Pan's parents ran the former Amazing Pavilion Chinese restaurant in Pittsfield. They asked her to take over but she wanted to branch out on her own into Vietnamese food.

"We didn't want to continue the old restaurant, we want something new, we didn't want to be stuck there our whole entire life," she said.

But she was nervous opening a new restaurant because people here might not understand Vietnamese food and wouldn't like the change.

"So I was kind of worried people don't even know and they don't want to try new stuff you know because new stuff sounds scary to them, something they don't know," Pan said. "So I quite worried about it but until I opened, I underestimated people's passion to the little place."

But once Amazing Pho opened and people started to get curious, Pan felt supported and excited.

"People were really nice and they want to learn the new stuff like more than what I expected," said Pan.

Pan said she and her husband grew up going to Vietnamese restaurants but she can see people questioning their opening one.

"As you can see, I'm Chinese and this place is Vietnamese and people will question, 'your Chinese and making Vietnamese noodles, you're not professional you're not the one who know how to make it' so the answer from me is honestly I don't know how to make it," she smiled. "he's the one who knows how to make it."

Pan motioned to Chen, who worked part time at a Vietnamese restaurant and took notes from the chef to never forget a recipe.

"He followed the chef at the back kitchen during all of his high school part-time work and he really into it and he liked the smell and everything and the chef was quite nice and he taught everything to him," she said.

Pan and Chen hope that people like their food and are always looking for feedback. Pan wants her restaurant to feel inviting and welcoming for patrons and for those looking to try something new.

"No matter you know Vietnamese or don't know Vietnamese food you can always stop by you're welcome, even if you just take a look you don't order anything I'm totally OK with that," she said. "I like people sitting here, chat with friends, or get some drink."

Amazing Pho is open seven days a week, Monday through Thursday from 11 to 9, Friday and Saturday 11 to 9:30, and Sunday from 1 to 8:30. The menu has a range of Vietnamese food and others to choose from.

Tags: new business, Asian cuisine, restaurants,

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Prospect Meadow Farm Opens New Vocational Barn

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:40AM / Thursday, June 18, 2026

A charcuterie board at the event displays fare from some of the regional producers.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Prospect Meadow Farm last week officially opened a new barn to sell plants and other goods it produces.

Prospect Meadow Farm Berkshires is an expansion of ServiceNet's first farm in Hatfield that has provided meaningful agricultural work, fair wages, and personal and professional growth to hundreds of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities since opening in 2011.

The Berkshires farm opened on Crane Avenue two years ago and has now introduced a new vocational and unwinding space for the more than 25 farmhands who get paid a minimum wage.

"This is a facility for our folks who work on the farm to learn additional skills and do additional work," said Vice President of Vocational Services Shawn Robinson at the Friday event. "So we have a food packaging space, we've got a walk-in cooler space, we've got a floral design space, we've got a farm store room for staff, lunch room, and then a meditation room that we're standing in now, which is when you're having those hard moments and you need to get away from everything.

"This is going to be a peaceful place you can find and sort of find some comfort, and then hopefully get back to work."

The barn was built by funds from the state Executive Office of Economic Development and the state Department of Agricultural Resources that equated to around $600,000, with ServiceNet contributing around the same amount. The structure took over a year to build.

The state's Department of Developmental Services Commissioner Sarah Peterson spoke on how meaningful this farm and ServiceNet is to her and that this place is important to those who need it.

"Places like this are so crucial because they create opportunities for people living with disabilities that aren't plentiful," she said. "People living with developmental and intellectual disabilities have an unemployment rate over 25 percent five times the rate for people without disabilities, even more jarring is under appointment, which is at 80 percent. That means that four out of every five people with disabilities earn below market rate wages and have limited upward mobility.

"The building itself is really impressive, but what you're really seeing here is the result of vision. It's about opportunity, it's about community, and it's founded in the belief that every person deserves the chance to learn and work and contribute to thrive under the leadership of ServiceNet."

One aspect of the barn will be the market where produce from the farm and other local growers will be sold as well as keeping the tradition of Jodi's Seasonal, which previously occupied the location, alive with plant sales. The market will be open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

"Everything you see in terms of the tomatoes, the fresh produce, that's all done with the hands of our farm hands here, individuals with disabilities who get out every single morning, get in those greenhouses, put their hands in the dirt, and make all of this happen, and this is just the start," said Robinson. "This farm is a little over a year old at this point, but give it another two years, and we hope to be growing enough food to share throughout the Berkshires."

Robinson said the farm is focused on local food security, recently partnering with the Hatfield Council on Aging and planning to work toward making enough food to partner with places in the Berkshires.

He said the barn serves the Hatfield farm and what the employees here needed.

"We've been able to learn the needs of the farm hands who work there and so we have learned that they need a comfortable break space for those times where it's hard to be out in the fields, we've learned that a quiet space for when you're going through something you need to be away from people are key, and then also we have a small farm store in Hatfield, but we've seen increasing interest in retail work from our participants, so we thought it was time for a larger-scale farm store," he said.

Robinson noted that Prospect Meadow Farm has helped the individuals working there feel valued and head.

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