'Tis the season for dining out choices in downtown Riverhead
New and expanded eateries set to open this December
2 comments below
Restaurant owner Ken Loo in the dining room of Haiku, his new Japanese sushi restaurant, set to open at the end of the month.
Two new East Main Street restaurants, Haiku and Dark Horse, are expected to open for business early this winter season, while another, Athens Gyro and Grill, is just completing a large expansion.
"There's a lot of people doing things at the same time, which is what we need downtown," said Ken Loo, who expects his Haiku sushi restaurant to open just after Thanksgiving. "What we need is projects in bulk, instead of just one guy on the street."
Athens Gyro & Grill owner John Mantzopoulos has plans to expand the East Main Street restaurant's dining room into the storefront next door.
He described the decor of the nearly completed restaurant as modern with traditional Japanese flair.
"And we'll have some old, old stuff in there, too," he said, adding, "Everyone I talk to about the restaurant is very excited. That's very encouraging."
"Half the [new] room, toward the rear, will be lounge sofas with high bar tables, and we're mostly aiming toward jazz and blues," he said. "But we're looking to do some different experiments on Saturday nights, when we'll stay open to 1 or 2 a.m. Maybe some belly dancing."
Mr. Mantzopoulos, who opened his restaurant on East Main Street in 2004, said he wants to cater to an older crowd by providing a serene environment to eat and drink without any rowdiness.
"We're also going to expand our menu with new stuff like organic lamb, organic beef, organic chicken," he said. "We'll have a nice display of seafood where customers could pretty much hand-pick whatever they need."
With construction about complete, Mr. Mantzopoulos said he was just waiting for the town's building department to give him clearance to open.
"I'm trying to shoot for December," he said. "But if they can issue me a permit today, I'll be open in a week's time."
As for the Dark Horse restaurant in the ground floor of the much-anticipated 1 East Main Street duplex apartments project, owner Dee Muma said she is aiming to open soon after Christmas.
Unlike the neighboring steakhouse, Tweed's Restaurant and Buffalo Bar, which she owns with her husband, Ms. Muma described Dark Horse as a sort of French brasserie that could cater to any taste or appetite.
"A brasserie is a place that has chefs that understand how to take simple cuts of meat and turn them into something delicious ... at a slightly lower price point than steakhouse kind of fare," Ms. Muma said.
She also hopes to sell a large variety of local meat, seafood and produce.
"All the way through it's going to be representative of the East End, which has so much to offer in terms of fresh and local food," she said.
Citing the building's history -- it was built in 1929 -- Ms. Muma said she will decorate the restaurant to suit its time period, just as with Tweed's, whose building dates to the 1890s.
"It's the time of art deco," she said of the 1920s, adding that the restaurant will also boast a bar and fireplace made from original lumber from the building. "It's going to be a pretty place but also welcoming, just like Tweed's."
"Some people say this is competition with Tweed's," she continued. "But it's not. It's about creating a critical mass of restaurants downtown so people start thinking of Riverhead as a restaurant zone. I've seen it in towns like Northport and Sag Harbor. It just brings life to an area."
mwhite@timesreview.com
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2 comments found
: 2/14/2010
THIS IS WHAT MAIN STREET SHOULD BE GREAT FOOD THEATER AND DAY AND EVENING ENTERTAINMENT
yummy : 1/30/2010
Yummiest food around, <3 the sushi!!
Rock on!
