Restaurateur Marc LaMaina’s latest venture is all fun and games.
The man behind the Lucharitos brand opened Burgercade, an American casual eatery decked out with retro arcade terminals, at the location of his shuttered LuchaCubano restaurant in downtown Riverhead Thursday.
While eating hamburgers and chicken fingers, patrons can mash the buttons on the “Super Mario Bros.” machine or shoot the plastic rifle while playing “Big Buck Hunter.” The menu also boasts chicken sandwiches, wings, a fish sandwich and for dessert, bubble waffles, regular or infused with Fruity Pebbles, served with vanilla ice cream.
The joint also grills up all-beef wieners courtesy of Snap-O-Razzo, Lake Grove native and chef Ralph Perrazzo’s company that serves maplewood smoked hot dogs around the country.
The sights and sounds radiating from the games are pretty flashy, but LaMaina’s hopes for the venture are pretty bare bones: “Just put out a really good product that’s a super affordable price.” A cheeseburger costs $5.55, and a hot dog runs for $4.95. The priciest item on the menu, a Bailey’s mud slide, will set a customer back $10.
A family man when he’s not conjuring up new business ideas, LaMaina said he believes Burgercade will welcome people of all ages. For parents of young kids — like LaMaina’s — he is currently working on an outdoor seating area.
“I licensed the sidewalk from the town and we’re putting a parklet outside,” he said. “We’ll have 10 picnic tables out there with umbrellas. It will be a nice spot to get away from the arcade if parents want to leave their kids inside, go outside, relax and eat.”
The games take quarters and cost either 50 cents or $1. In addition to the classic game terminals, LaMaina even scored a quarter machine for those customers short on change. Each week, LaMaina said he will switch a different game to free play. This week’s free option is the ’80s child’s personal favorite, “NBA Jam.”
While the percussive power of Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” and the new wave angst of the Talking Heads’ “Burning Down The House” may not be LaMaina’s personal musical taste, the ’80s bangers that boom above the “Super Mario Bros.” theme complete the retro vibe of his latest venture.
The restaurateur’s idea for an arcade dates back to LuchaCubano, which he hoped to expand with an arcade next door. After shuttering that restaurant, he decided to offer either burgers or tacos with retro games. In the downtime between serving Cuban sandwiches and hamburgers in Riverhead, he and various partners transformed Mattituck Cinemas from a theater that could no longer project first-run blockbusters to a single-screen second-run movie house with other entertainment ventures, including live wrestling matches, the Axe & Smash Axe Throwing Lounge and Smash Paint.
LaMaina said that in the coming weeks, he will even have a pop-up version of Burgercade at Mattituck Cinemas. The theater already has some arcade games, and soon its Lucharitos-run concession stand will offer the casual American eats the big brother Riverhead location serves.
