Long Island Media Couple To Reopen Restaurant Come Spring

POINT LOOKOUT, NY — A Long Island media couple will wait to reopen their newly renovated restaurant in Point Lookout until exactly two years after shuttering it amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mo Cassara, a CBS Sports analyst and former Hofstra men’s basketball coach, and his wife Elisa DiStefano, the entertainment director for News 12 Long Island, announced on Instagram earlier this month that their renamed establishment, The Point, will reopen in April.

“We are so excited to open these newly painted doors & see all of your faces…,” the couple stated in a post on their restaurant’s IG account. “... We sincerely thank you for all the love and support and appreciate your patience during these very challenging times.”

Located at 70 Lido Blvd., the previously named Point Ale House was re-conceptualized from a bar-centric establishment to one focused on a new multipurpose kitchen. The Point will go from featuring 21 tap beers to six and from 21 televisions to nine, while outdoor seating will increase from 45 tables to more than 100.

The higher table count reflects the expansion of the kitchen to nearly three times its original size. It will include a ghost kitchen for new services: delivery, takeout and catering. A new party room is part of the reconfiguration.

“We got rid of what was more of an ale house and made it more of a family-friendly neighborhood bar and grill,” Cassara told Patch.

While the menu will remain essentially the same, options will be added exclusively for the new services, such as La Playa, a full-service taqueria with tacos, burritos, nachos, burrito bowls and quesadillas.

Cassara and DiStefano modeled the changes on their other restaurant in Point Lookout. MO’NELISA, located two blocks away at 28 Lido Blvd., has stayed open nearly every day since the COVID-19-related shutdowns started in March 2020. During that time, the restaurant (whose name puns on the couple’s first names and the famous portrait by Leonardo da Vinci) remained busy and profitable thanks to the takeout, delivery and catering services established before the pandemic.

“It taught us that we have to pivot and do something that’s ultimately successful,” Cassara said. “Hopefully by winter next year we’re not worrying about closing because we’re doing enough takeout and delivery.”

Cassara cited prolonged renovations, seasonality, and staffing and nationwide supply-chain challenges as the main reasons for delaying the reopening until April, prior to the restaurant’s busy season from Memorial Day to Labor Day. But other strategic and financial factors weighed into the couple’s decision.

“We said let’s kind of hunker down and finish this thing like we believe it needs to be done in order to be sustainable and successful over the course of the year moving forward,” he said. “And we decided that we just have to wait until the spring.”