Permit secured for Italian restaurant in Roslyn

Max Zahn
(From l to r) Roslyn Trustee Sarah Oral, Roslyn Mayor John Durkiin and Roslyn Deputy Mayor Marshall Bernstein.

The Roslyn Board of Trustees on Tuesday granted a food use permit that will allow Roslyn Park Realty to bring an Italian restaurant, Fratelli La Buffala, to Old Northern Boulevard.

“We’re pleased to see a chance to make this into a successful property,” Deputy Mayor Marshall E. Bernstein said. “It’s been vacant for a long time.”

Fratelli La Buffala has signed a letter of intent with Roslyn Park Realty but has yet to sign a lease for the 3,500-square-foot space at 1382 Old Northern Boulevard.

“They hopefully will sign the lease soon,” said Ian Zwerding, the owner of Roslyn Park Realty. “We didn’t want to put the cart before the horse.”

The parcel includes a remaining 2,000 square feet, which will be divided between two retail stores, Zwerding said.

Roslyn Park Realty has not been in contact with any prospective retail tenants.

“Until this got done it was hard to tell them the size” of the space, Zwerding said. “We had to wait.”

The building has been vacant for 10 years, Thomas Pantell, a lawyer representing Roslyn Park Realty, said. The last restaurant to occupy the space was Friend of a Farmer, which left in 2002, Zwerding said.

In order to ensure that it could provide sufficient parking to accommodate restaurant crowds, Roslyn Park Realty sought and received a parking variance from the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals on Jan. 9.

The restaurant will have two off-site parking lots within 400 to 500 feet that contain a total of 57 parking spaces, Pantell said.

Fratelli La Buffala is a chain of casual dining restaurants with 20 locations in Italy as well as restaurants in Miami and New York City, he said.

He said the Roslyn location may open in as little as six months.

“Everything was subject to this approval,” he said. “Now we can start working.”

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