BY MADELINE ARMSTRONG
Restaurant X, a new restaurant in Port Washington, is not committed to a single cuisine.
According to Gabriel Moro, one of the restaurant’s owners, the head chef will invite other acclaimed chefs into the kitchen to contribute to the menu, providing myriad cuisines. “He’s going to have all kinds of guests in his kitchen,” Moro said. “Some of them are going to be present for a day or two or more, some of them are going to contribute their menus that [the] chef and his team will interpret in their own style.”
In addition to this, the wine, cocktail and beer pairings will change along with the menu.
Moro believes that this will set the restaurant, which is on Main Street, apart from others and provide a new experience for the customers. “We’re not shackled to any particular cuisine,” he said. “You always learn [and] are always exposed to something new.”
He said he sees an opportunity for the restaurant to grow and create innovative cuisine. “What else do we create?” Moro said. “What else can we bring to the table that’s beautiful and tasty and unique and flavorful?”
Since opening in October, the restaurant has received positive reviews from customers, attaining 4.8 stars on Open Table. “4.8 out of 5 for a new … place, I think is pretty damn good,” Moro said. Moro has opened 15 restaurants including Restaurant X, most of them quite successful. Among these restaurants are Cipollini, Toku Modern Asian, One North, Henderick’s and Grand Central Oyster Bar.
Moro has worked in the restaurant business for 26 years, starting as a busser and working his way up through bartender, floor manager, general manager and finally to owner. He met the other four owners of Restaurant X while working at Toku Modern Asian. “We struck a solid partnership back then,” he said. Eventually, they decided to open a restaurant together.
They landed on the location in October 2020, but faced many delays in opening Restaurant X due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We opened a place that was supposed to open in three, four months max, in a year,” Moro said. “[It was] a large, strenuous and arduous process that eventually came to fruition and the doors were opened.”
In addition to its unusual dining experience, Restaurant X donates all profits to St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital in Bayside. According to Moro, the owners wanted to donate to this particular charity because of connections they had and decided to commit to donating all of their profits to the children’s hospital. “We said, ‘how about a restaurant dedicated to the charity?’” he said.
Restaurant X is open Sunday through Saturday for lunch and dinner, and brunch will be served on the weekends.
