Owners of Tony’s Asian Fusion plan quick-service Japanese restaurant on Route 58

The owners of Tony’s Asian Fusion restaurants are looking to open a new Japanese restaurant on Route 58. 

Tony Liu and Tony Asta, who own several restaurants across Suffolk County, told Riverhead Town planners today that they want to open up a quick service restaurant on the corner of Harrison Avenue and Route 58, currently the site of a Mattress Firm store that has decided not to renew its lease, they said. 

The restaurant would primarily serve sushi, poke bowls and salads, they said. They said the owner of Magic Fountain in Mattituck is interested in selling them ice cream to serve at the restaurant.

Liu and Asta would need to go through the town’s site plan approval process to make improvements to the building and the parking lot, and change its use to a restaurant, town planners said.

Liu and Asta also inquired about sites for a potential indoor recreation center with games and activities for people of all ages. They asked town planners about the viability of two sites — one in an industrial zone on Edwards Avenue and another on a commercial lot in between the Tanger Outlets shopping centers.

They said after the meeting that the site at 449 Edwards Avenue, currently an ATV and motorbike park, was the more likely option. The zone allows the building to be 120,000 square feet, as envisioned by Lie and Asta, and would allow the construction of an indoor go-kart track. 

Pursuing the other property, for which the owners have a special permit to construct outlet stores on, would likely require a zoning change for the parcel. The property is within the manufacturer’s outlet center overlay zone, which, under a zoning change passed by the Town Board last month, permits the recreational uses and restaurant they seek to build as accessory to a manufacturer or retail sales center. 

Senior Planner Greg Bergman said he thinks it would be a little “problematic” to change the town’s zoning to fit a specific developer. But Dawn Thomas, the town’s head planning and economic development official, said that she could see whether Town Board members would be open to changing the zoning of the property to allow the recreation center as a specially permitted principal use.

She said it could take a bit of time to rezone the property, but that the new comprehensive plan would support that type of use of the property. “It’s like a destination retail use, it’s sort of what the west end of [Route] 58 is designated for,” she said.

The meeting between Liu, Asta and town officials on Tuesday came during the first pre-submission conference meeting open to the public in recent memory. The conferences are for developers to discuss their plans with town officials and ask questions before formally submitting an application.

Supervisor Tim Hubbard announced to the public on Feb. 8 that the meetings would be open to the public, in accordance with Section 301-305 (A) of the Riverhead Town Code. The meetings take place on Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. in the Town Hall meeting room. Tuesday’s meeting was the first since Hubbard’s announcement to have an item on the agenda. The agendas for pre submission conferences are viewable on the town’s website here.