5 Long Island diners that have turned into other restaurants

The specter of empty diners has been haunting Long Island for at least a decade, and the pandemic only hastened the closures. But we’re also in the midst of a parallel — and much happier — trend: proper restaurants that are taking up residence in former diners.

Hercules Churrasqueria

813 Hempstead Tpke., Franklin Square, 516-216-5150

It was only two weeks ago that Patrick Mendola and his father, Raymond, ate at Hercules Churrasqueria for the first time. But it certainly wasn’t their first time in the building: Both had been customers of the Franklin Square Diner, which closed in 2019, and, especially, its forerunner, the Silver Star, which Patrick, now of Howard Beach, Queens, remembered well from the 1980s.

"I used to bartend down the street at Club Metro 700," he recalled. "After work — it would have been 4 a.m. — I’d come here for breakfast. I’d get a bull burger [topped with bacon and a fried egg] or a Western omelet with every possible meat — bacon, sausage, ham, turkey."

Last year, the old diner was taken over by brothers Oscar and David Hercules, along with managing partner Nelson Marquez, all of them from El Salvador. Marquez was a veteran of Mineola’s Churrasqueria Bairrada, one of the first Portuguese restaurants on Long Island to specialize in rodizio: the tradition of all-you-can-eat grilled meats that started in Brazil, a former Portuguese colony.

"I had wanted a place for years," Marquez said, "I wasn’t looking for a diner. But this place had been empty for four years and we liked the location."

The new team changed virtually nothing in the dining area, which may have added to the "disconcerting" sensation Patrick felt when he sat down. But the meat-lover soon felt more at home when he looked at the menu, an onslaught of steaks and chops, available individually or as part of the unlimited, all-beast rodizio. He settled on the grilled prime rib and was soon happily working his way through the "perfectly medium-rare" steak while his father enjoyed a burger.

Marquez said that while many customers order the rodizio, the mixed grill (one big, multi-meat platter lightened up with florets of broccoli) or one of the 10 grilled seafood options, "the king of the menu" is the grilled whole chicken, accompanied by rice, fries, salad and sautéed vegetables. The birds are grilled in a special cage that flattens them for rapid, even cooking. All he would say about the marinade was that it contained garlic and hot peppers.

Lucia

25 Middle Country Rd, Middle Island, 631-846-8833, luciamiddleisland.com

Another operator who was not looking to open in a diner was Melvin Recinos of Lucia. In fact, he and his wife, Anita Alampioska, were in Middle Island on the hunt for a recommended taqueria in 2021 when they came upon the old CookRoom which had closed the previous year. (The building's history before CookRoom opened in 2013 seems to have started in 1948 with, according to a photo that found its way to Alampioska, the Coram Roadside Rest owned by Rita and John Mouzake; it later became the Middle Island Diner and Daisy’s Diner.) At the time, Recinos was looking for a location to expand his Mattituck restaurant, Lucia, which he had opened in 2016 and whose menu was inspired by the cuisine of his native El Salvador. "We liked the shape of the diner, the feel of it," he said.

Lucia opened in Middle Island with a menu nearly identical to Mattituck. That didn’t work as the new customer base included few people looking for Salvadoran food, and so Recinos introduced burgers and salads and doubled, tripled down on breakfast items. All of this came pretty easily to a chef who had worked at Erik’s in Southold and, before that, North Fork Table and Inn where he assisted co-chef-partner Claudia Fleming in desserts and breakfast.

But there are plenty of Latino items on the menu, including plump pupusas (the griddled corn cakes that are the national dish of El Salvador), Cuban sandwiches and huevos rancheros. Lucia’s also makes its own Salvadoran chorizo (milder than Mexican) and its own tortillas. A milkshake machine has been repurposed to froth from-scratch lemonade that uses the entire fruit to delicious effect.

Dang Roadhouse

3864 Merrick Rd., Seaford, 516-682-2855, dangbbq.com

When Anthony Mastrantonio was seeking a second location for his Dang BBQ (established in Islip in 2017), he was drawn to the gleaming hulk that was the old Seaford Palace Diner. "I looked at all that chrome and it made me think of sock hops, soda shops — just the kind of nostalgia I wanted for my restaurant."

He opened in 2020 and, except for the new sign, the building’s exterior remained untouched. But, inside, reclaimed wood and corrugated metal did a fine job of transforming the dining room into a rollicking modern, country-style roadhouse. One counter now serves as a bar, the other, a "milkshake bar" where you can watch Dang’s signature overtopped shakes being spun.

