Griffin Kitchen & Bar to open in Roslyn
Chefs Pasquale Abbatiello, left, and Frances Cappi at the soon-to-open Griffin Kitchen & Bar in Roslyn. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
No restaurant has really worked at 1512 Old Northern Blvd., but Pasquale Abatiello is determined to break the curse with his upcoming Griffin Kitchen & Bar.
The location would seem to have everything going for it: Roslyn is one of Nassau’s premier dining destinations, this attractive spot is in the same shopping center as two village stalwarts, Kotobuki and Besito, and it has loads of parking. And yet neither of the first two food ventures in the former salon space — Cool Mess (est. 2018), an ice-cream-focused eatery, and Limani Mezze (2021), a (slightly) lower-priced offshoot of the Greek original a mile west — made it past the three-year mark. Last year, a sign went up announcing the arrival of Mia’s, but it was taken down before the offshoot of the Brooklyn-based bakery opened.
Enter Abatiello, a Long Island native who worked at Porto Vivo and Red in Huntington and Barrique in Babylon before heading north to Westchester, where he was the executive chef of the Wood & Fire group, one of whose six restaurants, Southern Table in Pleasantville, is featured in the Michelin Guide.
Griffin Kitchen & Bar is poised to open in the same Roslyn shopping center as Besito and Kotobuki. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
A new father of twins, he decided it was time to work closer to home and, for the first time, become an owner as well as a chef. Initially he had been considering an Italian menu but, as he assessed the Roslyn landscape (Felice, Alto Enoteca, Trattoria Diane, and a forthcoming Poll brothers Italian steak concept), he decided on a more global concept that ranges from buttermilk biscuits, mussels a la plancha and Wagyu meatballs to schnitzel with chicory-arugula salad, braised short ribs with potato puree, grass-fed burgers, fried chicken sandwiches and dry-aged steaks.
At Abatiello’s side in the kitchen is another Long Islander, Frances Cappi, who most recently cooked in Manhattan at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s ABC Kitchen. Just as impressive: His first food job was at Ceriello’s Fine Foods, the great Italian specialty market in Williston Park.
Griffin’s main dining room will seat about 75, with 36 more at the bar / lounge and another 30 outside on the patio. Pasquale said he hopes to open by mid-April.
