Proposal to Replace Villa Monaco in West Islip With a Medical Office Building
Fans of the old Villa Monaco in West Islip will be sad to learn that there are plans in place to tear down the restaurant and replace it with a two-story medical office. According to Islip Town records, if approved, an 8,000-square-foot medical office building would take over the site where the Italian restaurant and caterer once stood.
Back in 2014, Villa Monaco was the subject of the popular Food Network reality television show “Restaurant Stakeout,” where the owner of a New York City restaurant called “Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse” went to restaurants undercover to help them figure out their service problems.
A description of the episode from season five of the show said that the restaurateur’s daughter “fears that if the stale energy and archaic ways of running Villa Monaco in West Islip, N.Y., continue, in just a few short years the restaurant could become extinct!”
Owner Nicky LoMonaco’s daughter wanted to help her father improve the business.
“Without an intervention from Willie to help enlighten Nicky to the real problems at the restaurant, he could lose the business and his relationship with his daughter,” the show description went on to say.
A West Islip Chamber of Commerce event honoring the restaurant owners in 2017 said that Nicholas LoMonaco was born in Villa Bada, Italy, and came to Long Island in 1955. Often referred to as either “Nicky’s” or “The Villa,” the restaurant built a reputation as a charming local spot since its opening in 1970 as a pizzeria. LoMonaco opened the original Villa Monaco Restaurant in West Islip. In 1980 he moved Villa Monaco from Union Boulevard to 778 Montauk Highway. The Villa Monaco menu contained many family recipes handed down from generations.
The original building was constructed around 1945 with subsequent additions over the years.
During the public hearing, a community member, Brian Brannigan, president of the Babylon Beach Estates Association of West Islip, requested a traffic study expressing concerns about increased traffic due to previously approved projects and development. He also said that the expansion of medical offices and the hospital in the area has caused the community to become less “personal.”
“Change the signs to ‘Welcome to West Islip, Nothing Personal, Just Medical,’” he said. “It is destroying the feel of West Islip, all these corporate buildings.”
📷 Villa Monaco Facebook Page.
