In the course of a few months, another restaurant is closing in Great Neck Plaza: Element Seafood. It was a fine restaurant.
Why can’t our village keep restaurants?
Mr. Corn, vice president of the Business Improvement District, said: “The amount of restaurants we have, we can’t support.”
It is not the amount, sir, it is the type.
I have lived in Great Neck Plaza for more than 40 years and there has not been a good, diversified restaurant since Millie’s left.
I eat out several times a week and don’t mind walking a few blocks, because I don’t actually like valet parking.
When I want a diner or coffee shop, I drive three miles to Louie’s in Manhasset on Plandome Road, where there is better food, better servers and they don’t “honey, sweetie” you.
If I want a restaurant like the former Millie’s, I can go a few times a week to Cipollini on Northern Boulevard in Manhasset, where you can get a burger, a great salad, just soup, fish and meat from a very varied menu with a lively, upscale, fun crowd.
For Italian, there is Il Mulino on Northern Boulevard in Roslyn, the new, more-moderately priced Umberto’s of Manhasset or even Villa Milano in Manhasset.
For Mediterranean, there is Limani on Northern Boulevard in Roslyn. Shall I go on and on? And these don’t include the restaurants in Port Washington or nearby Queens.
When going to the movies, I go to Manhasset or to Roslyn Bow Tie, as do my friends. The Squire offers few or no art or foreign films that my friends and I like.
It is the type, not the amount. I love to walk to stores and restaurants here, but there are very few I patronize. Sorry. The statistics say that many people eat out very, very frequently. Too bad the village doesn’t have more to offer.
—Bonnie Lyons Salkind
