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Hudson Market owner Anthony Coates outside his Wading River shop (Credit: Monique Singh-Roy)

Aldo’s Coffee, Catapano Dairy Farm Cheese and Goodale Farms milk are all coming to Wading River this spring via the soon-to-open Hudson Market on Sound Road.

Scheduled to open in April, the grab-and-go coffee shop and market will sell a variety of North Fork goods, including Aldo’s baked goods, as well as ice cream and gelato.

Owner Anthony Coates spotted the empty space last fall while campaigning during his run for Riverhead Town supervisor. He may not have gotten that job, but he did snag the shop.

“I held a press conference outlining my platform on the pond in Wading River on what felt like the hottest day of the year,” Coates said. “All the while I watched the amount of cars go by from the podium.”

Following several years of stagnation and shuttered businesses, historic downtown Wading River is experiencing a slow resurgence with the opening of restaurants like North Fork Bacon and Smokehouse, Mesquite Tex Mex and My Creperie in the last two years. Another restaurant, Fiesta Mexicana, is slated to open in the former Amarelle space in mid-March.

Coates envisions all of the businesses supporting one another.

“When one person succeeds, then it isn’t so crazy for the next person to try and so on and so on,” he said. “Each business cross-pollinates the other, so I hope that I can play a role with my neighbors in making this a fun place.”

Coates, a financial investment advisor, developer and political advisor, is ready to add entrepreneur to his list of titles.

“I said one day I would want to open a place or a chain of places, so this is sort of ‘Tony’s test kitchen,’ ” he said. “I’m pretty close to tying down a place in Huntington and while I wont be slinging bagels or pouring coffee, I think there’s something neat about all of these, what I term, touch-stone businesses.”

The shop’s name, Hudson, came from Coates’ interest in the British explorer Henry Hudson. Coates plans to turn the shop (or shops) into a family affair, running it with his daughters. Even his dog, a black Labrador named Joe, will have a role as the store’s unofficial mascot.

“I’ll have about 10 chairs, I’ll have Wi-Fi, it’ll be a cozy place and we’ll do music in the summer,” he said. “It’s obviously small, but I think that’s what I always enjoyed as a kid. Wherever I lived there was always that little place where you got the town’s gossip, you talked about yesterday’s news and you sat with your friends. And that’s what I hope this will become.”

Hudson Market is located at 5 Sound Road in Wading River. It’s scheduled to open in April.

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