Stone Street Grill closes in Garden City
The Stone Street Stack burger at Stone Street Wood Fired Grill in Garden City. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
After a year as an independently owned American grill, 30 Stewart Ave. in Garden City is reverting to its former identity as a national wing joint. The soaring space had been a Hurricane Grill & Wings from 2013 to 2021 before Art Gustafson opened his ambitious Stone Street Wood Fired Grill last March. Now, he says, the building has been leased by Buffalo Wild Wings.
Gustafson, who also owns Primehouse Steak & Sushi in Garden City and Salsa Mexicana and Chadwick’s American Chop House in Rockville Centre, pulled out all the stops when he opened Stone Street. The 5,700-square-foot restaurant evinced an industrial chic-meets-Hard Rock Cafe aesthetic and boasted a wood-fired grill, an industrial rotisserie and a capacious 16-tap bar.
Gustafson’s “partner in crime” at Stone Street was executive chef John Brill. During a 30-year career, the restless Brill led dozens of kitchens, and Gustafson joked that he opened the huge all-singing, all-dancing eatery “to keep John interested.”
But Brill died in January, taking some wind out of the venture’s sails. “We were extremely lucky after John’s passing to entertain an offer from a nationwide chain that made a lot of sense,” Gustafson said. Turning philosophical, he noted that “the restaurant world works in mysterious ways. Transition from ownership to ownership is perpetual and, some might say, the one constant.”
Stone Street served its last meal on March 10. Gustafson said he had no insight into the Buffalo Wild Wings timeline. The Atlanta-based company operates more than 1,200 locations worldwide, with seven on Long Island.
