
Mim's Syosset to close, reopen as George Martin's Grillfire

Mim's Restaurant and Lounge in Syosset. Credit: Jesse Newman
If you’re a regular at Mim’s in Syosset, you have a little more than a week to get over to the restaurant on Berry Hill Road, since it's slated to close on Saturday, May 17. After undergoing renovations, it will reopen as George Martin's Grillfire, an American restaurant whose grill-centric menu ranges from burgers, sandwiches and salads to steak, pasta, chicken and seafood. Prices range from $11 for a vegetarian burger to $32 for a blue cheese-crusted filet mignon.
Rich Cutler, president of the Mim’s Hospitality Group, said he’s joined forces with George Korten, president of George Martin Restaurants. Cutler added that he will a managing partner at the same Syosset site he began working at as a busboy. That was back in 1986, the year Mim's opened.
His boss — and Mim's owner at the time — was none other than George Korten. Cutler rose through the ranks to become manger and eventually bought out Korten, who, in 1989, opened George Martin in Rockville Centre. The two restaurateurs have remained friends over these past 28 years.
Cutler said that one reason he's making this change is given the current economy, it didn’t make sense to have two branches of the same place located only 15 minutes apart. Cutler emphasized that Mim’s in Roslyn will remain open, as will his other restaurant, Mill Creek Tavern in Bayville.
As for the new George Martin's Grillfire, it's currently expected to launch mid-July, joining two other Grillfire restaurants on Long Island, one in Merrick and the other in Rockville Centre.