The Farm Italy to open Westbury location in 2025
Bucatini cacio e pepe at The Farm Italy in Huntington. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
The Farm Italy in Huntington, one of Long Island’s most sumptuous Italian restaurants, is getting a sibling. Owner John Tunney said the second Farm will open next year on Merrick Avenue in Westbury.
The Farm Italy was one of the biggest openings of 2023, transforming Huntington village's defunct Mac's Steakhouse into a sprawling Tuscan fantasy.
"I built The Farm Italy as a one-off," Tunney said. "I wasn’t going to build much more — but I always say that before I build the next restaurant."
Tunney was spending a lot of time on Merrick Avenue in Westbury while he built his fourth The Shed, which opened in May in the Selby luxury apartment building. The abandoned Houlihan’s next door (it closed in 2020) occasioned a familiar itch in the veteran restaurateur.
"I liked that whole corridor," he said. "It’s getting redeveloped, it’s close to — but out of the chaos of Roosevelt Field. It faces Eisenhower Park, which gives it this nice open feeling. And there’s great parking."
In fact, the old Buffalo Wild Wings on the other side of the new restaurant is coming down, providing a vast parking lot for both The Farm Italy and a new boutique hotel. "Parking is my issue," Tunney noted. "People don’t like to walk and since they take the path of least resistance, they will just skip a restaurant where they can’t park. In [parking-challenged] Huntington, I valet every car. Here, customers can do valet or they can park their own cars."
The new Farm Italy will have 150 seats inside, plus more outside and on a covered terrace; all told, it will have nearly twice the capacity of Huntington. The menu will be identical as will the decor. Tunney is hoping to open next spring.
Tunney, who has been a partner at Oheka Castle and Blu Honu in Huntington and the Carltun at Eisenhower Park, now owns the Long Island restaurant chains Besito Mexican (Huntington, Roslyn and West Islip) and The Shed (Huntington, Plainview, West Sayville, Westbury). He also owns Ballo, an upscale Italian at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, which he plans to rebrand as The Farm Italy at Ballo this winter.
