Club nights at Long Island restaurants are turning dining rooms into dance parties 

A drummer makes way through a crowd, tapping a bongo to the beat while EDM music sets the scene. The lights are dim, sparklers and napkins are waving in the air as the bass bumps; it's a typical Thursday night at Kyma in Roslyn. 

Karina Gurevich, 43, of Roslyn, dances by her table with friends and family. “When the music starts to pick up and gets louder and louder, and you dance, and the drummer goes around the table and drums for you, it gets you even more hyped up,” she says.

At a nearby table, Frank Loiacono, 57, of Hauppauge, sits in his chair enjoying his meal and the music. “I don't dance at the table. I'm a chair dancer now,” he admits.

The Greek eatery is among the several Long Island restaurants hosting DJ parties on weekdays and weekends where guests can get the feel of a nightclub without the crowded dance floor.

Weekly, a DJ starts playing music around 9:30 or 10 p.m. while customers eat dinner or enjoy drinks. Reservations are taken as if it's a regular night with a full menu, and the party wraps near midnight or shortly after. In Farmingdale, a similar event takes place on Fridays at Harleys American Grille, where you can see patrons dancing through the windows around 8:30 p.m. And around 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Pino Wine Bar and Bistro in Lindenhurst.

“Our crowd size has tripled on Fridays,” Harleys owner Michael LoManto says of DJ nights in comparison to other weekend dinner seatings. Kyma’s co-founder Reno Christou echoes that, saying the restaurant's Thursday nights are very popular and often feature group seatings and people celebrating special occasions. They choose to host it on Thursdays because other spots usually held similar events on Fridays and Saturdays.

“It's a dinner crowd that is looking for the same thing,” notes Loiacono, “a fun night out that won't last into the morning.”

On a recent Thursday night, the scene at Kyma is a combination of people sitting at tables eating Mediterranean food and standing around the 360-degree bar chatting. Women are dressed in evening wear and the men in dress shirts, if not in full suits. The dress code is “smart casual,” so you won’t see caps or hoodies. By 10 p.m., a DJ is spinning hits and people rise from their seats to dance. There’s no dance floor but Kyma allows patrons to dance in spaces near and around their tables.

It may be clubby in many ways, but it remains an eatery at its core. You need dinner reservations to enter, and the last entry is midnight; by 1 a.m. at the latest, the party is over. 

Loiacono, who has a standing reservation every Thursday at 8 p.m., sees this as a natural evolution from the days when he went out to clubs seven days a week and was a regular at long-defunct spots like 007 in Franklin Square, Malibu in Lido Beach and Coco's in Huntington. He considers Kyma a flashback in the atmosphere and to be appropriate for his age group with the crowd that night ranging from 35- to 60-year-olds. He likes the idea that he can have all this with a meal, explaining, “I really enjoy the restaurant ‘club’ vibe.”

Not all the regulars at Kyma are there to continue their party heydays. Gurevich admits her mother didn't allow her to go to the clubs when she was younger, but she is making up for it now. “Typically we dance by the table when my friends and I hear a great jam.” She likes it when the DJ plays genres like Reggaetón, Greek dance music or classic tunes. Gurevich wears cocktail-style dresses, pants with dressy tops or skirts with tops and heels.

The energy is similar at Gallo in Patchogue. The restaurant offers club nights on Fridays. Ezio Casimirri, 48, of Holbrook, goes for the cuisine and the music. “It just gets me going when the DJ changes the style, going from one type of Latin music to another,” he says. “For instance, he will play Reggaetón and go into salsa and then he will play merengue.” Casimirri is a regular who says he dresses “trendy” when he goes. He also adds “The food is excellent”; the menu is mainly Colombian.

Trading dance floors for dinner

Places like Kyma and Gallo have become destinations for those hungry for food and a club-style night out — but there was a time when Long Island had dozens of options that served nothing but dance floor.

Roughly from the end of the 1970s through the early 2000s, Nassau and Suffolk counties were awash with hangouts where dress codes often dictated who would be allowed access. People would stand in line and pay a cover charge before indulging in a night of dancing, drinking and socializing. These places often stayed open until 3 or 4 a.m., finally dismissing their customers by turning off the music and turning on the lights. Anyone who hoped to eat during those nights was more likely to head to a diner or fast food restaurant after leaving the clubs, as virtually none offered any kind of food menu.

“The places were like big boxes with speakers,” says Roy Feicco, a hospitality scene expert and co-owner of Burger Bar in Babylon Village. “We didn’t even sell gum, because we didn’t want it on the floor.”

Feicco, 64, of Farmingdale, is deeply tied to the days of the departed Long Island dance club scene. He has served in various roles in such now-defunct venues as Doolittles at the Long Island Marriott in Uniondale, Jamz in West Hempstead, the Long Island Exchange at the Huntington Hilton and  the long-running “Body English” Tuesday night party at the Chateau Briand in Westbury.

There are few nightclubs left in the area. The reasons behind the decline are “complicated,” Feicco notes. “There are many different things that led to the change, not just one big thing. Technology, culture, the way people are, the economy. It all went the wrong way.”

One cause he points at began when Long Island spots started to emulate nightclubs from Miami and Las Vegas, with higher-priced reservations for amenities such as bottle service and reserved tables. “The people who once would pay $5 to $10 to get into a nightclub couldn't do it anymore,” he says. 

Long Islanders “remember going out dancing, or even dinner and dancing,” notes Anthony Cucinella, owner of Pino Wine Bar and Bistro, which he opened last fall. It features DJ nights on Fridays and Saturdays in addition to a menu of American food that leans Italian. “Customers tell me they used to go to this place, that place but now come 11:30 p.m., midnight, it’s basically done. They come out around 7 p.m., have dinner, dance, enjoy themselves and go home,” he says. 

Club music for the dinner crowd

Once the DJ starts spinning at Pino, guests begin to move toward the back by the DJ booth and dance to a variety of sounds, while at Harleys American Grille  the DJ located right by the entrance, starts the party by playing music genres like freestyle — a sound that once boomed in Long Island clubs through the late '80s into the '90s.

“We aim for a more mature crowd that loves that style of music, explains LoManto. "I grew up with disco and freestyle style music. I wanted to create an environment where people can come to Harleys and be able to have dinner and dance."

Harleys also serves American food, and LoManto says his typical crowd runs in the 35-65 age range, adding, “I speak to people all the time that miss this type of music and love that we do this.”