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The former home of Scrimshaw restaurant in Greenport. It will soon reopen at Barbabianchi. (Credit: Katharine Schroeder, file photo)

Scrimshaw restaurant in Greenport will not reopen this season and a Manhattan restaurateur and chef has signed a lease to operate in its place, northforker has learned.

Chef Frank DeCarlo, owner of the rustic Italian restaurant Peasant in Nolita, has signed a lease for the building at 102 Main Street in Greenport.

“Honestly he’s been interested in it for a few years and the timing just worked out,” said Andrew Rowsom, one of the owners of Preston’s and of the building.

DeCarlo could not be reached for comment this week.

Scrimshaw owner Rosa Ross confirmed that she would not reopen the restaurant, which she closed following the Shellabration festival in December. Greenport Village Building Department officials discovered issues with the building after a small kitchen fire broke out in September, she said.

Ross, a Hong Kong native who opened the Asian-influenced restaurant in 2004, decided to close the business rather than take on the repairs. Rowsom said he is currently addressing those issues.

Ross’ fans can still find her dumplings for sale at The Market in Greenport and can look forward to The Red Dumpling Truck, a joint food truck venture with fellow chef Greg Ling, this summer.

“I’m going to do pop-ups and I’m going to do cooking classes and concentrate on the dumpling truck,” Ross said. “You have to look forward, not backwards.”

Greenport Village will have several new restaurants when the 2017 summer kicks off.

Plans for The Lucky Bee, an outpost of the Manhattan pan-Asian restaurant with the same name, and The Olive Branch Café, a Mediterranean eatery, were also recently announced. And Alison and Keith Bavaro of Shelter Island’s SALT will open the new restaurant PORT at the home of the former Blue Canoe on Third Street.

With Kelly Zegers

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