Franklin Avenue Got Two New Restaurants. Neither Owner Was a First-Timer.

When a restaurant closes on Franklin Avenue, the assumption is usually that someone new will take a swing at it, maybe make it work, maybe not. That is not what happened this year. Within a few blocks of each other, two long-running spaces changed hands, and both landed with operators who had already proven their concept somewhere else before they touched Garden City. That is a different kind of signal than a vacancy filling up. It means the people who know how to read a market decided this one was worth betting on twice.

The Corner Everyone Already Knew

Primehouse Steak & Sushi had been a fixture at the corner of Franklin Avenue and Ninth Street since chef-owner Art Gustafson opened it in July 2019. Gustafson also owns Chadwick's and Salsa Mexicana in Rockville Centre, so this wasn't a first restaurant finding its footing. It was a working operation with six years behind it when Steve Squitiro and Andrew Affa's SAF Hospitality Group took over in late 2025.

They didn't rush the transition. Primehouse kept its chef and staff through the holiday season before closing in January 2026 for a full renovation. What opened on Thursday, June 18, was The James, the second location of a modern American brasserie concept the same partners had already built in Babylon in May 2024. The Garden City dining room seats roughly 130 guests, noticeably smaller than the group's other rooms, which run past 220. That's worth sitting with for a second: a hospitality group with a proven brasserie format chose a smaller footprint here, not a bigger one. That reads less like a company chasing growth for its own sake and more like one being deliberate about how it enters a new town.

The Garden City Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon-cutting on June 17, drawing chamber members, village trustees, and local elected officials. The chamber happens to be marking its centennial year in 2026, which made the timing feel less like routine business turnover and more like a moment the village noticed.

A Few Doors Down, the Same Logic

The other new arrival on Franklin Avenue tells a similar story from a different direction. Jimmy Tsoumas opened his first Meli location in Forest Hills in January 2025. A year later, in January 2026, he brought the Greek restaurant to 815 Franklin Ave, with Executive Chef George Lambracos, who grew up in Astoria, leading the kitchen.

What's telling is why Tsoumas picked this stretch of Franklin Avenue specifically. He has said he spent time at Novita and Waterzooi, two restaurants already established in Garden City, before deciding to open his own place nearby. In other words, the reputation of restaurants that were already succeeding on this street is what pulled a Queens-based restaurateur in. He wasn't testing an unproven block. He was joining one.

The Garden City debut also carried a community thread that's worth naming. The preview event benefited Life's WORC, a nonprofit headquartered at 1501 Franklin Ave that provides services to more than 2,000 individuals with developmental disabilities and autism and their families. The connection came together almost by accident, through a mutual friend who serves on the organization's board. It's a small detail, but it says something about how tightly this stretch of Franklin Avenue is woven together. New businesses here aren't arriving cold. They're plugging into relationships that already exist.

What the Buzz Actually Confirms

Andrew Affa, one of the partners behind The James, put it plainly after the opening: everybody told him the same thing, that Garden City had been wanting and needing a restaurant of that caliber. That's not a throwaway line from someone hoping to talk up a new spot. Affa's group already operates in Babylon and Northport, so he has a baseline for what real demand sounds like versus polite opening-week enthusiasm. When he says the reaction has been consistent, that's a group with other locations to compare it against, not a first-time owner hearing what they want to hear.

Taken together, what The James and Meli both confirm is that Franklin Avenue's lane is specific. It's elevated, but approachable, dinner-out dining, the kind that supports a raw bar and a dry-aged steak program on one end and a chef-driven Greek menu on the other. Neither operator tried to introduce something entirely foreign to the street. Both leaned into what Novita, Waterzooi, and Primehouse had already taught them worked here.

What This Means for a Friday Night

If you've tried to book a table on Franklin Avenue lately, you've probably felt this already. Two new, well-reviewed rooms opened in the same six-month stretch, on the same short avenue, both aiming at roughly the same evening crowd. That's more competition for a Friday reservation than the block has had in years, which is good news if you like having options and mildly annoying if you're used to walking into Waterzooi without a plan. Weeknights are still the easier bet. Weekends, especially now that both restaurants are past their opening-week rush and settling into steady regulars, are worth booking a few days out rather than same-day.

The Calendar Doesn't Stop When the Promenade Does

Franklin Avenue isn't the only part of downtown Garden City that reorganizes itself this time of year. The Chamber's 2026 Summer Promenade Series on Seventh Street ran a run of named theme nights, Belmont Festival in June, Big Pineapple Circus later that month, Red, White & Blue Night and Beach Bash in July, Dog Days of Summer and Nashville Night in August, wrapping on August 21. If you only pay attention to Seventh Street, it would look like Garden City's public calendar just went quiet for the fall.

It didn't. It moved a few blocks over. Downtown Vision, the organization behind Main Street's commercial district, has Fall Fest scheduled for Saturday, September 19, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with vendor booths lined up down the middle of Main Street. Seventh Street and Main Street are run by different groups with different seasons, which means the village doesn't really have an off-season downtown. It has a handoff.

A quick reference for anyone planning around all of this:

• The James — corner of Franklin Avenue and Ninth Street, opened June 18, 2026, ribbon-cutting held June 17
• Meli-Estiatorio — 815 Franklin Ave, opened January 2026
• Fall Fest — Saturday, September 19, 2026, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Main Street

The Real Takeaway

None of this happened by accident. Two multi-location hospitality groups, one from Babylon and Northport, one from Forest Hills, both looked at this specific stretch of Franklin Avenue and decided it was proven enough to build on rather than experiment with. That's a different kind of validation than a good Yelp review. It's operators with something to lose choosing to put it here.

The Evangelista Team pays attention to these shifts because they say something real about a town's direction, not because a new restaurant changes anyone's plans to move. If you're curious what all this growth on Franklin Avenue means for your own Garden City home, we're happy to walk you through a free home valuation whenever the timing feels right.