Verde’s long-awaited Bay Shore move takes shape as opening nears

Now comes “the fun stuff” for a popular Bay Shore restaurant’s long-awaited move to a more spacious home.

Verde Kitchen & Cocktails will mark its 12th anniversary at 70 East Main Street in October, but the Mexican eatery’s owners are aiming to welcome customers by the end of this year to a new West Main Street location that’s triple the size of its current space.

“We’re excited because the fun stuff is kind of starting to happen,” said Anthony Tartaglia, president and founder of Bay Shore-based Costa Verde Hospitality, which operates three Long Island restaurants and bars. “The decor, the tile, the light fixtures, the things that you can see and touch and feel that people are going to see and notice — it’s not just like steel and structural things.”

The visible signs of progress around 55 West Main Street, which formerly housed Asian fusion spot Peninsula, mark a significant development in a move that has been close to five years in the making.

“We’re going from 2,700 square feet to about 9,000 square feet so it’s three times bigger than what we have right now,” Tartaglia said. “There’s multiple rooms, catering rooms, there’s a hidden mezcal bar in the back, there’s the rooftop bar, there’s the private driving room.”

A 12-foot wood-fired grill the owners say will be “the backbone of the food program” at the new location recently arrived, with kitchen and bar equipment set to be installed.

“Now it looks like a restaurant,” Tartaglia said. “So the end is near.”

Then there is the recreation of the signature glass greenhouse at Verde Kitchen & Cocktails. Made overseas, it is front and center on West Main Street, rather than in the rear of the property and Tartaglia said its arrival has “kind of gotten the town reinvigorated on what we’re doing.”

“For the last couple of years, there’s only privacy fences and cardboard and construction materials and scaffolding,” he said. “So, the community is now, I think, more excited than we are just to see what’s going on and the building taking shape.”

Tartaglia said he, brother Andy and their business partner, Joe Mele, have yet to lock in an opening date, but added that the goal of a 2026 opening remains in place.

“That’s what the sign on the front of the building says,” he said. “That sign’s been up for like two or three years.”

After the opening, Tartaglia is hopeful that more fun stuff awaits for Verde’s new and long-time customers.

Those include a rare-for-Long Island rooftop bar and drinks that are more in line with what patrons are served at other Costa Verde Hospitality properties, including the cocktail bar Sweet Jane and Coastal Kitchen + Daiquiri Bar.

“Verde has always been like a margarita bar for the last 12 years and it’s never really gotten to the point where we do cocktails like at Coastal and Sweet Jane,” Tartaglia said. “Margaritas and tequila, it’s still the base of the program, but we’re taking it up like three or four notches.

“We just want to finish this and run a great restaurant, show Bay Shore what we’re doing,” he added. “We’re excited.”