Lucharitos, with its fabulous dishes and drinks, continues to sizzle.
In 2021, Lucharitos grew as a brand and even began to expand beyond the East End, with the promise of more to come in 2022.
Marc LaMaina’s popular Latino cuisine, which already had several different iterations in Greenport, Mattituck, Aquebogue and Center Moriches (which hit the airwaves on Alex Guarnaschelli’s Food Network show Fix Me A Plate in 2020), opened the Lucha Express concession stand at Mattituck Cinemas in June and started serving cocktails there in November.
LaMaina plans to continue his partnership with the cinema into the new year. “We’ve been working on this since we started the [Lucha Express] project,” said LaMaina of the boozy offerings. “The direction we’re headed is a full movie-dining experience.” The businessman is also looking to add other family oriented features, such as games, to the theater in the future.
“I have three kids,” LaMaina said. “So everything that we do is kind of kid-oriented — designed for them to say, ‘hey, I want to go see Dad at work.’ ”
In addition to an off-the-fork opening in Melville, LaMaina is bringing Luchacubano to Riverhead. The latest Lucha offering will feature Cuban sandwiches and a new canned beer brewed by übergeek and is set to open in the new year.
