The Village of Floral Park’s Board of Trustees reserved a decision on a special permit use for a new restaurant at 12 Verbena Avenue during its meeting on Tuesday, May 5. The former restaurant, Poppy’s Place, closed in December 2023, and has since been purchased by new owner, Xavier Barzola.

The proposed restaurant, Barzola, is one of several restaurants Xavier Barzola owns, according to his daughter Arlene Barzola, who attended the meeting with the new head architect on the project, Demetris Demetriou.

Xavier Barzola was unable to attend the meeting due to being overseas, Demetriou said.

According to the village building department, once the owners obtain a special use permit from the board, as well as a final certificate of compliance from the building department, Barzola can open 8 a.m. until 1 a.m. everyday. An official opening date has not yet been confirmed.

During the meeting, Deputy Mayor Lynn Pombonyo said this is the second time people associated with the project have come before the village board for a special use hearing.

“We have been disappointed that the second set of plans took a long time to go into place, and we ran into a lot of bumps along the way, with the plans not necessarily being followed, and big gaps in the work that was being done,” Pombonyo said.

Demetriou said he is not the first architect on the project and that time had lapsed on the architect before him during the meeting. He said he has only been overseeing the project for about the last six weeks.

He said his work has included helping the owners ensure the property complies with building codes and ADA accessibility requirements, and that two new handicap bathrooms were added to the building. Demetriou said the building should be ready for a final inspection.

After the board’s questions, Mayor Kevin Fitzgerald passed a motion to reserve a decision on the special use permit for the restaurant.

The board then approved a contract for Nassau County to receive $10,000 per year for four years under the Stop-DWI Program. From there, each board member read from the board reports.

Source: LI Press