Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1182004
NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 30 NOVEMBER 2019 FAC E S + P L AC E S Maybe you took a wrong turn on the way to Newburyport. Maybe you ventured off the highway and got a little lost. However you arrived in downtown Amesbury, though, we recommend you park your car ( for free!) and explore. You—and your stomach—will be glad you did. While the rest of the region's eyes were fixed on cities like Salem and Newburyport, Amesbury has quietly blossomed into a bona fide food town. And it's ready for its close-up. "Everyone talks about Amesbury as this hidden gem. People stumble upon it," says Kassandra Gove, executive director of the Amesbury Chamber of Commerce and, at press time, a mayoral candidate there. When people do happen upon Amesbury, Gove says its message is this: "Welcome! You've found us." It's a friendly place ripe for discovery. Like a secret world tucked inside a wardrobe, Amesbury's downtown is filled with little trea- sures waiting around every corner. Wander through a brick archway to discover a rushing waterfall and walking trails. Peek behind an old mill building to find a sweet little shop making exquisite handmade chocolates. Turn a corner and find yourself at a European-style brewery, complete with an outdoor beer gar- den on the river. These days kitchens, beer taps, and din- ing tables have replaced the huge, clattering machinery that used to fill the city's mills and factories. The transformation is fairly recent, though. While Amesbury and its cavernous brick mill buildings retain plenty of evidence of their textile-manufacturing, boat-building, and carriage-making past, the food scene is relatively new. "When I was a kid, every time we went out to dinner we had to pile into the car and go to Newburyport," says Sean Toomey, a third-generation Amesbury resident who is now owner of the local restaurants Crave and SKY HI. He calls it "crazy" that his hometown D A T E O F S E T T L E M E N T 1642 D A T E O F I N C O R P O R A T I O N 1668 A R E A 13.7 square miles P O P U L A T I O N 17,569 Z I P C O D E 01913 M E D I A N H O U S E H O L D I N C O M E $ 34,906 Amesbury Elementary School, Charles C. Cashman Elementary School, Amesbury Middle School, Amesbury High School, Amesbury Innovation High School Poet John Greenleaf Whittier, Currier and Ives lithographer Nathaniel Currier, founder of Christian Science Mary Baker Eddy, poet Robert Frost, actor Jeffrey Donovan S C H O O L S N O T A B L E R E S I D E N T S THE DETAILS Amesbury has several old mill buildings and a walkable downtown. PHOTOGRAPHS BY JARED CHARNEY (TOP AND CENTER), BY DENIS TANGNEY JR./iSTOCK