STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- No more pizza, parmigiana or pasta comes from the kitchen of Staten Island’s Puglia of Hester Street. The Great Kills Italian restaurant closed its doors about two weeks ago.
This was the fourth location for the Italian eatery, which first opened in the borough in Eltingville at 4255 Amboy Rd. in late summer, 2009.
Two years later, the restaurant moved into the former Carmen’s of Annadale. Hurricane Sandy destroyed the building in late October, 2012.
After a brief endeavor in Redbank, N.J. just after the Sandy fiasco, Puglia came back to Staten Island at 4200 Hylan Blvd. in Great Kills. It announced its opening in May, 2016 and after a significant remodel -- the building served as home for Lotus Garden and, prior to that, Sunny Palace -- Puglia opened in September. Mainstays of the menu included Southern Italian food and pizza in a linen-cloth setting.
The original Puglia of Hester Street of separate ownership was established in Manhattan’s Little Italy where it lives today at 189 Hester St.
But the Great Kills location soon will be home to another restaurant, Trattoria Toscana, slated for opening in early December. Ergys Kopshti, the executive chef and one of three partners in the venture, learned his craft in Florence, Italy.
Trattoria Toscana will serve upscale Italian food and keeps the same phone number as Puglia. The new restaurant can be reached at 718-605-6009.