'Fox & Friends' coming to Embassy Diner in Bethpage

The early bird catches the Fox Tuesday morning when “Fox & Friends” broadcasts live from the Embassy Diner in Bethpage from 6 to 9 a.m.

“I spend a lot of the time in diners all over the country, especially middle America, talking with folks, people who normally feel like they're not heard,” says Lawrence Jones, a co-host of the Fox News show along with Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade. Jones, 32, will be at the Embassy interviewing customers and, among others, members of the Merrick-based nonprofit group Project Thank a Cop.

“I'm good friends with that organization,” says Embassy owner Gus Tsiorvas, who in April 2022 bought the diner George Maliangos founded in 1962. “My brothers and sisters are all active police officers … all NYPD, Nassau County, MTA police and one former state trooper now with Old Westbury police.” Tsiorvas himself only went a different route, he says, since his father, Peter, “always had diners,” including the Oconee in Islip. “I'm the only one who stuck to it.”

“Law enforcement is near and dear to me,” Jones says, “so when we heard about Thank a Cop, we reached out to them and kind of collaborated with them. It's very rare that I get to do [a diner] so close to New York City.” Jones previously broadcast from the Peter Pan Diner in Bay Shore in 2023, and former co-host Todd Piro did the Laurel Diner in Long Beach in 2021.

While the American flag-festooned Embassy opens regularly at 6 a.m. Sundays through Thursdays (and remains open 24 hours Fridays and Saturdays), Gus Tsiorvas says he will be there at 3:30 a.m. “so that the lights and everything will be on. My crew is going to be here from 5 o'clock. Everybody's excited. But what's more exciting [than being on television] is we're doing something nice for law enforcement and first responders. They go out every day and never know if they're going to come home.”

Because the show’s diner broadcasts invariably draw crowds, Jones says he “hopes not to disappoint anyone, because we've already heard there's a waiting list” to get in for breakfast. “What I try to do is make my way outside and try to make sure we're changing people in and out, that they get their meal, get to say their comments, and then allow some of the folks that are waiting in the parking lot to come on in.”

Ultimately, he believes, “People want to come and show up to have a cup of Joe, have a nice, hearty breakfast and know that they can talk about the issues of the day without being judged.”