Pietro’s to replace Jolly Fisherman

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“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 oppor- tunity 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 im-

“Who said, ‘If I’m ever in a room alone with her, only one of us is coming out,’” Zimbardi said, recounting the alleged threat made by Costa.

Zimbardi made multiple other accusations about Costa, claiming he petitioned in village hall to solicit signatures, which is not allowed by a trustee, and fabricated his work when submitting documents to the state for his pension.

Costa said during the meeting that he was not aware he could not petition in village hall and stopped once he was made aware. He also admitted to fabricating his pension documents.

Costa declined to comment to Blank Slate, referring all inquiries to village hall.

Efforts to contact Popeleski and Shahipour were unavailing.

“I don’t know how to make this village clean,” Zimbardi said. “I’m hoping that the residents see what’s going on because it’s not good. It’s complete corruption… I hope that my fellow employees are able to somehow get out of this because this place is going to implode.” mediately.

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.