ITA Kitchen closes in Bay Shore

"More is more" is the general philosophy at ITA Kitchen, but there’s now one less location of the Italian mini-chain. Bay Shore, the restaurant that started it all in 2019, has closed, while Garden City South (2022) and East Moriches and Patchogue (2023) are still operating. The owners of ITA Kitchen did not immediately respond to a text or phone message for comment.

When chef Salvatore Sorrentino and his wife, Christina, launched ITA Kitchen, they chose a name that signaled their lack of fealty to strict Italian tradition: ITA = Italian American. As they expanded, so did their exuberant approach, with chicken Francese topped with mozzarella and a cherry-pepper sauce and served on spinach, and a veal chop smothered with prosciutto, mozzarella and truffle-mushroom Marsala sauce. Mozzarella is made tableside and any of the imaginative pasta dishes can be served in a bowl made of a chicken cutlet or crowned with a ball of fried mozzarella — or both. While the Bay Shore location initially had a tame, neutral decor, the restaurants are now notable for their extravagant, Instagrammable (artificial) floral garlands.

There’s already a new tenant for the building at 45 W. Main St.: Kismet Coffee Company plans to move its tiny operation one block west to the 2,300-square-foot space, owner Jackson Davis said.

The coffee bar got its start in the Fire Island community of Kismet in 2022, expanding to the mainland in 2024 (as well as to another Fire Island location, in Ocean Beach). For now, Kismet in Bay Shore is a quick-serve breakfast-lunch-snack spot but Davis said that the new location will be "a full-service breakfast-brunch venue with a liquor license" that would enable it to "transform into a cocktail bar in evenings, plus host private events."

He’ll be operating in the existing space all summer and is hoping for a seamless transition to the new location after Labor Day.