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www.newbuffalotimes.com
THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2022
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Beachy, groovy ‘Belly Flop’ opens in Long Beach
hen Yvonne Farina said she and her husband, Joe, moved to the area after living in Chicago for so many years they fell so much in love with it, they decided to open not one, but three restaurants there. “It’s a great place - I used to think, ‘I didn’t know this existed, but had I known, I would’ve been here a long time ago,” she said. In Chicago, Yvonne said they worked in the restaurant industry for “a lot of great people.” “It finally got to the point where we got married and decided: It’s time for us to have our own,” she said. While Farina’s Supper Club (located in a 100-year-old building, the former Duneland Beach Inn) opened at 3311 Pottawattamie Trail in Michigan City last June, Yvonne said that they reopened it this past January after closing for remodeling. Recently, they’ve opened Belly Flop, a groovy beach-shack restaurant located at 2411 St. Lawrence Avenue in Long Beach. By late summer or early fall, they hope to open Farina’s Café at 825 Franklin Street, also in Long Beach. Yvonne said that the building that houses Belly Flop has always been some type of café. When the owners approached them and asked them to take it over, she and Joe couldn’t say no. “They didn’t want to let the community down by closing something they loved so much, so this has been our dream for the community - just making it more, making it better for everyone,” Yvonne said. “Making it better for everyone” is no problem for Chef Joe: According to Yvonne, he’s the “most creative chef I’ve ever worked with.” “Even though there’s a lot out there, he never comes up short on his ideas…It’s a lot of marketing ideas, there’s a lot of food with it, there’s maybe a little bit of novelty items he likes to bring into something – it could be old fashioned banana split
BY FRANCESCA SAGALA
for the community, such as a smoke out in the fall and an oyster social at the end of this month, with different sides and wine pairings. On Saturdays and Sundays, they also do a prime rib sandwich, where Joe said they roast off whole prime ribs “chill them down a little bit, slice them and serve them with au jus on a custom sesame roll (courtesy of Tim Foley from Bit of Swiss).
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Yvonne and Joe Farina welcome the community to their newest business venture, Belly Flop
bowls,” she said. At Belly Flop, Joe said they serve donuts from Do Rite Donuts by Lettuce Entertain You out of Chicago on Saturday and Sunday mornings as well as bagels from Once Upon a Bagel out of Chicago’s North Shore. Different croissants, such as ham and cheese, chocolate and plain are also on the menu. For lunch, there’s Italian sandwiches made with bread from Bit of Swiss out of Stevensville. Vegetables for salads come from Hebron Farms, a local Michigan farmer. Joe said they also plan on hosting food events
elato from Local Vero will be coming soon from Vero’s Caffe Gelato in Chicago. Joe said they plan on having a couple of their own specialty flavors that can’t be found anywhere else. Cupcakes and other different desserts will also be featured throughout the year. Beverages include coffee with almond, soy and oat milk, different wines and craft beers and lemonade and teas. For Farina’s Café, the couple is planning to serve homemade pastas, with Joe adding that they have a pasta machine that will be arriving soon from Italy, as well as different kinds of sauces and cuts and ravioli. To make the authentic Italian dining experience complete, they’ll also be doing 30 wines by the glass and several craft cocktails “The food will be more casual than the Supper Club – different salads, appetizers and really cool, hot sandwiches,” Joe said. Yvonne said accommodating the community is one of her top priorities. “The community has accepted our good and our bad and we’re fortunate to have the people to support us in all of our ventures so far,” she said. Belly Flop is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 8 to 11 a.m. for breakfast and 11 a.m. o 6 p.m. for lunch. Farina’s Supper Club is open Wednesday through Sunday from 4 to 10 p.m.
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