Lobster Roll Northside in Riverhead closes
The Lobster Roll Northside on Sound Avenue in Riverhead serves their signature lobster roll with homemade slaw and crispy fries. Credit: Newsday / Daniel Gonzalez
The Lobster Roll Northside, the Riverhead mainstay and offspring of the Amagansett landmark, has closed.
It will be succeeded by Sound Bistro, which is expected to keep Lobster Roll classics on the menu and make some contemporary additions.
Fred Terry Sr., whose family roots on the North Fork date to the Puritan settlement in 1640, owned and managed Lobster Roll Northside. It opened in 1999. Terry is a principal in the original Lobster Roll. “It’s a personal decision,” Terry said. “I’m going to be 73.”
He plans to continue his Gingerbread University baking company, restore an old family barn where he’ll “grow herbs, lavender, and flowers ... and sit in a rocking chair and watch the cars go by.”
Terry, who taught business at SUNY Albany and hospitality at Nassau Community College, spent 51 years at the casual, family-oriented restaurants. “It’s been an adventure,” he said, adding that the North Fork spot continued to thrive in an increasingly cold competitive business environment.
The Lobster Roll is credited with popularizing the lobster-salad dish that gave it the name.
Michael McCann, owner of the forthcoming Sound Bistro, could not be reached immediately. A tasting room and special events venue to be called The Stable, is planned next door in the former North Fork Tasting Room space.
The departed Lobster Roll Northside was at 3225 Sound Ave., directly opposite the Terry family homestead.
