Northport residents fear proposed restaurant will add to traffic, congestion woes downtown 

A 124-seat restaurant planned for an upcoming boutique hotel in downtown Northport has upset some residents who said they are concerned about congestion and parking in the area.

The 2,400-square-foot restaurant, envisioned as a Tuscan grill and steakhouse by hotel proprietors Kevin O'Neill and Richard Dolce, would be on the ground floor of the three-story hotel to be built at 225 Main St. The hotel plans call for 24 rooms, plus a bar and front lobby area with scattered seating for about 50 people.

"We’re going to have a high-end boutique hotel for people to stay in," said O'Neill, who along with Dolce also owns the John W. Engeman Theater at Northport that is across Main Street. "We’re not going to have parties with a DJ. We’re not booking weddings. We’re not a catering hall.

"It's going to be an upscale restaurant in keeping with Northport in terms of decor and design," O'Neill added. "It's going to offer a nice array of products."

The Northport Village Planning Board will hold a public hearing Tuesday on O'Neill's application. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the Northport American Legion hall, 7 Woodside Ave.

Some residents said the proposed restaurant will only further strain parking and traffic woes in the village's busy downtown area, especially with the restaurant located close to the Northport Fire Department.

A parking study conducted by the village's business development committee found that Northport lacks about 248 parking spaces during its peak seasonal business period in the summer, committee member Ralph Notaristefano said at a Jan. 15 board of trustees meeting.

"We are very robust as a village economically, and as a result we have a parking problem," Notaristefano said while presenting the study, and noted that customers who can't find parking spots will take their business out of the village. 

O'Neill said the hotel and restaurant will add 150 off-street parking spots through parking lots and the use of local lots for valet parking. He noted that the restaurant is aimed at not just hotel customers, but at theatergoers who drive in for a show and might as well spend their money in the village instead of dining elsewhere first.

O'Neill pointed to his record with running the Engeman theater as evidence of his commitment to taking residents' concerns seriously. "When I bought the theater, the theater had 688 seats in it," he said. "I reduced it down to 400, because I wanted to. I'm definitely a quality over quantity guy. I don't need to stuff as many people as possible. I chose to have proper sightlines. I built stadium seating, and, as a result of that, we lost 288 seats, but the theater functions properly and people have beautiful sight lines, even from the back row. So that's what we want to do with the restaurant."