A Jericho restaurateur will soon revamp a shuttered Mineola bar into an Indian restaurant.
The Mineola Village Board approved Jan. 20 Arvind Gupta’s plans to turn the former Shakers sports bar at 267 Mineola Blvd. into a branch of Jassi’s, the New Hyde Park, Queens, restaurant he also manages.
“It will be a family restaurant,” Gupta told the board.
Gupta first recognized Mineola as strong restaurant territory in March 2014, he said, during his wife Anshu’s stay at Winthrop-University Hospital following the birth of their son.
There weren’t many Indian restaurants around, and he said he noticed a growing market for restaurants with the expansion of residential development in Mineola’s downtown.
There’s also already some customers from Mineola who dine at the New Hyde Park Jassi’s, Gupta said.
“So we’ll serve them, and more, we’ll keep the same quality food,” he said in an interview.
Gupta will own the restaurant with husband and wife Valvinderjit Bains and Jasbir Singh, he said, who own the original Jassi’s.
While it’s further from downtown, where many restaurants have opened in the past several months, Gupta said they settled on the Mineola Boulevard building — formerly the Camelot Inn — because it’s visible from the Jericho Turnpike business thoroughfare.
Gupta and architect Edward Hicks plan to update the exterior, including the windows, and open up the interior.
Jassi’s will have a full bar and between five and seven additional employees, Gupta said. But it won’t have loud music or cigar nights like its predecessors, he said.
“This is a nice neighborhood, and people will like it,” Gupta said. “The Indian food we will bring here, they will like it.”
Arvind and Anshu Gupta said Jassi’s will be a family affair for them. Anshu was a professional event planner when she lived in India, and Arvind said she’ll have a role in “planning the show” at Jassi’s.
They also hope to eventually get their son involved, Anshu said.
Village of Mineola Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira said he’s glad the building will be getting an update.
“I think it will be more inviting as a restaurant to open up those windows,” he said. “When it was a nightclub, that made sense to have those dark windows and not have airy feeling, so certainly I think that’s a move in the right direction.”
Some village trustees on Wednesday expressed concerns about parking, a persistent issue at that location, Mayor Scott Strauss said at Wednesday’s hearing.
Gupta said the neighboring building to the south has agreed to let Jassi’s patrons use its parking lot in the evening, and he will work to solidify a similar agreement with the Bank of America branch across the street.
Lunchtime customers will have to find street parking nearby, he said.
Jassi’s will be open for lunch and dinner seven days a week after an expected April opening, Gupta said.
