After 66-year-old Jolly Fisherman closed in May, the bread baskets were barely cold when Pietro’s of Manhattan announced that it would be taking over the pond-side location. On Nov. 16, it opened its doors to the public.
Pietro's was founded in 1932 by Italian brothers Pietro, Natale and Luigi Donini. In 1992, it was bought by Bill Bruckman Sr. who, with his sons, Bill Jr. and David, has stewarded it ever since. (Bill Jr. oversees the Roslyn location; David runs the one on East 43rd St.) Bill Jr. said the family had been thinking about a Long Island location for years, and looking seriously for the last two. “It’s a natural for us,” he said. “Our client base in the city is at least 50% from Long Island.”
The Bruckmans’ renovation was far less extreme than the one undertaken by Jolly’s owner, Steven Scheiner, in 2012. The three dining rooms now skew more burgundy-and-mauve than blue-and-white but the overall vibe remains no-nonsense contemporary. The wood-paneled bar is virtually unchanged. Bruckman said that, even before he opened, “customers yelled at me not to do anything to the bar, so we just painted the ceiling and changed the lighting to make it a little bit cozier.”
Read the full article by Erica Marcus
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