The Rye Town Park Commission is considering reopening a new request for proposals to oversee and manage the park’s restaurant and snack and concession stands, according to commission members.
During the latest park commission meeting on Sept. 20, park commission officials were set to accept a proposal from Seaside Johnnies, the current restaurant tenant at the park, to contiunue to manage the park’s restaurant; however, after receiving a number of concerning emails from residents who felt that they were not thoroughly involved in choosing a new operator, the commission did not reach a conclusion and tabled the resolution.
“We shouldn’t do anything too quickly,” said Rye City Councilwoman Julie Killian, a Republican and member of the commission. “We may end up in the same situation that we are in today, but at least we would have gone through the process more efficiently.”
Initially, two restaurant proposals were submitted to the park commission following a request for proposals, RFP, sent out in late June; but Angelo Liberatore, an operating partner of the Fort Pond Bay Company—which operates Half Moon and Harvest on Hudson in Westchester County, and East by Northeast and The Stone Lion Inn in Montauk—announced his withdrawal to the park commission on Aug. 15, citing the proposal’s time frame as too short to prepare for the 2017 season.
While the current license agreement with John Ambrose and Sam Chernin, the owners of Seaside Johnnies, which overlooks Oakland Beach and the Long Island Sound—it is open seasonally from April until September—expires at the end of 2016, the park commission is facing a possible restaurant vacancy, as it has not yet reached a deal with Ambrose to either extend its current agreement, or enter into a new one.
According to Rye Town Attorney Paul Noto, the park commission rejected a Seaside Johnnies license extension once in 2014 and again in 2015.
The operators of Seaside Johnnies, who first opened the restaurant in Rye Town Park in 2000, are seeking a 10-year license to continue managing the restaurant, and are proposing to expand on their current restaurant theme, while adding a tropical twist. With proposed refurnishing for the beachfront snack bar and main restaurant, the proposal also includes updates to equipment. In total, the construction cost is estimated at $1 million, according to the proposal.
Despite the risk of the restaurant going vacant in 2017, Killian said that the commission is not certain that it will reach a deal with Ambrose. “I feel strongly that we should hire a restaurant consultant to help us generate more options,” she said.
According to Rye Town Supervisor Gary Zuckerman, a Democrat and president of the commission, the park, which already struggles to break even financially each year, will lose approximately $100,000 if the restaurant does not reopen next year. “The commission apparently desires that a new [RFP] be issued and that a consultant be retained for that purpose, but there is just no resolution for that at the present time,” he said.
Killian and Zuckerman both said that if a restaurant vacancy occurs, the commission would possibly entertain temporary food trucks; however, Zuckerman said that food trucks could present a number of issues, including the location of the trucks. “People won’t leave the beach to walk to the parking lot,” he said.
The Rye Town Park Commission—which consists of representatives from the city and town of Rye, and the villages of Port Chester, Rye Brook and the Rye Neck section of the village of Mamaroneck—is responsible for setting policy at the park and governing it’s operations.
The park has been around since the early 1900s and includes pavilions, a beach, a duck pond and service facilities; it’s located at 95 Dearborn Ave., off of Forest Avenue in the city of Rye.
Rye City Mayor Joe Sack, a Republican and member of the park commission, declined to comment about the future of Seaside Johnnies, but noted that he and Killian are “on the same page.”
The park commission will have until Oct. 7 to make a decision on whether or not to accept Ambrose’s proposal.
Port Chester Mayor Dennis Pilla and Ambrose could not be reached for comment, as of press time.
