AMHERST — Hearing a frequent lament from friends and neighbors that getting high-quality coffee between Atkins corner and downtown Amherst is nearly impossible, the proprietor of the recently opened West Street Coffee & Tea, at 450 West St., is hoping to change that impression.

“People said there is no coffee between Atkins and the center of town, except for the gas station,” says Chris Rollins, an Amherst resident who got the new business up and running in the Pomeroy Village center in early October. “They’ve said to me that this part of town needs a coffee shop.”

While doing his best to make filling the coffee void a reality, though, Rollins acknowledges the enterprise has taken a long time to establish. In fact, he began planning the shop when the small brick building with a cupola on top, originally opened as a branch of the First National Bank of Amherst in the 1970s, became available for rent after a previous effort to renovate it into a cafe failed in 2019.

Then COVID hit.

“First, we had to get the pandemic out of the way,” Rollins said. “Now there is the challenge in trying to find help,” he added, observing that one of his main employees is both the general manager and a barista. “We’re definitely staff challenged right now.”

Still, he has made a go of it, with coffee supplied by Fogbuster Coffee Works, the Greenfield company owned by brothers Sean and Darren Pierce, who both grew up in Amherst. Four varieties of coffee are available for customers. He is broadening the range of teas available, including green hibiscus, ginger peach and Earl Grey. “We will get more as we go along,” Rollins said.

Also available, in addition to the hot and cold teas, are hot cocoa, espresso, cappuccino, latte and chai.

Upon entering the business, the most prominent sight is a case filled with pastries that are made fresh daily by Lemon Bakery, located just across the parking lot in the plaza that also includes restaurants, a bar, barber shops and other businesses, such as a karate studio.

The Lemon Bakery selection changes daily, but on this day includes almond croissants, ham and Swiss croissants, blueberry lemon cream danishes, veggie potpie danishes, lemon poppy muffins and blueberry muffins and cookies. “All are delivered first thing in the morning,” Rollins said.

For Rori Hanson, owner of the curbside pick-up and delivery bakery, the collaboration with a neighboring business was a natural fit. Already working with local farms and producers, Hanson’s bakery puts seasonal flavors in the made-by-hand laminated doughs, including pumpkin cinnamon buns, roasted butternut, caramelized balsamic onion and spinach filled danishes, apple-crisp danishes, and classics like chocolate croissants and flakey butter croissants.

“There will always be a cross section of sweet and savory danish and croissant offerings, as well as muffins, scones, cookies, biscotti, brownies bars but the flavors across all those things will change seasonally as is always true for Lemon Bakery,” Hanson said.

Without a full-fledged kitchen or a fryer at West Street Coffee & Tea, the rest of the food menu is somewhat limited, described by Rollins as “light fare.” But there are grilled cheese sandwiches, on wheat or rye bread, egg sandwiches, with toppings including turkey sausage, cheddar or American cheese, and egg on English muffins with dairy-free cheese. Dairy-free products have proven popular, he said.

“Avocado toast has done surprisingly well,” Rollins said. “I think that’s because it’s vegetarian and can be gluten free, too, if you want it to be.”

West Street Coffee & Tea is also trying to specialize in soups of the day, with the soups provided by Blount Soup of Fall River. Rollins plans to expand to three soups a day if there is demand, possibly as the weather cools down, and as more people find the restaurant.

Paninis are a possibility in the future. “Needless to say, we’re still tinkering with stuff,” Rollins said. “We’re still sussing out what the traffic is.”

The restaurant has a refrigerator with cold cans of Fogbuster and various other products, including Greek yogurt.

Rollins calls West Street Coffee & Tea a “retirement-age project,” after he spent several years working in the resort industry at Berkshire East Mountain resort in Charlemont. But he grew tired of the hourlong drive.

Inside the business there are 16 chairs and a handful of tables, with other furnishings including bookshelves, many filled with oversized picture books featuring photos and text of bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones or works by Monet, Renoir and Rockwell.

In a separate room, where a picture of Emily Dickinson, a painting by van Gogh and a 1930s-era map of New England are on the walls, a large table is available for people to set up their laptops. Rollins created the space from his familiarity working at Shelburne Falls Coffee Roasters, he said, where there is a often a side room with a sofa and books.

Other furnishings include a table with an embedded checkerboard and checkerboard pieces and a wooden hallway console that he bought from The Trading Post, another of the neighboring businesses.

When he first began renting the site, a previous tenant had begun renovations so it could be used to serve food for the first time, after being both First National Bank of Amherst and Shawmut Bank, then Cynthia Krause Weavers Studio, Applied Econometrics, Inc. and most recently Dancer Computers.

The work done included tiling and a back splash for a sink, but Rollins then took it from there, putting in appropriate surfaces on the kitchen walls, making the building fully complaint with the Americans with Disabilities Act, installing an all-gender bathroom, replacing the front door, installing new switch panels in the basement and buying a water heater, all at considerable expense, he said.

Being next to a plaza, as well as the Speedway gas station, he is hoping to draw commuters in the morning. Also close by are a bus stop for the University of Massachusetts to Mount Holyoke College and a future ValleyBike Share station.

The shop is currently open weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., but closed on Sundays.

Rollins said Saturdays have been the busiest so far, with a lot of families stopping by on their way to children sporting events, prompting him to quip, “We seem to be angling for the moms with their soccer kids.”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.