La Rotonda Pizza Restaurant, an Italian restaurant located at 8 Bond Street in Great Neck Plaza, closed its doors last week after 14 years in business.
The restaurant on Monday did not have a “closed” sign on its front window but had been stripped of most of its furniture.
The restaurant’s main phone line has been disconnected but its website larotondagreatneck.com remains active as of press time.
Patrick Silberstein, the owner of the 8 Bond Street building, confirmed the restaurant’s closing.
Efforts to reach Luigi Muto, the owner of the restaurant, for comment on the closing were unavailing.
The restaurant had served its customers brick oven pizza, pasta dishes, seafood, sandwiches/paninis, according to its online menu. Yelp.com, a website where goods and services are reviewed, had given the restaurant a 3 1/2 star rating.
Business and village officials, who have struggled in recent years to fill empty storefronts in Great Neck whose number has at times exceeded 40, mourned the loss of the restaurant.
Great Neck Chamber of Commerce President Hooshang Nematzadeh said he was not aware of the restaurant’s closing until contacted by the Great Neck News.
“Absolute surprise. This is not good at all,” Nematzadeh said. “This restaurant was a successful restaurant. On top of that, they were a destination restaurant for us.”
Nematzadeh said the owners of the restaurant did not indicate that they were in financial distress or that they had any plans to close the business.
He said he does not believe that “market conditions” contributed to the closing.
“It might be for personal reason or a family issue,” Nematzadeh said.
Nematzadeh called the food at the restaurant “one was the finest Italian and Mediterranean cuisine in the area.”
“It was one of my favorite restaurants,” he said.
Great Neck Plaza Business Improvement District executive director Ron Edelson also said the owners did not indicate they had any plans to close the business.
“It is obviously a loss to our village and the entire Great Neck peninsula,” Edelson said. “La Rotonda had a strong and deep following, and its absence will be hard to fill.”
Edelson said the BID “will do everything we can to help attract a new tenant that will benefit our community as much as La Rotonda did.”
Silberstein said he also “enjoyed the restaurant.”
“I gave them the business because I thought they were good,” Silberstein said.
Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender called the closing “a very unfortunate situation.”
“La Rotonda was a popular restaurant in the Great Neck Plaza community, frequented by many in our village,” Celender said. “We will certainly miss La Rotonda, and we would like to thank them for the role they have played in our community over the years.”
The restaurant was originally located on Middle Neck Road when it opened in 2002 and moved to its 8 Bond Street location two years later, where it was able to serve up to 70 diners.
The restaurant was built by architect Frank Gencorelli, a former building inspector for the Village of Saddle Rock who died of kidney cancer in February. He was 66.
In 2012, Muto expanded the restaurant into two vacant storefronts, giving the restaurant three main dining rooms that could seat more than 100 diners at once.
“My original idea was to take over these two stores,” Muto said in a 2012 interview. “At the time [they] were available, but because we had other intentions to open up other places, we didn’t do it.”
Muto also built the “Rondo Venettiano” party room, which he said was inspired by the styles of Venice, Italy.
“I’m really putting my heart in that place,” Muto said of his plans for the party room. “Especially now that my dream has almost come true, I really want to put myself into [it].”
