Great South Bay Brewery opens in Lindenhurst 

For some chefs, it might be daunting serving 300 customers across four dining areas. For Chris Palmer, it’s a small dinner party. Before joining up with the owners of Great South Bay Brewery, he spent 11 years running the kitchen at Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury where a typical day involved preparing meals for eight parties of anywhere from 175 to 350 people each.

The brewery's second venue — a gastropub smack in the middle of Lindenhurst — opens today.

The menu features plenty of items that seem bound for Instagram glory: Mexican street corn fries (smothered in roasted corn, spicy mayo and cotija cheese), egg rolls stuffed with crab Rangoon (crabmeat and cream cheese), white-clam ramen, a fried-fish sandwich (the “Captain Kidd pirate sando”) that’s a take on McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish, a sesame-crusted “Big Island poke pizza” topped with ahi tuna, avocado, cucumber and mozzarella. The “GSB cake-can beer-a-misu” layers stout-coffee mousse with espresso-soaked ladyfingers inside a beer can.

But Palmer doesn't let the social media tail wag his chef’s dog: The fries are hand-cut in house, the ramen is sourced from Happy Noodle in Mount Sinai, Captain Kidd’s patty is made from ground scallops, shrimp and lobster. He roasts his own chicken for the pot pie. At $26, that poke pizza and a prime steak pizzaiolo (pounded thin, fried and topped with tomatoes and mozzarella) are the most expensive things on the menu.

GSB Lindenhurst takes over the soaring building that was originally the First Bank of Lindenhurst but had sat dormant for years. When the Davis family bought the building last summer, “there were pigeons flying around in here,” said Brian Davis, who owns Great South Bay Brewery along with his father, Doug, and two brothers. They were able to turn an abandoned bank into a fully licensed and permitted restaurant in just seven months.

Instead of tellers’ booths, the main floor is now dominated by an oval bar that dispenses 12 GSB brews — five of the core offerings such as Blonde Ambition Ale, Cosmic Juice Hazy IPA, Roasty Toasty Stout — plus seasonal releases and a few of their hard “Tipsy Teas and Lemonades.” The bar features small-batch New York State spirits alongside national brands. Behind the massive door of the old vault is a dining room that can handle private parties. Upstairs, overlooking the main dining room, is another rentable room with its own dedicated bar. A second second-story perch overlooks the street — and some of Lindenhurst’s other popular destinations: Sand City Brewing, Hermanas Kitchen & Cocktails and So Sveglio Espresso Bar.

With the Lindenhurst restaurant open, Palmer and the Davises will devote more energy to their third venue: a comparably sized gastropub at Station Yards, the new multiuse complex in Ronkonkoma, that is slated to open this summer.

Great South Bay Brewery, 147 S. Wellwood Ave., Lindenhurst, 631-392-8472, greatsouthbaybrewery.com. Open noon to 11 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, noon to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.