Chain Mexican food coming to village

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Rockville Centre will have the first Qdoba on Long Island.

The Board of Zoning Appeals approved a substantial occupancy permit for Qdoba, a chain Mexican restaurant, at 298 Merrick Road, the former location of Harmon Drugs. Franchise owner Chad Cohen’s attorney, Wayne Edwards, said that Qdoba is a “fast casual” restaurant, which means it serves higher quality food than a fast food restaurant, but does not have waiter service. Panera and Chipotle are the most famous “fast casual” restaurants.

“[Rockville Centre] has a lot of great destination restaurants, so people come from out of the area,” said Edwards. “They come here to dine. A fast casual restaurant is not a destination restaurant. Basically it picks up its business from people who travel on the road into the village… So we’re not bringing people from outside.”

He also said that on average, people spend 28 minutes at Qdoba — eight minutes to pick up their food and 20 minutes to eat.

Because the building is adjacent to Municipal Lot 8, it does not have to provide more parking — otherwise it would need 31 spaces under village code.

Nevertheless, Edwards also brought in a traffic expert from VHB Engineering, Daniel Winkelman, to prove that there would be enough parking available. He studied the street parking on Merrick Road and Municipal Lots 1 and 8 on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday at busy periods, and came to the conclusion that there were always enough spaces.

BZA member Sal Romanello said that according to Winkelman’s study, there would be enough parking even without Lot 1. “You still have more available space than what you’re projecting,” he said. Winkelman said he included Lot 1 because the crossing over Merrick Road leads right to the building.

“I use that lot quite often myself,” said BZA member Ray Ventura of Lot 8. “I never have a problem getting a space.”

Maura Casey, the manager of Beach House, said that her business would probably not be affected, and people would not spend a lot of time in Qdoba anyway. “It’s so much of a takeout place,” she said. “Might affect Cabo more than us.”

Jack Golden, the bartender of the Corner Grill, agreed that a “fast casual” restaurant would not affect parking. “It’s takeout,” he said. “I don’t think that it’s going to matter, I guess. The parking is not enough. There are so many restaurants opening, so might as well.”

The BZA set the maximum occupancy at 118 people, which does not include the 30 employees. (There would be 10 at most on a shift.) There will be 80 seats, but the BZA included people standing on line.

Cohen said he hopes Qdoba will open in September. The closest locations are in Fresh Meadows, which Cohen owns, and John F. Kennedy airport.