The Village of Williston Park Board of Trustees held a public hearing on Monday, Sept. 21, on the application for Xarello LLC Restaurant to open at 38 Hillside Ave., former home of the Ivy Cottage Restaurant. They unanimously voted to direct village attorney James Bradley to prepare a written resolution for the village board for approval.
The owners of the restaurant, John Alexopoulos and Claudio Peralta, attended the public hearing, as well as the chef Katia Ramirez.
“There is no one in the village, or anywhere nearby, that will be doing the type of cuisine we’ll be doing,” Alexopoulos said. “It will be Mediterranean influence, but sophisticated.”
Alexopoulos has owned other restaurants and continues to consult and assist several others, while Peralta is currently a maitre d’ and manager of a New York City eatery. Ramirez is a culinary school graduate and has worked in Manhattan and various regions of Spain.
“The proposed use for this premises is to continue its long established restaurant use as a sophisticated modern Mediterranean food restaurant,” Xarello’s attorney, Marco Silva, said.
Silva said that Xarello has secured a long term 20-year lease and the petitioner intends to maintain the interior layout from the previous restaurant, with work being limited to “a general refreshing of the interior,” including painting and flooring.
“All three have been in the restaurant business their entire lives and each has worked alongside some true legends of the culinary world, including Gordon Ramsay,” Silva said. “They each have something different and complimentary to offer.”
As for parking, Silva said there is a shopper’s parking lot across the street and the restaurant has access to train station parking lot after 5 p.m. Peralta said the planned hours of operation are Monday through Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., Friday through Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 4 to 9 p.m. Xarello will be a dinner establishment and Alexopoulos said they are considering serving lunch next year.
“We want to make sure our dinner menu is perfect, and we’ll assess the situation next year…we may do private parties, but we don’t know yet,” said Alexopoulos, who also indicated that brunch is something that will happen in 2016.
The seating arrangement is a total of 72 seats, which is subject to building department and fire marshal approval.
Xarello recently participated in the Williston Day Street Fair a day prior to the village board meeting and Alexopoulos enthusiastically said “we were well received.”
Peralta, who is in the process of relocating to Williston Park, emphasized that the restaurant will be sophisticated, yet affordable for village residents. Alexopoulos, without giving specific price figures yet, said in his mind, nothing on the menu will break $30.
Alexopoulos said they still have at least two to three weeks of work to be done before a grand opening of the restaurant can be expected. This includes painting, construction, recipe testing, style of service configuration and hiring and training staff.
All deliveries for supplies will be handled during the day in off-peak hours when there are no customers in the restaurant. Deliveries were originally going to come through the back of the restaurant, and Alexopoulos said the basement entrance in the front, as well as the front door, will likely be utilized.
