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The new Tiny’s Famous Eats becomes a must-stop spot at Poospatuck Reservation

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For anyone craving comfort from chicken and waffles or baked macaroni and cheese, there’s a new spot on the Poospatuck Reservation you should know about.

Tiny’s Famous Eats opened at 18 Squaw Lane in Mastic Oct. 11, but before that, its food was well received on the reservation, members there say.

Justin Edwards’ new Tiny’s Kitchen is not only named after his mother, Tania Edwards, it uses her family recipes.

Last October, Tania decided to start selling some of her famous eats on weekends, and said her business did well over the winter.

Although the food was popular, she stopped her business this past March due to a health issue. Now, her son Justin left his job in hotel hospitality to take over the eatery and expand its menu.

In addition to the fried chicken wings his mother served, he’s paired them with waffles and started serving an array of sides such as mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and candied yams.

Now that he’s serving made-to-order food for patrons on the reservation and beyond, Justin (pictured above) would like to expand his business with another location in Mastic and add some more items to his menu, such as new wing flavors.

“My problem is, like everywhere else, is trying to find help so I can expand the menu,” he said.

He could use the help, as well as more space, because business has been good.

“Most of the business comes from the smoke shops here, and there are a few customers that call from elsewhere then pickup,” Justin said. “I also do catering, I just did a baby shower and a funeral. That’s where a lot of business comes from.”

He also hopes to install a full commercial kitchen in his limited space to cook for the catering gigs piling up, in the meantime he’s making due without the elbow room.

A lifelong chef, Justin said he learned to cook as a child from his mother and grandmother, Frances.

“Justin always wanted to cook and I would tell him ‘stay away from that stove, you’re going to get burned,'” Tania recalled.

According to her, a very young Justin would stand on a flipped-over milk crate to reach the stove and cook for his little brother, Marcus. “He would say, ‘Baby you want macaroni and cheese?’ And he would make him a box of macaroni and cheese, and he was only 3!

“Justin just always loved to cook. He was always a good cook, since the age of three.”

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