Legends on Broadway, a Gastro-style pub located at 646 South Broadway, held its grand opening on April 15, but for many, the location is already well-
known.
Co-owner Mike Iovino of Oyster Bay Cove, who also co-owns a dockside seasonal restaurant in Seaford, called Parkside Cafe, said that the former Crossroads bar location that Legends on Broadway took over was in a pretty sorry state when he and business partner Rich Daly acquired it. However, this is where Iovino’s day job as owner of a construction company came in handy.
“When we first bought it, the place was in pretty bad shape, so we totally gutted it, took everything apart…floors, ceilings, everything is brand new,” he said. “Everything is in compliance with town ordinances and everything is perfect now. It helped that we did all our own work here…all the partners involved here have construction backgrounds, so the woodwork was done by one guy, the floors by another, and so on.”
Iovino said that the decision to open a bar/restaurant in Hicksville was an easy one to make…especially since they were practically urged to do so by the landlord of the shopping center.
“We know the landlord, and he knows the way we operate at Parkside Café. He said that we should do something in his shopping center, because he knew we’d do it right, and we said why not?” he said. “The place was basically empty already; the previous owner had taken almost everything with them, so we could create something from scratch. The only thing they left was this great 20 beer tap system, which was brand-new. We utilize every beer on that…we sell a lot of delicious draft beer here.”
One thing that sets Legends on Broadway apart from many of the other bars in the area, Iovino said, was the intense attention paid to the culinary aspect of their business.
“You can get your basic stuff here, like a hamburger, chicken, things like that,” he said. “But you can also have a lot of specials…from our experience at the Parkside Café, we feature some nice specials, whatever we think is freshest. This way, people can come in and get the usual menu items, but they always know there will be new specials as well, at least six or seven a week. We don’t carry a lot of the specials, so when they’re gone, they’re gone.”
So far, the customers have been beating a path to Legends on Broadway’s door, and now that they’ve held their grand opening and really let it all hang out there for the Hicksville community to see, Iovino said that he expects great things in the future.
“With no advertising and no real grand opening until now, I think business has really been wonderful, and it can only go up now,” he said. “We’re just putting the banners out now and people are just finding out that we’re open, so our goal now is to get the word out. We have a certain goal number in our minds, and we’re about 70 percent there. This is one of the better bars in the area, and I think if people give it a shot they’ll want to come back.”
Find out more about by visiting www.legendsonbroadway.com .
