Joe’s Garage, new downtown Riverhead restaurant, sets March 20 grand opening

It’s a dream come true for a guy who loves cars and considers his garage the center of his personal universe.

With its polished concrete floor and bar, a back bar designed to look like mechanic’s tool chests, overhead doors that open to the riverfront and racing memorabilia galore, Joe’s Garage, located on the ground floor at Summerwind Square on Peconic Avenue, has the look and feel of the perfect man cave.

And though the idea for the new downtown Riverhead restaurant grew out of partner Ray Dickhoff’s original plan to build a hot dog stand on the site, the menu at Joe’s Garage is a far cry from what diners might expect at a truck stop.

Joe’s “modern American comfort food” menu will emphasize “fresh, local and quality,” with everything made from scratch in the kitchen — even the bacon.

“Everything will be butchered on premises. We will grind our own burger meat every day and use fresh local vegetables and fish in season,” said chef Brian Burner. The bread, rolls and muffins will be baked fresh daily. Meats will be smoked in the kitchen’s smokers.

Burner said the thing that attracted him to Joe’s Garage was the owners’ commitment to quality, to producing something special and unique.

“There’s a lot of love in this kitchen,” Burner said, showing off its new stainless steel fixtures, grill and the hefty smokers. “There’s no love in those big corporate joints.”

Burner said he trained at the Culinary Institute of America, was the executive chef at East Wind and has worked at the Rainbow Room in NYC, Mirabelle in St. James and Star Boggs in Westhampton Beach.

Burner and Dickhoff were putting the finishing touches on the menu yesterday. Joe’s offerings will “meld modern American comfort food with fine dining,” Burner said. But prices will be reasonable, he said. Menu offerings range from a $10 burger with fries, cole slaw and pickle to $17 entrees.

The bar will offer 13 tap beers, mostly craft beers from local breweries such as Crooked Ladder and Long Ireland, Dickhoff said. There will be more than 20 bottled beers offered as well as an all-cans cooler selection “for the old-timers,” he said.

Joe’s will also offer a full cocktail list, with speciality drinks that “reflect who we are,” created by an “experienced mixologist,” Burner said.

“There will be the same amount of love and care put into our line of cocktails,” Burner said.

The 4,000-square-foot restaurant has indoor table seating for 66, with 24 stools at the bar. The overhead doors open onto a 2,000-square-foot heated patio for outdoor dining.

Local racing memorabilia — including the shell of Kyle Ellwood’s Legends car and fenders off race cars that have thrilled crowds on Riverhead Raceway’s oval — decorate the walls and ceilings. Model cars buzz around a track suspended from the ceiling over the bar.

Live music will be performed on a small stage that emerges — on a lift — from the floor in one corner of the restaurant. Dickhoff also envisions live music being performed on the patio in the summer. It will be an eclectic mix of music, he said.He also plans to have a outdoor clam bar on the patio.

Joe’s Garage — named for the Frank Zappa song — has been under construction for about a year now. It’s a labor of love for Dickhoff, an Aquebogue resident and builder. His construction company built Summerwind Square, in which he is a principal. His partners in the restaurant are brothers Wayne and Paul Steck. Wayne Steck is also a partner in the Summerwind project.

Though he hoped to open Joe’s Garage in November, it was delayed because Dickhoff had to focus his resources — people and finances — on finishing construction on all of Summerwind’s 52 apartments and getting certificates of occupancy on all of them, he said.

It’s been a long haul, Dickhoff acknowledges. But, he said, he’s very happy with how the entire project turned out and is excited for Joe’s grand opening on March 20.

“Everything’s in place, all permits are issued and we are ready to go,” Dickhoff said.

The restaurant plans a soft opening in advance of the grand opening with several invitation-only nights in the weeks ahead.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Peter Blasl
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