It was early 2011, and these two broke bartenders had hatched a plan to take over a recently vacated Patchogue restaurant to open their own spot.
On a whim, they called the space’s leaseholder, Scottie Campbell, who also happened to be their longtime boss at the Dublin Deck, also in Patchogue.
“Scottie was like, ‘Can you meet in 10 minutes?’” recalled James Bonanno.
He and his barkeep buddy, Dave Johnson, hopped in a car.
Here was their pitch…
