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The Victorian Room in Bay Shore strictly runs private, catered affairs.
But that meant no takeout or delivery — unlike with traditional restaurants — during the height of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Owner Gina Russo of Milk & Sugar fame didn’t just sit home, worried. She took the opportunity to reimagine the space she opened in 2007 at 36 West Main Street. (Scroll down for the full photo tour.)
“I decided to renovate — and it needed it — and I tailored it after Milk & Sugar, to become the community’s go-to for private events for the church, Sweet 16’s, rehearsal dinners …”
The space has since emerged from the restrictions redone, both inside and out in the courtyard.
And now Russo wants everyone in Bay Shore (and beyond) to know about it.
“We re-did the floors, repainted, brought in Milk & Sugar’s flair with that living room comfortability. We updated the decor, the coaches, the wall art,” she said. The cross-back chairs are already on order.
From Milk & Sugar to Milk & Cookies, the latter of which she ran out of the same storefront before launching the Victorian Room to spend more time with her little ones, “we incorporated all of it,” she said.
She calls the style rustic-Victorian.
Russo says she’ll open the Victorian Room and bring in the chef, her cooks, servers and bartenders any day of the week, not just weekends.
She only runs one party at a time — from post-funeral daytime lunches and brunches to Christmas parties —and is almost always on-site for them.
“It’s the personal atmosphere, that hasn’t changed, the one on one,” she said.
Despite the cosmetic shift at the Victorian Room, people still tell her the same thing they used to say when Milk & Sugar was emerging as the go-to spot on the South Shore for dining and hosting parties:
“It’s like eating in your own living room.”
She says she’s also planning her next venture for the downtown: Milk & Sugar Sweet Shop.
if you go
call 631-969-3655. There’s a 45-person minimum with the except for rehearsal dinners and funeral brunches.
