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Hummus Fit is looking to bulk up with its biggest location yet — and its first sit-down restaurant.
The Ronkonoma-based healthy eats and prepared-meals chain is set to open in Lake Grove by May or June, according to owner Tony Mavruk.
Hummus Fit will take shape inside the longtime home of The Good Steer, which closed in July 2022 after more than 60 years on Long Island.
“This was just one of those things where God gave us the opportunity we have been looking for,” said Mavruk, who, with wife Liana, started the meal-prep business in 2015. “It was like, all right, you can’t miss this opportunity.”
While steaks, burgers, and barbecue were once among the favorites served under The Good Steer’s iconic neon sign, Hummus Fit’s first restaurant will offer diners the opportunity to build their own bowls and salads with lean chicken, meat and fish while offering a “greatest hits” menu made up of its most popular meal-prep options.
“We have a lot of fan favorites,” said Mavruk, a longtime fixture on the Long Island fitness scene.
Apart from the 50-to-60-seat restaurant — which Mavruk described as “somewhere between Chipotle and a Hummus Fit concept” — ready-to-eat meals will be sold next door at a former 7-Eleven that was also purchased in the sale of the three-acre property on Middle Country Road.
“That parking lot is huge and it should be utilized by the community,” said Mavruk, 32, who grew up in Suffolk County. “Street fairs, pop-up sales, we’re going to be open to that.”
The planned opening in Lake Grove is part of an ambitious expansion for the fast-casual chain, which now has 23 locations in several states.
“I do want to bring Hummus Fit to be a national name and a household brand through the states,” Mavruk said. “Our mission is definitely to bring good and healthy food to the new generation, the youth, because we are very health- and food-conscious.”
Marvuk said his wife, a nutritionist and former competitive bodybuilder, has been instrumental in shaping the menu for Hummus Fit, which recently brought in a registered dietician for extra guidance. The team behind the family business includes other relatives.
“We never expected this much growth,” he said. “The meal-prep business came out of a love for health and fitness and a desperation for business because we weren’t always this busy.”
Hummus Fit grew out of the couple’s Hummus Mediterranean Grill in Holbrook.
The move into the longtime home of The Good Steer is something of a homecoming for Liana Mavruk.
“For my wife and her family, [The Good Steer] was their Christmas tradition,” Tony Mavruk said.
Renderings
Renderings of what’s coming to the former The Good Steer site, courtesy of Hummus owner Tony Mavruk.
