Barney Villalona, the new manager of Element Seafood in Great Neck Plaza, said he is the sum of his experiences: be it managing steakhouses, museums and airport terminals or serving as a paratrooper.
“I take everything with me,” Villalona, 35, said in an interview. “I basically treat every new venture as a culmination of my previous efforts.”
Villalona, a Woodside resident, said his journey to head the seafood eatery in Great Neck Plaza began 18 years ago in Puerto Rico, where he went to school to study hotel management and tourism.
But after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Villalona said he joined the military and served as a paratrooper for eight years.
“We’re working with people that didn’t otherwise understand a language and we’re still able to accomplish some pretty intense missions,” Villalona said of his service, before pivoting back to Element Seafood and hospitality. “So I feel in my own country with a common language and a common goal, it’s just that much easier to get everyone to rally up together and get something done.”
Villalona said that after serving in the military, he went back to school using the G.I. Bill.
“In the midst of all that, I returned to hospitality,” Villalona said.
Villalona said he gained experience from working with larger entities like JFK Terminal 4, Gerber Group, museums and other “high end venues.”
But the idea of working on a “smaller project” particularly appealed to him because there would be “less process” to get things done, allow him to get into particular details and try something he hadn’t done before.
“I think of all the things I’ve tried, seafood is probably the one that calls out to me now only because I’ve tried steakhouses, I’ve tried museums, I’ve tried airports,” Villalona said.
“My interest here with a visually smaller project was that if I was able to sustain something like a museum for X amount of time, anything smaller would basically fly in my hands in the sense there’s less emails, there’s less process to get things done,” Villalona said.
Villalona said this isn’t without challenges: The off-angle of the restaurant makes it “a little difficult to find,” getting LIRR commuters to come in can be hard, and issues with parking can sometimes make things harder.
“But usually once people find it, the next they find after the venue is what the food’s about,” Villalona said, describing the restaurant as a “classic seafood restaurant with a modern twist.”
Ultimately, Villalona said restaurant workers have updated the menu, are revamping the cocktail menu – with at least one item, the “Maple Drive,” named after a local street – and are giving distinct identities to the restaurant’s bars and lounge.
They are also eyeing a “grab and go” situation, Villalona said, where commuters can come in to quickly get something to eat.
“I think everything’s there. I’m just definitely happy to be part of this project,” Villalona said of Element Seafood. “Whenever you can add to something and bring a fresh start to it and be with a team that’s as involved as this one, I think that’s always fun.”
