Mara's Southern Kitchen to close in Syosset after 11 years

After 11 years in Syosset, Mara’s Southern Kitchen will serve its last supper on Saturday, Nov. 26. “We can’t do this anymore,” said owner Mara Levi. “We are burnt out.”

When Mara and her son and partner, Josh Levi, transplanted their nine-year-old East Village eatery to Syosset’s Muttontown Plaza in 2011, it was called Mara’s Homemade, but it eventually changed its name to Mara’s Southern Kitchen in an  attempt to better convey the scope of the menu. That encyclopedic document encompassed Cajun and Creole specialties plus traditional Southern dishes, Arkansas-style barbecue, homemade desserts and an extensive liquor and beer selection. There was always something special going on at Mara’s: Mardi Gras king cakes, seasonal crawfish boils, Turducken (a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey) for Thanksgiving.

This year, for the first time, there will be no Turducken. Josh said the prices of turkey and duck have doubled. And it’s not just the rising cost of ingredients, he added. “It’s whether you can even get the ingredients." 

As many local restaurateurs have reported, the last few months have been more challenging than any since the very start of the pandemic. “We were actually busy during the worst of it,” Josh recalled. “Once we started curbside pickup, we had to limit orders to three every 15 minutes so that the kitchen could keep up." Now, he said, there have been two recent Fridays where they only had eight tables for dinner. 

Lunch has fallen off a cliff. Mara’s is situated among a number of office buildings, most of which are virtually empty. And, as of two weeks ago, the lunch business faces yet another challenge. The space next door has been leased to Roast Sandwich House.

The labor shortage has exacerbated everything. Mara said that during the last three months she spent $10,000 on employment advertising and it’s been for nought.

And profit is a thing of the past. Josh said “I work 75 hours a week and take home less than my cooks who work 50 hours.” Mara, who hasn’t taken a salary since May, said “we’ve lost what we’ve built up — we’re pretty much in the same place we were when we opened.”

If there’s an upside, both Levis are looking forward to new jobs that offer a better work-life balance. But Mara is finding it particularly hard to let go and isn’t ruling out a little catering on the side and fulfilling cake and pie orders. “I’m keeping the phone number,” she said.

Mara’s Southern Kitchen is at 236 W Jericho Tpke., Syosset, 516-554-5510, marasouthernkitchen.com.