George Theodosiou knows what people think of when they hear the term “steakhouse.”
Having managed two of the biggest in New York City, he says the term usually conjures images of the old-school Manhattan restaurants with dim lighting and velvet or leather booths.
But he and his partners, he said, are going in a different direction with Butcher’s Bar & Grill, their latest endeavor and the newest addition to the growing strip of restaurants on Hillside Avenue in Williston Park.
“We took a little bit of Williamsburg … and the Hamptons, and we mixed them together,” said Theodosiou, the restaurant’s managing partner.
The 90-seat “boutique steakhouse,” which opened at the beginning of November, is decorated mostly in white and tries to create a “more casual” atmosphere than its New York City forebears, Theodosiou said. At the same time, he and his partners try to serve the same high-quality food.
But because real estate in Williston Park is less expensive than the city — or even nearby Roslyn and Manhasset, home to several upscale restaurants — they can price the meats 20 percent lower.
“We are serving the same quality meats that every big boy is serving out there, cooked on real charcoals,” Theodosiou said.
Theodosiou runs Butcher’s Bar & Grill with Yiannis Chatiris and Christos Panayiotopoulos, owners of Ethos Gallery and Pathos Cafe in midtown Manhattan, and Merkourios Angeliades. The three restaurateurs also have stakes in Kyma, the upscale Roslyn Greek restaurant that opened in 2013.
The restaurant’s executive chef and fifth partner, Oscar Martinez, came on from the Old Homestead Steakhouse, a well-known Meatpacking District eatery established in the mid-19th century where Theodosiou was previously maitre d’.
Because of the group’s connections in the restaurant industry, Theodosiou said, Butcher’s Bar & Grill is able to offer wines and liquors that no other Long Island restaurant currently carries.
The investors found fertile ground for a restaurant like Butcher’s Bar & Grill in Williston Park because it’s convenient to Garden City, Manhasset, Roslyn and Old Westbury, but comes with lower costs than those more expensive villages, Theodosiou said.
In the restaurant’s first month, he said, it’s attracted customers from all those nearby places, as well as several from East Williston and some within Williston Park itself.
“It’s not like Manhattan, where people take the train or a taxi, or they walk. Everybody drives here,” Theodosiou said. “So for five minutes’ ride, everybody’s here.”
Butcher’s Bar & Grill is in good company at 75A Hillside Ave. Spanish restaurant Sangria 71 opened in the building next door in 2013, and Mediterranean restaurant Xarello opened about a block away at 38 Hillside Ave. in October.
Theodosiou said village officials, particularly those in the building department, were helpful and supportive throughout the year-and-a-half-long process of renovating the building, which he said was formerly a variety store.
He and Martinez are glad to see Williston Park’s restaurant scene growing with that support from the village.
“They want us to succeed for a reason,” Martinez said. “They want this place to do well, and they want to be able to offer something different to the visitors of this town, and the locals as well.”
