Mouths are watering in anticipation of the opening of Lombardi’s Market at Love Lane —and the good news is you won’t have to wait too long to dig in to their famous Italian specialty foods.
The new market could be open by early September, said manager Laura Lombardi whose family owns and manages five popular Italian eateries on Long Island.
Lombardi’s Market at Love Lane will be similar to Lombardi’s Market, an Italian deli and catering service in Holbrook. In addition to favorite Italian eats such as pasta Bolognese, brick oven pizza, chicken Marsala and meatloaf, the market will carry food items from local vendors, Lombardi said.
“We will definitely be utilizing that beautiful brick pizza oven,” she said. “I want to work with everyone on [Love Lane] so we won’t have the same things. There will be something for everyone.”
The Lombardi family began renting the space at the former Love Lane Market last week and has already been greeted with a warm welcome from the community, Lombardi said.
“It has only been one weekend and we are already getting such great support from the community,” she said. “We want to open as soon as we can. We are so excited for the new opportunity to be in the heart of Wine Country.”
Neighbors of the market are equally excited about its opening.
“Staring at a big, empty building on Love Lane everyday is never good,” Nicole Webb, general manger of Love Lane Kitchen, said last week. “We are super excited to see some fun stuff come in. Honestly there is more than enough [business] to go around.”
“I am a Proud Italian-American and did not see an Italian butcher out here,” said Christopher Pia, who leases the space to the Lombardi’s. “I had many businesses, caterers, restaurants, interested in that space. We even had a farmers market venue that would have worked well there, but the Lombardi name coupled with my Italian heritage clinched the lease for me. I’m sure it will bring traffic to the other businesses on Love Lane.”
The Lombardi family started more than three decades ago with a pizza parlor business in Holbrook and later expanded into Lombardi’s Market, Villa Lombardi’s catering hall and Mamma Lombardi’s, all in Holbrook, Lombardi’s On The Sound in Port Jefferson and Lombardi’s On The Bay in Patchogue.
This is their first North Fork location.
