The Five Points Cafe: Five Years in the Making

After more than five years, one of the most visible locations has in Sayville has opened its doors for business. Billed as the “Home of the Downtown Burger,” The Five Points Café, at the corner of Main Street and Railroad Avenue, officially opened last month.

Owners Jim Rooney and Sal Costa haven’t had an official grand opening yet, but they said that the restaurant has been quite busy for lunch and dinner. “We still need to work out a lot of the kinks,” Rooney said. “We are getting plenty of customer feedback as well as some constructive criticism.”

Many in town have been wondering when the restaurant would be finally open. “There were many challenges because of the location,” Rooney said. “It was a long, time consuming process. We did a lot of enhancements to the building in terms of aesthetics. But there were always a lot of eyes on the building and everyone had their own opinion.”

Rooney, who has no previous experience in the restaurant business, said it’s been fun, exciting and challenging so far. His partner, Costa, has some experience dating back to years ago but the two mainly are in the real estate business. They own the building, as well as the one next door, with their real estate offices located above the restaurant. “It’s much easier to just be a landlord,” Rooney said. “The only reason we decided to do this was because of the location. It’s a small place and much easier to manage.” The partners both live locally in Bayport.

The restaurant seats approximately 20 people but once the weather breaks, there will be additional seating outside, as well as casual entertainment. The menu offers what you would expect to find at a burger place. For starters, there’s buffalo wings, spinach & artichoke dip, mozzarella sticks, French onion dip & chips, chili and sliders. Sandwiches include a grilled or Cajun chicken, a classic reuben and BLT. There’s a nice selection of salads that range from grilled chicken to salmon or fresh ahi tuna.

Burger choices start with the classic available with or without cheese or bacon. There’s also a veggie and chicken burger offered. There’s a Buffalo burger, as well as a Steakhouse burger featuring blue cheese, onion straws and horseradish sauce. One popular choice is the Downtown burger, which consists of  blue cheese, bacon, lettuce and tomato. There’s also plenty of burger-friendly sides as well as milkshakes in vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coffee and cookies & cream flavors.

Rooney said the menu will be expanded down the road and they may even open for breakfast on the weekends. There’s also the possibility of doing catering and private parties in the future, he said. For right now, they are looking to build their after dinner crowd. There’s live music on Thursday nights and on St. Patrick’s Day, the restaurant will feature music and plenty of corned beef and cabbage and Guinness.

“We would love to recreate this concept somewhere else,” Rooney said. “We love the town of Sayville and that’s why we decided to stay and run this business. Anywhere else we would have just acted like the landlord.” Rooney said they may do an official opening later this month, so look out for the signs.