After run-ins with the law, numerous fines and resident complaints, the Empire Billiards Hall closed last June. Sixteen months later, the empty storefront will bustle again, but with an Asian fusion twist.
The New Hyde Park Village Board approved East Setauket restaurant owner Sam Chan’s plan to open an 84-seat Asian fusion restaurant at 1215 Jericho Tpke. in New Hyde Park last week. It’s the former spot of the maligned pool hall. Chan said he expects the restaurant would be ready in three to six months after approval.
“We’re excited to come in to New Hyde Park,” Chan said. “It’s a nice community. The restaurant will brigthen up the area. It’ll be an attractive addition.”
The 3,280-square-foot restaurant would operate Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 10 p.m.
The restaurant would be staffed by 15 employees, according to village officials.
“Our hope is that businesses will want to come to New Hyde Park and we’ve found that,” Mayor Robert Lofaro said. “We had wanted a new bakery when
Reinwald’s closes and now we have [SweeTart]. Mr. Chan wants to open a restaurant. Those are essential to a business district.”
Chan owns two other Asian eateries in Port Jefferson and Selden. Chan wants to lease the New Hyde Park property for 15 years.
Property owner Mark Sommer said the restaurant’s front entrance provides “an inviting space,” with 40 feet of store frontage.
Parking was an issue debated at past hearings for the restaurant. The village required Sommer to provide 25 off-street parking spaces and he was in negotiations with New York Community Bank and SweeTart Bakery across from the restaurant to provide spaces.
“You can’t create spots out of thin air,” Sommer said. “Given the fact that when it was Empire Billiards, they were approved for 56 or so spots. We only require 24.”
But the deal, Sommer said, fell through with both businesses. The bank and bakery did not return calls for comment.
“[The bank] declined to rent to us because of insurance and security purposes,” Sommer said. “The owner of [the bakery] did not return my calls.”
The village’s zoning board approved Chan’s plan 4-1, with the lone no vote coming from board member Santo Cipolla.
“My feeling is with other applicants, they generally say, ‘OK, you need 25 spots, I have 10,’” Cipolla said. “[Sommer] needed 25 and he had nothing. It’s a restaurant and if it flourishes, the neigborhood is going to have people parking in front of their homes. I thought it was a great idea, but not in that location.”
Sommer said Thursday the village’s zoning board “realized it’s not a planned community and you can’t create spaces out of thin air. They felt it’s a much better use of the property than the former billiard hall.”
The previous billiard hall was met with extreme criticism and community outrage for some time before its closing on June 30, 2013. Village residents had routinely complained of noise and unruly patrons at the site.
Residents were livid at past board meetings concering the hall. Fights, parking issues, noise and public urination near the club, but not necessarily stemming from the hall, were a few issues raised.
New Hyde Park imposed harsher parking restrictions in the aftermath of issues arising from Empire and the surrounding area, prohibiting parking from 12 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Empire had been previously summonsed by the village for violating its code for operating as a billiard hall without a permit. The village revoked its permit in 2012. New Hyde Park had to order the club to remove a DJ booth and dance floor.
The hall’s previous manager, Harinder Singh, pleaded guilty to $2,000 in violations in village court in May 2013, according to officials. Nassau County police in 2013 reported to village officials that 14 official complaints had been filed against Empire in 2013.
