Featured Story

Osprey Bar & Lounge offers soft ‘Drinksgiving’ opening

Poster on the Shelter Island House Facebook page announces tonight’s informal opening.

BY CYNDI MURRAY AND JULIE LANE

Caci at Shelter Island House is closed.

They’re calling it “Drinksgiving” at the new Osprey Bar & Lounge at Shelter Island House tonight when they’ll be serving free bar bites and serving drink specials during what owner Suzanne Walsh said is a “soft opening” for the new operation. 

Caci operators, who ran an upscale restaurant at Shelter Island House in the past year have decided to seek their fortune further west on Long Island, having found that Shelter Island thrives during the summer season, but slows once the weather cools, Ms. Walsh said, while planning the offerings for tonight’s opening.

This won’t be The Tavern that preceded Caci at the hotel on Stearns Point Road, she said. But just what it will be is going to depend on her polling of friends on the Island about what they want it to be, she said.

Last year, she and sister Janet Rogler brought in close family friends who were successfully operating Caci North Fork and all thought it would be a positive move.

They all remain tight friends, she said, but the business model just wasn’t right for a restaurant that wanted a year-round business, Ms. Walsh said.

Based on conversations she has had with friends on the Island already, she’s convinced that her decision to start small with Osprey Bar and Lounge is the best route.

If customers call for more, she can always expand, but sees it as better to start this way rather than to go large from the outset and have to cutback.

That there has been little information until today about the new operation was purposeful since Ms. Walsh said she preferred a soft opening at the start.