Eating Out

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A newly rebuilt Rye Grill & Bar is welcomed back to Rye

Linda Lombroso | The Journal News

Like a much-loved friend who's finally come home, the Rye Grill & Bar opened its doors yesterday to a cheery welcome from customers who had eagerly awaited its return.

At Friday night's private opening party, regulars were already reminiscing about their favorite dishes. Mollie and Brandon Rice, for example, couldn't wait to get another taste of fried calamari.

"So good," said Mollie, as she stood at the bar for the first time since the restaurant closed for renovations in summer 2007. "We used to come here every Friday and Saturday."

"And Tuesday, and Thursday," said Brandon, finishing her sentence.

For the Pearl Management Group - which also owns six other restaurants, including Ruby's Oyster Bar & Bistro and Morgan's Fish House, both in Rye - the return of the Rye Grill has been a long time coming.

On Memorial Day 2007, owners Jim Sullivan, Jan Fabry and Michael Fabry shut down the restaurant for renovations after 15 years in business. Over the past 1 1/2 years, they razed the building and built in its place a three-level, 14,000-square-foot structure with a clock tower, a front porch, two bars, an elevator and a party room.

Inside, it's all dark wood, clean lines and polished brass, with a golf theme on the main level (featuring photos by Jules Alexander and Evan Schiller) and a nautical feel upstairs.

"Rye in a nutshell," said Sullivan, 49, waiting for his first guests to arrive on Friday.

While the overall effect is that of an elegant, upscale country inn, the spirit is as down-to-earth as ever, he assures.

Diners have a choice of sitting at booths or tables.

"What I think was great about the Rye Grill is that it was good for everybody,'' he says. "It was a singles place, a place for families. We saw everybody here. You could have an old couple sitting next to a couple of guys in suits, and then you could have a mom with three kids. And that's what we really want to recapture. We just want to do it better."

Take the barroom, for example. The bar area was so active in the original Rye Grill that it could be difficult to get a drink. Sometimes customers were three-deep.

"If you didn't get here early, you used to have to leave and go somewhere else," longtime customer Gary Wade of Purchase said on Friday night. "Now there's plenty of room."

The downstairs bar area has a center round booth, several rectangular ones, a fireplace and plenty of space surrounding a 16-foot communal table.

Plus, Sullivan and his crew added a second bar to the upper level of the new restaurant, this time with a twist: No kids are allowed upstairs, even at the tables.

Since the original Rye Grill attracted such a mix of customers, explains Sullivan, couples out for a romantic dinner sometimes found themselves seated next to a "bratty 3-year-old." With an adults-only upper level, there'll be no such problem.

"We don't want to put our foot in our mouths here, but we don't want to be Applebee's,'' he says. "But we certainly want to be family friendly.''

So that means they have a kids' menu, too?

"This is a kids' menu!" quips Jan Fabry, pointing to selections that include everything from pizza, hot dogs and burgers to Idaho brook trout with crabmeat and Parmesan-crusted New York sirloin.

As Sullivan points out, the new menu - same prices and choices for lunch and dinner - is nearly identical to the old Rye Grill menu, with the exception of some new fish dishes and salads.

Chefs Billy Esteves and Brian Nelson are back from the original Rye Grill, says Sullivan, and they've kept "fan favorites" like that fried calamari, the goat-cheese salad, the Cajun chicken quesadilla, the four-layer dip and Rye Grill's "signature" dish: farfalle with hot Italian sausage, kalamata olives and spinach in a light tomato cream sauce.

"These are things people really wanted,'' he says. "Those things were synonymous with the Rye Grill.''

And these days, people also want reasonable prices. Salads start at $7, pizzas range from $9 to $12, sliders are $8, sandwiches start at $10 and entrees range from $19 (the farfalle) to $34 (grilled cowboy steak).

"We really aim to make them accessible and comfortable for everybody,'' he says.

It's a formula that's worked for Sullivan since he opened his first restaurant, Rockwell's, in Tuckahoe in 1984. With a partner, he added three more restaurants to the Rockwell's chain, then sold them all in 1989.

These days, Sullivan, a married father of three, resists being labeled the visionary behind a mini-empire that also includes Lexington Square Cafe in Mount Kisco, the Tap House in Tuckahoe and two restaurants in Connecticut: Elm Street Oyster House in Greenwich and 1020 Post in Darien.

Growing up in Yonkers, he started his restaurant career as a 13-year-old waiter at Ricky's Clam House. After graduating from Iona Prep in New Rochelle, he worked his way through college as a waiter, busboy and bartender, continuing on that track even as he lived for a stretch in Colorado.

In 1992, Sullivan joined forces with Jan Fabry, 50, to buy the Mug and Ale, on Station Plaza in Rye, just across from the Metro-North Railroad train station. Shortly afterward, the pair "did a complete redo,'' says Sullivan, transforming the spot into the Rye Grill & Bar.

Early on, Jan's nephew, Michael Fabry, 38, came on board as a food runner. And like many of those in upper-tier positions at Pearl Management's other restaurants, Michael rose through the ranks and in 1994 became a manager at the Rye Grill.

"We have a great connection with our customers," says Michael Fabry.

"We're trying to keep it casual,'' says Sullivan. "If you want to just grab a burger or something light, it's fine with us."

As for the feeling swirling around the newly invigorated Rye Grill, Sullivan and his partners are sweetly sentimental.

"It feels like it's been here forever,'' says Jan Fabry.

"Somebody was telling me the other day that there's nothing like this, that has this feel, this space,'' says Sullivan. "We're pretty proud of that.''

Item Special Note

Certificate expires 6/1/10.

SOLICITOR: Sue Galin