It’s been a long, chilly and wet spring, but Flo’s Luncheonette owner Connor Vigliotta and his team have kept been busy building their Floasis on Corey Beach in Blue Point.
And they’re about to enter their first sunny weekend on the water.
“We’re looking forward to bringing some top-notch food to a local beach,” Vigliotta said.
food pics below
The Vigliotta family, which owns the 91-year-old Flo’s on Middle Road, took over the concessions contract at the nearby Brookhaven Town beach last year, but it was too late to get anything up and operating.
GreaterPatchogue reported in February that the people behind Flo’s would be opening a location on the beach for summer 2017, though they hadn’t named it yet.
During that same time, Vigliotta had gotten in touch with chef Jay Tepper though mutual friends in the Patchogue and Blue Point areas.
Tepper, an industry veteran who grew up in Blue Point and now lives in Patchogue Village, had helped launch restaurants in Miami, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
In Patchogue, he was in the kitchen when Brickhouse Brewery opened in 1996 and took over as the executive chef in 1999.
More recently, Tepper helped get Flight off the ground.
With Tepper consulting, Vigliotta and Floasis manager and chef Erick Diaz hammered out a menu that features street tacos, pulled pork sliders, quesadilla, nachos, taquitos, and more.
click for menu
“We all came up with this menu that is pretty awesome,” Vigliotta said. “Jay took my small idea and started to go a little heavier with the ovens and the meat roasters.”
“I just helped redesign the kitchen to where it’s better utilized to make these nice, string tacos, with a bit of Vegas flair, where there’s street tacos on every corner and they’re fantastic,” Tepper said.
Floasis will also be serving beer, wine, sangria and blended drinks.
For those arriving earlier to the beach — or just looking to eat light — Floasis is offering acai bowls and a couple salads.
The stand opened right before Memorial Day weekend. It got a paint job and new signage and is fully outfitted with new equipment.
The Vigliottas also installed decorative pilings and strung ship rope from the beams around the new benches to mimic Flo’s.
And, there’s freehand artwork throughout the stand, all done by graffiti artist Reme Rowland.
Floasis will be hosting live music on Saturday evenings, from 5 to 8 p.m., and sponsoring two movie nights on the beach for families. (Flo’s Luncheonette on Middle Road had been holding the summer movie nights on its property.)
“They’ll play the movies for the kids on the big screen right on the beach; it will be nice,” Vigliotta said.
Above all, he says, the idea is to enhance the scene at Corey Beach and make it an even more enjoyable spot for locals.
“Picture a mother towing her son or daughter in the back of a wagon; that’s what Corey Beach is,” Tepper said. “Or kids coming down on their BMX bikes to hang out.”
“We watch the wagons go back and forth all summer long,” Vigliotta said. “And we’ve watched this stand go [underutilized] …
“We wanted to step in and do the right thing.”
