Nautical-themed bar Sayville Bait & Tackle hopes to help strangers reconnect

Remember the days before partitions, personal silos and social distance? Sayville Bait & Tackle is specifically designed to help you forget those things, and in its toolbox are one of the longest bars you've likely ever seen, plus oversized cocktails and other shareables that were probably unthinkable but three months ago.

"We have a 50-foot bar with 25 seats, and the cool thing is you are meant to sit next to other people, to go back to exchanging information and meeting new people," said Drew Dvorkin, one of Sayville Bait & Tackle's co-owners. "Everyone was isolated for so long, for a year-and-a-half, that we wanted to bring that back."

Dvorkin and his partners, a faction who also collectively co-own a few other bars on Long Island (TJ Finley's Public House and The Penny Pub in Bay Shore among them) spent most of the spring renovating the building that once held Irish Exit and, before that, The Half Penny Pub. What emerged is an 80-seat classic bar and grill whose liquor-infused DNA stays intact and whose theme bends toward the oceanic, from décor to drinks to food. There's salvaged nautical ephemera above the bar, plus a shot menu and tropical drinks, including at least nine sipping rums. Patio seats cluster on both front and back decks. "We wanted to mimic a vacation feeling," Dvorkin said.

Chef Henry Friedank of The Linwood in Bay Shore (which Dvorkin also co-owns) leads the kitchen with chef Ken Siegel, and they rolled out of the gate with a limited menu focused on tricked out bar bites such as "chowda fries" (New England-style chowder over cheddar fries, $12), clam dip ($12) and six different styles of wings ($15 to $26), from Korean or Szechuan to a version rubbed in Old Bay. A bacon cheeseburger ($15), a Pat LaFrieda steak burger topped with lobster salad ($24), fried flounder tacos ($14) and three lobster rolls — including one that layers lobster salad over fried clam strips and is served burger-style on a toasted brioche bun — fill out the menu. More sandwiches and salads will be added soon, Dvorkin said.

Befitting the place, the drinks menu runs longer than the food menu, from cocktails ($11 to $14) such as mai tais, old fashioneds and a classic daiquiri to bomb shots (think Midori chased by Narragansett Lager, for $8) to frozen drinks. Two to three people can dip their straws into a $26 Tackle Box layered with vodka, coconut rum, blue curacao, pineapple and citrus, plus Swedish fish for drink-specific ambience.

"I'm not an artistic person, I don't sing or dance, and this is my expression," said Dvorkin, who's spent two decades in the industry. "We build something that ultimately takes on a life of its own, and my satisfaction is when I step back into the shadows and watch people have fun, eat and drink — it's fulfilling."

Sayville Bait & Tackle is open daily from noon until closing (think 2 or 3 a.m.) at 220 N. Main St., Sayville. 631-256-4646. sayvillebaitandtackle.com