Lombardi's to take over Love Lane Market in Mattituck
Love Lane Market in Mattituck sold specialty groceries, sustainably raised meats, rotisserie chickens and ducks and wood-fired pizza.
Suffolk’s Lombardi family is taking over the Mattituck space that formerly housed Love Lane Market. The owners of Mamma Lombardi’s, Villa Lombardi and Lombardi’s Market in Holbrook, Lombardi’s on the Bay in Patchogue and Lombardi’s on the Sound in Port Jefferson hope to open the new store by Labor Day, according to Lauren Lombardi. Lauren, granddaughter of “Mamma" Michelina Lombardi, will be managing the market.
The North Fork store will be called Lombardi’s Love Lane Market and, Lombardi said, it will be similar to Lombardi’s Market in Holbrook. “It’s going to be all our Italian specialty stuff that people are familiar with,” she said. “We’ll carry our homemade sausages and have a great butcher department.” But she’s also mindful of her new neighbors on Love Lane. “We’re not going to sell the same chocolate as Love Lane Sweet Shoppe, or have the kind of extensive cheese selection as Village Cheese Shop -- though we will have homemade mozzarella and fresh ricotta.”
The shop’s existing wood-burning oven will be put to good use making pizza. Lombardi also noted that the shop’s large kitchen will function as a base for off-premise catering on the North Fork.
Love Lane Market was opened by Michael and Patti Avella in August 2011 as a retail extension of their restaurant, Love Lane Kitchen, next door. The Avellas sold the restaurant to its general manager, Carolyn Iannone, in 2012. The market was never able to recover from the losses sustained from superstorm Sandy and in December 2013, the Avellas announced that it was permanently closed.
