Heirloom Tavern’s Kent Monkan to open new restaurant The Wild Goose in Port Washington

Kent Monkan, who presides over the 3-star Heirloom Tavern in Glen Head (one of Newsday’s Top 10 gastropubs) as well as Locust Valley stalwart The Brass Rail, is opening a casual, farm-to-table restaurant in Port Washington. He and his partner, Bill Martakis, are aiming for an October opening.

The Wild Goose will take over the Main Street storefront that was most recently Organico. Monkan said that his menu would be diverse — from burgers to foie gras — and would source from local farms such as Rottkamp Bros. in Glen Head and Satur Farms in Cutchogue.

Monkan, who continues to oversee his other two restaurants, will be executive chef. The chef de cuisine will be Anthony Martarana, most recently of Verace in Islip and, before that, at Matteo’s in Roslyn. Early in his career, Martarana worked with Monkan at The Brass Rail.

Monkan acknowledged that 75 Main St. has seen a lot of restaurants in the past few years. Organico, which closed earlier this year, was preceded by Kazan, Innuendo, Big Apple BBQ and Bad Bob’s, all in the past eight years.

But he is optimistic about The Wild Goose. “Quality food, good service, consistency,” he said. “This is a formula that has worked for me, and I think it’s going to work in Port Washington.”

He also noted that The Wild Goose, like both Heirloom Tavern and The Brass Rail, is located a block away from an LIRR station. “I like train stations, and they seem to like me.”