Historic downtown Wading River is making a comeback
Robert and Yasemin Nasta of Rocky Point see potential in downtown Wading River.
And they aren’t the only ones.
The third new business to come to the area by the Duck Ponds in less than a year, their new creperie — aptly dubbed My Creperie — is slated to open early next spring. Promising to bring a taste of Europe to Wading River, My Creperie will soon join meat-lovers’ paradise North Fork Bacon & Smokehouse and the popular Tex-Mex restaurant Mesquite in offering specialty eats.
The emergence of new business is a stark change from last year, when Wading River’s declining business district was the subject of a September Riverhead-News Review cover story.
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With two existing specialty food joints and a few smaller retail boutiques already in place on the short stretch of North Country Road along the Duck Ponds, Ms. Nasta said she wanted to open a shop that reminded her of the cafés she frequented in Germany before moving to her husband’s Long Island hometown seven years ago. Her husband welcomed the idea.
“Take a look around. It is tranquil and beautiful,” Mr. Nasta said. “It highlights what we’re trying to bring to the area. We want people to take the time to slow down, get a glass of wine and a crepe and look out at the duck pond. It takes you to another place.”
The Decline
Once a vibrant commercial destination, downtown Wading River suffered a series of knocks that caused many businesses to close over the last two decades.
In 1992, according to a previous Riverhead News-Review special report, then-Riverhead Town Supervisor Joe Janoski said the arrival of King Kullen supermarket, built on Route 25A in the 1970s, had been discouraging people from shopping downtown. A noticeable drop in foot traffic occurred in 1990 after the local post office, previously just across from the Duck Ponds, was relocated to Route 25A.
Ever since, the downtown area has struggled to retain its businesses.
The former General Store, which had once been a gathering spot for private parties and civic functions, closed in 2011 after flooding from tropical storm Irene caused its floor to collapse.
Over the next couple of years, the high-scale Amarelle restaurant was shuttered (and remains vacant), two businesses opened and closed where the post office once stood and the Pizza Pie closed its doors.
Earlier this year, TJ Realty Investment — which also owns the area’s iconic Red Barn — bought the building where the Pizza Pie and General Store had operated. CEO Tim Martin said he also hopes to purchase the adjoining building, former home of the Wading River Garage. That building has essentially sat vacant since 2000, when longtime garage owner Robert Boenig retired.
Mr. Martin said he prefers to take a back seat to the people who lease commercial space from him.
“It’s all about the tenants,” he said. “I’m just trying to make it look nice.”
The comeback
Since this past spring, two niche restaurants have moved into vacant storefronts in downtown Wading River while My Creperie waits in the wings.
North Fork Bacon & Smokehouse was the first, opening in April at the former Pizza Pie storefront on the northwest corner of Sound Road and North Country Road. Co-owner and executive chef Patrick Gaeta — a Wading River native — said he hoped the restaurant would help transform the area.
“It had been stagnant for so long. It was just a matter of getting new stuff down there to start turning the area around,” said Mr. Gaeta.
In October, popular Tex-Mex restaurant Mesquite opened its third location in space that had housed the Grind Café and Maryann’s from 2011 through 2013 and was the Wading River post office until 1990.
Mesquite owner Craig Scali also operates another full-service restaurant in Sound Beach and a seasonal taco truck parked on Route 111 in Manorville. He said he saw an opportunity in the area that would allow his businesses to grow further.
“It was just the opportunity to get into that space,” he said. “You look for locations that are going to be profitable.”
Mr. Nasta said his business will complement the other restaurants.
“Both Mesquite and North Fork Bacon have a lot of different things to offer,” he said. “With us coming in, there is going to be a full menu of choices in this small area. It gives people a reason to come.”
Sid Bail, president of the Wading River Civic Association, said he’s noticed an increase in foot traffic since the new eateries have come to town, noting that having more people visit helps the other small businesses in the district that have been struggling to survive.
Longtime Wading River proprietor Glenn Townsend, owner of BarnStock Trading Post and Woodstock Home Improvement in the hamlet’s red barn, said he welcomes his new neighbors. “I have got to be grateful for the new businesses,” he said. “Unfortunately it has been a ghost town for quite a while.”
The work still ahead
While there’s no denying the emergence of its downtown business scene, there is more to be done to bring Wading River to its full potential, Mr. Bail said.
Two major vacancies still plague the area. The building once operated by the upscale Amarelle restaurant has been empty for nearly two years. And the former Wading River Garage, at the north end of the string of shops on Sound Road, remains empty.
But Mr. Martin, who commended the town for helping him through the permitting process in renovating the North Fork Bacon building, said he’s in talks to buy the former garage property. He didn’t specify what kind of business might step into Mr. Boenig’s old space, other than to say that it wouldn’t be another auto shop — and that he plans to spruce it up, like he has in renovating the building next door.
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Many downtown business owners said they hope to see an inexpensive family restaurant replace Amarelle, which closed in January 2013 when executive chef and co-owner, Lia Fallon was injured in a car accident.
Frank Guarino, a Wading River attorney who owns the building, has since been trying to sell or lease the space.
Former Amarelle co-owner Steve Amaral said Wading River presented a series of challenges to his business, but said it’s still a great place to set up shop. He pointed to previous criticism that the area’s location off Route 25A makes for an uphill battle.
“You’d really have to make it a destination,” said Mr. Amaral, who now co-owns North Fork Chocolate Company.
Mr. Gaeta said he’d like to see a family style restaurant in the former Amarelle space.
“Maybe not as nice as Amarelle, but something you can bring your family to and eat,” he said.
As for the old garage, Mr. Bail said a wide range of business that would encourage more people to stop downtown is what the business district will need to continue its revitalization.
“I realize that businesses along 25A are important and they have their place,” he said. “But what is really Wading River is the area near the duck pond,” Mr. Bail said. “That is the heart of the village.”
Photo credits:
Middle: The shopping center near the Wading River Duck Ponds. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)
Bottom: Robert and Yasemin Nasta hope to open My Creperie early next spring. (Credit: Cyndi Murray)