Initially, Dang BBQ Seaford had the same menu as Islip but Mastrantonio found that it was hard to fill the 130 seats with barbecue fans. "People can go to the diner a few times a week," he noted. "Barbecue they want once a month ... maybe." So he gradually expanded the menu to include Southern specialties as well as panini, salads and bowls. Last year, he renamed the place Dang Roadhouse.

Ribs, brisket, pulled pork and pastrami are all available with sides or in sandwiches (try the pastrami in the Reuben), but they now share the "greatest hits" portion of the menu with country-fried steak, fried chicken and shrimp and grits. There’s an expanded burger menu and, at the bar, an expanded whiskey roster.

Because former diners are imbued with so much breakfast karma, Mastrantonio has also introduced a weekend breakfast-brunch menu with omelets, elaborate pancakes and French toasts, skillets and bowls. Dang usually opens at 11 a.m. but, on Sundays, you can start digging in at 9 a.m.

Fancy Lee

101 W. Main St., Babylon, 63-422-6506, fancyleeny.com

There are a number of Asian restaurants that have taken up residence in decommissioned diners, among them Golden Chopsticks in Rocky Point and Koi Sushi Lounge in Sayville. In 2011, Asian-fusion-sushi bar Fancy Lee opened in the old Highway Diner. According to the Babylon Beacon, it opened in the early 1930s, achieving its current splendor in 1955 when it was expanded and renovated by new owners Mike Sigouros, Pete Corbett and John Kouvisis, who sold it in 1973. Fancy Lee’s immediate predecessor was Fortune Garden, a Chinese restaurant whose owner installed a pair of imperial guardian lions flanking the entrance. Otherwise, the building still looks like it came from diner central casting.

Partner Anle Lee said that while his family was not looking for a diner location, it checked all their boxes. "The layout is simple — you can see everything all at once. And it comes with a great parking lot." Plus, the old counter works perfectly as a sushi bar. Even though it’s no longer selling diner food, it retains "that friendly, family style." Lee greets many customers by name, knows their orders whether the quick weekday lunch or the more substantial dine-in weekend meal.

Like the old diner, Fancy Lee has an exhaustive menu, but its range is focused on the cuisines of Asia, from Thailand, India and Malaysia to China and Japan. Anle had worked in Benihana, among other Japanese restaurants. Fancy Lee’s taco-style duck roll is wrapped in roti prata (South Asian flatbread) with hoisin and spicy rémoulade. There are spicy chicken-romaine lettuce wraps and slow-cooked baby back ribs with tamarind-chili sauce, the celebratory Hong Kong dish of Grand Marnier shrimp (aka Honey-walnut shrimp). There are scores of sushi preparations, from elaborate rolls (the Golden Passion features asparagus, avocado, carrot, shiitake and white tuna with kimchi sauce and a sprinkling of yuzu tobiko) to a nontraditional chirashi plated like a colorful landscape of fish and rice.

Orient Garden

101 Herricks Rd., New Hyde Park, 516-809-8216, orientgardenny.com

Long Island’s latest diner-to-restaurant transformation also exemplifies another dining trend: authentic regional Chinese. Orient Garden, sibling to Jericho’s Orient Odyssey, offers a Flushing-style Cantonese-Hong Kong experience that’s unique east of Queens.

Owner Xinchao Tang knew he’d found his perfect second location when he came across the vacant Park City Diner, which closed in 2020. It had almost twice the capacity of Jericho’s 100 seats, plenty of parking and little local competition. Tang left the bones of the old diner but added contemporary light fixtures and lots of marble and granite.

In the kitchen, chef Huang Ming presides at the head of a line of flaming woks turning out stir-fried noodles with mushrooms, snow-pea leaves or shredded pork with Chinese celery. Seafood is a specialty here, from lobster with ginger and scallions and walnut shrimp to clams with black bean sauce and steamed whole sea bass.

Carl DeVito, of Floral Park, and Anthony Brandt (who recently moved from Floral Park to North Carolina but visits frequently) were loyal Park City Diner customers. Brandt said he was heartbroken when the diner closed but he began to heal a few months ago when he stopped into Orient Garden and found it "phenomenal. The food was fresh and tasty. The place was so clean. And I like that they kept the layout, kept it a family place." (When Tang isn’t around, his wife, Dan Lin, whom customers call "Lindy," holds down the fort.)

Orient Garden even half-scratches that diner breakfast itch. This is one of Long Island’s premier spots for dim sum, the traditional — if belly-busting — Cantonese repertoire that includes steamed crystal shrimp and pan-fried leek dumplings, slabs of turnip cake and sticky rice in lotus leaves. The restaurant opens at 10 a.m. Monday to Thursday, at 9:30 Friday to Sunday. The dim sum menu is available every day until 3 p.m. and, on weekends, you can select directly from the carts that roam around the dining room.