The doors of the Schout Bay Tavern on Plandome Road opened for the first time Tuesday, its first beer poured and served to its first patron just after 5 p.m., during its first happy hour.
Its air-conditioning units had not yet been turned on but the taps and televisions appeared in mid-season form.
Chefs bustled in and out of the kitchen. A woman walked around with her camera raised.
By 8:30 p.m., shortly after the sun set on the North Shore, the tavern’s front curtain had been pulled to reveal a mostly filled bar room reveling into the evening.
“We had always been in for a place like this,” said co-owner Peter Keogh, referring also to his business partners, Matt Sheerin and Evan Psyllos. “We’ve tried to build the kind of place we’d like to go.”
The three Manhasset residents – Keogh and Sheerin are natives, while Psyllos has resided in the community for about 15 years – acquired the space at 118 Plandome Road about a year ago and transformed it into “an upscale-type bar” that Keogh said had been lacking in the area.
“We had talked about it, doing something like opening a place like that,” Keogh said.
Named after the Dutch term for the Manhasset Bay, Schout Bay Tavern offers eight craft beers on tap and a full kitchen helmed by executive chef Shawn Patrick, previously of the Oak Room in Sea Cliff.
“It’s been great to see all our friends talking about it and getting excited for us to open,” Keogh said. “It’s going to be great seeing those faces walk through the door.”
