3-star bistro Secrets of Flight in Port Washington closes after 5 months

It turned out to be short flight for Secrets of Flight. Five months after taking off, the ambitious Port Washington bistro, which recently earned a 3-star review, has closed.

According to chef-owner Aleksander Betko, the restaurant simply wasn’t busy enough to sustain itself. “We are endlessly thankful for the support we did have,” he said.

When he opened the stylish bistro in December, Betko told Newsday that he had moved to Port Washington three years ago and could not find the type of restaurant he wanted to eat in: a cosmopolitan bistro whose food and drinks were ambitious but whose vibe was casual. Yesterday, he lamented that “we wanted to do culinary art, but recognizable — roast chicken, steak tartare. But the audience wasn’t there.”

Secrets of Flight is not the first ambitious venue to surrender at 170 Main St.: In 2013, Michael Mignano called it quits for his Main Street Bakery, at the time one of the very best on Long Island. (Mignano, who spent the next six years as executive pastry chef at The Pierre Hotel in Manhattan, has recently opened a large bakery-cafe in Jackson Heights, Queens, Farine Baking Company.)