Father and son open Lucas II Dominican restaurant and nightclub in Oceanside

You can tell that Lucas II is big from the outside. Still, the exterior of the strip mall in Oceanside doesn't prepare for the all-out onslaught of shapes and colors when you walk in. This may be the loudest and largest Dominican restaurant on Long Island. 

The spacious dining room features a barrage of geometric Spanish tile and neon signs, including a mural of merengue instruments like tambora drums, an accordion and a güira scraper. On weekends, this becomes a space for live salsa, bachata and other styles of Latin music and dancing. (The restaurant is open until 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.) Around the corner, a bright bar and an open kitchen leads to a nook with a Dominican deli. 

Father-and-son team Hipolito and Francisco Rosario opened the first Lucas in Baldwin in 2019. The takeout deli was popular and customers started asking for a place where they could sit down and enjoy some drinks with their food. So the two began looking for a second location and last July, signed a lease for the Oceanside space, which was previously a Chimichurri Charcoal Chicken.

"My dad has been cooking for almost 30 years. I saw my dad getting older, working for someone else, it's not the same," said Francisco, who has a background in financial services. "Everywhere my dad cooked that I know, people loved the food. So I said, let’s try this."

Hipolito's menu is large and almost diner-like, with multiple varieties of each meat. There's grilled chicken, garlic chicken, rotisserie chicken and Francese chicken. There's skirt steak, pepper steak, breaded steak and steak with onions. The last page of the menu is more obviously Caribbean, with "platos criollos" or classic dishes like stewed goat and stewed hen, as well as a section of mofongos made from mashed plantain. 

The iconic soup sancocho ($11.99) is a nice way to start out. A medley of different meats like pork and chicken on the bone float around a savory vegetable broth. It's both mild and comforting. But the highlight of the menu has got to be the pernil, slow-roasted pork shoulder that involves a multistep process of marinating and baking for several hours. Some slivers are darker and crunchier, others are savory and juicy. Even if you don't like bachata music or Dominican rum, this pork is worth a trip by itself. 

Lucas II The Dominican Spot, 3115 Long Beach Rd., Oceanside, 516-208-7295, facebook.com/LucasDR101/. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 

By Andi Berlin

andi.berlin@newsday.comAndiBerlin

Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.