The popular Riverbay restaurant in Williston Park served its last meals last Saturday night.
And though he had originally said he expected the business to reopen in a different location, owner Dean Poll said he currently has no plans to do so.
“I have no plans to do anything right now,” said Poll, who also runs the Boathouse in Central Park.
Poll said he recently purchased Gallagher’s Steak House in New York City and became the franchiser for that restaurant chain.
The closing of Riverbay, one of the largest seafood restaurants on Long Island, makes way for the opening of a TD Bank branch, which leased the property at 700 Willis Ave. several months ago.
Village of Williston Park building inspector Kerry Collins said he has approved final site plans submitted by Woodbury-based Cameron Engineering for a TD Bank branch. The county planning commission gave its approval to the TD Bank site plan in December, Collins said.
The next step is the issuance of a demolition permit.
Collins said Cameron will have to provide reports on removal of asbestos from the structure and disconnect sewers, electric, water, and gas lines before the building can be razed.
“We’re almost at that point,” Collins said. “They have to meet all the requirements.”
Poll said that while seafood restaurant continued to operate successfully he leased lease the site to TD Bank rather than maintain the 250-seat restaurant for financial reasons. The Poll family has owned the property at 700 Willis Ave. in Williston Park and operated the restaurant there for the past 32 years.
Poll had said he was awaiting final site plan approval for TD Bank before he closed Riverbay and revealed future plans.
“I have a lot of good memories,” he said of his years running Riverbay.
Riverbay had its beginnings in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, where the Poll family owned a seafood restaurant called Pappas in the 1960s and ’70s. In 1980 Pappas moved to Williston Park, and around 1989, it became Riverbay.
Poll’s brothers, Gillis and George, own Bryant & Cooper Steakhouse in Roslyn, Majors steakhouses in East Meadow and Woodbury; Cipollini, an Italian restaurant, in Manhasset; and Toku, an Asian restaurant in Manhasset.
George Meccariello, construction manager for TD Bank, told the board of zoning appeals at a hearing in April that the bank had negotiated a 20-year lease for the property. The bank occupy 3,849 square feet on the property.
Several issues had to be resolved with the village board of zoning appeals for the project to go forward. A restrictive covenant had existed on the property since the 1970s, according to Collins, limiting use of the property for a restaurant business dating back to when a Chinese restaurant occupied the site.
The zoning board modified that restriction to permit use by another type of business. The zoning board heard a presentation from TD Bank for a variance to permit a drive-through service window at the branch last summer and ultimately granted the variance in August.
