Piccola Bussola, Mineola restaurant, destroyed in fire

Elliot Weld
Piccola Bussola, owned by former Mineola Chamber of Commerce President Tony Lubrano, was destroyed in a fire Thursday. (Photo by Elliot Weld)

Piccola Bussola, a Mineola restaurant that has been meeting place of the Mineola Chamber of Commerce of other organizations for many years, was destroyed in a fire Thursday afternoon along with apartments on the second floor. None of the building’s tenants were injured.

Tony Lubrano, the owner of the building and restaurant on Jericho Turnpike,  said he was on his way to work to open the restaurant when he got a phone call from his security alarm company but thought nothing of it, since the company frequently sends out false alarms. Upon arrival, Lubrano said he could see flames coming from the building, concentrated near the back of the building.

“The building is pretty much gone but thank God nobody got hurt,” Lubrano said.

The restaurateur said he had just spent $130,000 to renovate the building and that “now it’s all gone.”

County officials said they could not say what the cause of the fire was Friday, saying it is still under investigation.

Lubrano is the former president of the Mineola Chamber of Commerce and meetings for the chamber take place in Piccola Bussola.

According to its current president, Joel Harris, Lubrano also hosts meetings for the philanthropic group Warriors for a Cause, which Lubrano chairs and holds events that raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Harris said a group forms at Piccola Bussola and is bussed in to run the Tunnel to the Towers 5K every year (except this year it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The annual run raises money for various philanthropic programs and is held in memory of Stephen Siller, a New York City firefighter who ran on foot through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 and perished while helping to save lives.

“Tony Lubrano is so Mineola,” Harris said. “He loves Mineola and there’s just not enough he can do for it. Tony is all about everybody else.”

Harris said Thursday was a hectic day for him having to stand for “three hours watching my friend’s store burning.”

“Obviously, I have to say as president of the chamber, following (Lubrano) is very, very tough and I always consider him a friend and a mentor,” Harris said.

A Go Fund Me page has been set up by Dine Long Island with the hopes of raising $50,000 for Lubrano.

But Harris said Lubrano does not plan to accept the money. Instead, he wants it to go to his tenants whose apartments were destroyed and his long-time employees.

Lubrano said he had insurance on the building but that he is unsure of what happens next.

Bill Greene, owner of Tsontos Furs storage facility and another past president of the Mineola Chamber of Commerce, said the fire was a “devastating loss to the community.”

“(Lubrano) is really a pillar of the community, very generous and very philanthropic guy,” Greene said. “My business is up the street and I saw what was happening and I drove by this morning and I was crying.”

Greene went on to say that if he knows Lubrano, he will be able to rebuild the restaurant into something better, and hopefully reopen one day.

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