Morning Rose Cafe to reopen in Bellmore

Long Island brunch lovers have received an unexpected late Christmas gift: After closing in September, Bellmore’s Morning Rose Cafe is reopening this week.

Rose Tzanetos, owner of the business and building, said one of her longtime servers and a friend of his, a longtime customer, had reached out about buying the business and the name, and that they recently closed the deal.

"Initially, I wasn’t on board," she said. "I would never sell the name unless the food stayed the same. But then our chef, Jon Sullivan, said he’d be interested. And everything came together."

After Tzanetos announced in September that a scheduled vacation had turned into a permanent closure, she had been moved by "the overwhelming outpouring" of affection and grief. But, after 25 years on Wall Street and 12 years running Morning Rose, she needed a break.

"I started working when I was 10 years old," she recalled. "These past four months was time I haven’t worked — outside of COVID, which was another story."

She’s excited about the "new energy" that "three guys in their 30s" can bring to the business.

Tzanetos said the decision was bittersweet — "It’s a little like putting my child up for adoption," — but, in the end, she said, "I want the Morning Rose legacy to continue." She has been working with the new team over the last few months and "wants to do whatever I can to help."

Customers can look forward to a near-identical experience at Morning Rose 2.0, except the yellow walls are now a bright green.