Pietro’s to replace Jolly Fisherman

Manhattan restaurant will expand to Roslyn to replace local eatery shuttering after 66 years

BY CAMERYN OAKES

Pietro’s, a third-generation, family-owned and operated Italian restaurant located in Manhattan’s Midtown East, is coming to Roslyn.

The Manhattan restaurant will be expanding to a second location, taking over the building of longtime Roslyn restaurant The Jolly Fisherman, which announced it will be closing its doors after 66 years in business.

Bill Bruckman is the third generation to run Pietro’s. He and his brother took over Pietro’s from their father, who had married into the family, and operated the restaurant since 1993.

The restaurant was started by a cousin of Bruckman’s grandfather in 1932, focusing on serving Northern Italian cuisine and steaks in the city.

Pietro’s was established on 45th Street and Third Avenue as a “small, little place,” Bruckman said, but relocated in 1984 to its current spot at 232 E 43rd St.

After being in the neighborhood for decades and serving three generations of customers, Bruckman said Pietro’s is typically feeding a dining room of 70%-80% regulars every night with many coming in multiple nights a week.

“They’ve been coming into our establishment for generations,” Bruckman said. “I’m speaking for the third generations like myself coming in, but their kids are starting to come in now. So we’re getting into the fourth generation now of customers.”

He said the secret to having a long-term, devoted customer base is first the food.

“Our food speaks for itself,” Bruckman said. The second secret is their staff, with every customer greeted at the front door by a member of his family, if not him. He said the restaurant has very little staff turnover, enabling customers to foster bonds with the restaurant staff over generations.

Of their customer base, Bruckman said there is a significant portion who travel into the city from Long Island. He said this has grown since the beginning of the pandemic as they saw many of their customers move out of the city and into the surrounding Long Island suburbs.

While Bruckman and his family have been considering opening up another location for nearly 10 years, this phenomenon was the final deciding factor.

For the past couple of years, Bruckman and his family have been looking for somewhere to establish their second location. The first opportunity arose in Glen Cove.

But as they were looking to finalize that deal, Bruckman said it fell through.

Within 12 hours, Bruckman received a phone call from an old friend who he hadn’t spoken to in a while, asking Bruckman if he was still looking into expanding into Long Island.

By chance His friend was eating at The Jolly Fisherman and had caught word that they were closing and ready to sell.

Bruckman jumped at the opportunity immediately.

With this new venture for Bruckman and his family, opening a second location after 90 years in business, he is looking forward to carrying on their traditions in Long Island and on a larger scale.

“Steve [the owner of The Jolly Fisherman] was in there for 50-something years, and we hope to do the same,” Bruckman said.

Bruckman thanked The Jolly Fisherman family, wishing them well in their retirement, and said he hopes to do justice to their building.

The Jolly Fisherman will continue operating through the end of June, and Bruckman is hoping to open Pietro’s by Sept. 1.

BY ROBERT PELAEZ

Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman rallied across from Manhattan Criminal Court last week in support of a Marine Corps veteran arrested and charged with fatally choking a homeless man on the subway.

Suffolk County resident Daniel Penny, 24, was charged with manslaughter after allegedly putting Jordan Neely in a chokehold and killing him on May 1, according to police. Blakeman, who attended the Manhattan rally Wednesday, spoke at a lectern featuring the Nassau County shield and said Penny should not be prosecuted for his actions.

“While the death of Jordan Neely is an unfortunate tragedy, Marine Daniel Penny shouldn’t face charges for trying to help his fellow New Yorkers before they turned into another subway assault statistic,” Blakeman said. “We know Jordan Neely was having mental health issues. If Neely had been kept in jail on more of his 42 charges, he may have been able to get the help he needed.”

Penny was captured on video holding Neely in a chokehold for several minutes, which included time after the homeless man stopped moving. Blakeman described Penny as “a good Samaritan.”

Dozens of veterans shuttled in stood behind Blakeman and in support of Penny, while at least one person in the audience dubbing the county executive a racist, according to Newsday. Blakeman, in a statement, also criti- cized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and called for him to be removed from his post.

Blakeman said Bragg “is trying to railroad a Marine who was just trying to keep other passengers safe” and expressed his concern about Nassau’s thousands of residents who travel into New York City every day.

“Every day tens of thousands of Nassau County residents commute to New York City to do jobs, explore entertainment, go to cultural sites, to enjoy everything that Manhattan has to offer,” he said. “But I’m worried about them. I’m worried about our Nassau County residents.”

Democratic Legislator Josh Lafazan, in a statement, called for the Legislature’s Budget Review team to analyze the costs of Blakeman’s event last week.

“If Nassau officials appear at any event outside the county, why in the world would our taxpayers be asked to foot the bill?,” Lafazan said in a statement. “At a time when expenses for Nassau residents continue to rise, our county should be laser focused on reducing expenses. The first place to start? Barring politicians from wasting taxpayer dollars on campaign events.”

Blakeman has been a critic of Bragg in the past, bashing the district attorney for “playing politics” when it came to the indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Blakeman, in April, called the indictment “political and malicious prosecution,” lashing out at Bragg.

“I’m not surprised,” Blakeman said about the indictment outside the Nassau County Police Headquarters in April. “Alvin Bragg has a political agenda.”

Blakeman said that if he were to rush an indictment of a political enemy to Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly, she would “throw me out of her office.”

“I would assume that most district attorneys would do the same thing,” Blakeman said. “They’re not supposed to make decisions based on politics. It’s supposed to be on the law and in this circumstance, every legal scholar that I’ve seen on every media outlet has said pretty much that it’s novel, it’s new and it’s unprecedented.”