Editor’s note: The below story was published in August. Groundbreaking on the new Big Easy restaurant is expected to start in early 2017. (Update: Dec. 22)
A Bourbon Street-style restaurant — complete with upstairs dining and cast iron railings — is being planned for North Ocean Avenue just north of Patchogue’s Four Corners.
‘We’re not looking to be another restaurant in the village,” Bob Conklin, a local builder and an owner in the yet-to-be-named restaurant told the village’s Planning Board Tuesday night. “We want to be a destination.”
Planning Board chairman John Rocco actually kicked off Monday night’s hearing on the application with a challenge for Conkin:
“Tell us why your restaurant, in this building, is going to be different than all the restaurants” in Patchogue, Rocco said.
Conklin answered that the theme is unique to Long Island.
“There’s only two restaurants on the island that even come close,” Conklin responded. “One is Big Daddy’s in Massapequa, and there’s another in Freeport.”
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The building, which is over 100 years old, is undergoing extensive work that includes a complete upgrade to its front facade and top-to-bottom interior renovations.
A 23-foot addition is also planned for the back, and the roof is being raised by three feet so second-floor diners don’t experience a low ceiling.
The hope is for a spring opening in the location at 17-19 North Ocean Avenue, just a few storefronts north of East Main Street.
The Planning Board unanimously approved the application with assurances from Conklin that the restaurant would focus on dining — not club-style partying.
see menu offerings below
Conklin said the restaurant would not be staying open later than midnight on weekends.
“What you’ve shown us here looks very handsome and very much in the style of New Orleans,” Rocco said. “It would certainly give it a different flair from the other restaurants and the many more to come to Patchogue.
“To the best of my recollection, we don’t have a Creole restaurant, or a Greek restaurant,” Rocco later said. “That’s about the only two things left that we don’t have.”
Greaterpatchogue.com got a sneak preview of the planned restaurant’s menu Monday night.
Here’s how we would order — if money and time were no object:
Blue Point Oysters Rockefeller (4)
Spinach salad with Hot Applewood Smoked Bacon Vinaigrette
Battered Grouper
Vegetarian Gumbo
Honey BBQ-Basted Ribs with Andouille Mac and Cheese
Bananas Fosters
There’s also an option of creating a raw tower from a variety of oysters, shrimp, clams, crawfish tails, lobster tails and jump snow crab.
Photo: 17-19 North Ocean Avenue appears to the far left in the above photo.
