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Light Rain A new café is coming to Glen Head
Flourish set to open in summer of 2021
Glen Head resident Chelsea Kravitz said it has been her dream to open her own brick-and-mortar bakery and café since 2013. Next summer, she will have her chance, as she plans to open the Flourish Bakeshop & All Day Café at 6 Railroad Ave. in Glen Head.
Kravitz, 30, said she has worked in restaurants since she was a teenager, both as a server and pastry chef. She has also spent time as a personal chef, and has made and sold her own baked goods from home as the Bakery Lady since 2017. She is passionate about food, she said, because it makes people happy, which she finds fulfilling.
With the opening of Flourish, Kravitz said patrons can expect high-quality breakfast and lunch foods with her own twist on them, making for more than a typical diner or café experience. She said she uses ingredients that many Long Islanders may find unfamiliar in certain dishes, such as her signature turmeric and ginger scones.
“I really just like to do different things,” Kravitz said, “play with different flavor profiles and pay homage to the food and chefs that I love.”
Kravitz joined the Sea Cliff Farmer’s Market as a merchant earlier this year, and market organizer and manager Amy Peters said she couldn’t get enough of her scones. Kravitz’s entire menu is special, Peters said, both from a taste and visual perspective, and her culinary sense is on point in every way.
“She’s very artistic,” Peters said. “Her stuff is beautiful, and besides being beautiful, it’s delicious, so she’s got it all going on.”
Flourish will open in the space formerly occupied by the Iron Horse Bar and Restaurant, which closed three years ago. The 1,700-square-foot building is essentially a “gut job,” Kravitz said, and it will take a great deal of work to get it to look the way she envisions. She said it would be a modern, bright and homey space, filled with antiques and artwork.
Kravitz noted that her love for food is not the only reason she wants to open her own restaurant. She said restaurants can be difficult places to work in, particularly financially. All 15 of her employees will be paid sustainable wages, as Flourish is meant to embody everything she believes in as a businesswoman. Businesses will prosper when workers are treated well, she said.
“The whole idea of opening my own place is because I want people to be able to do something that they really enjoy and love, [to] have a life out of it, to have a career out of it and have something sustainable out of it,” Kravitz said.
Gold Coast Business Association President Steve Warshaw said Flourish should be a great addition to the area, noting there are few cafés in Glen Head. Additionally, since the restaurant will be so close to the Glen Head Long Island Railroad Station, commuters can pick up food on their way to work.
Deborah Orgel-Gordon, a GCBA member and founder of the North Shore Biz Network, said it is exciting to see someone take over the Iron Horse’s empty space. She said the hamlet’s last great bakeshop was the Glen Head Bakery, which closed 12 years ago. Not only will Flourish be an excellent addition to the area, she said, but it will likely not draw customers away from other nearby businesses.
Orgel-Gordon added that Kravitz’s youth is another exciting aspect of Flourish’s opening. “It’s nice to see a new blood of people taking a chance on Glen Head and opening a business,” she said.
Warshaw noted that opening a business is difficult at any time, but especially a restaurant amid a global pandemic. Kravitz said it has been “terrifying” to watch the restaurant industry struggle over the last seven months, but she is optimistic about her eatery’s future.
“I’m trying to just have hope and faith that this is something that the community will really value and support and get behind,” Kravitz said. “Here’s hoping 2021 is better than 2020.”
