Transformation of historic theater, iconic businesses offer them a second act

A movie theater luncheonette-turned-diner.

The furniture store with a past life as an opera house.

And a bank, whose owners dream it will soon become a hub for live theater.

Whether they started out as theaters or will soon make their stage debut, these Long Island buildings underwent transformations of theatrical proportions.

For Laurel Diner in Long Beach, Goldin Furniture in Greenport and the Strongbox Theater in East Rockaway, traces of their roots still remain embedded in the architecture or design of the space. These owners and community members hope to honor that history for generations to come.

'Right this way, your table's waiting'

I was thinking about all this nostalgia to the old theater and I thought, you know what, we should really embellish on that.

— Peter Loucas, co-owner of Laurel Diner

Brothers Andrew and Peter Loucas grew up working in their father's diner in East Harlem.

"By the time I was 15, I was giving him days off on the weekends so he could go fishing while I ran the store," said Andrew Loucas, 50. "His goal for us was to learn the business, and to value hard work."

But their father, who came to the United States from Cyprus, wanted his sons to venture into the corporate world when they grew up. Peter, 48, became an accountant, and Andrew worked as a mechanical engineer.

Then, in 2006, Peter learned about a potential investment opportunity from one of his clients: A diner for sale in Long Beach.

"We were intrigued by the real estate portion of it," Loucas said.

While they decided whether to buy it, Loucas hung around the diner for a week, monitoring sales from behind the register. He bonded with the patrons and owner, who had been serving the community for 17 years.

That's how Loucas learned of the history behind Laurel Diner.

"Everyone that came in who was a loyal customer or a native there, a lot of them would tell me about the theater part of the building," he said.

Opened in 1932, the diner was once known as Laurel Luncheonette. It was attached to a movie theater, so guests could enjoy egg creams and cheeseburgers before heading to their feature presentation, said Loucas. Long Beach native Billy Crystal spoke fondly of the theater in his autobiographical theater special, "700 Sundays," filmed for HBO in 2014.

"You could buy candies and whatnot from the luncheonette and take them with you to your movie," he added. "A lot of customers confessed to stealing candy before they would go, because they had these huge racks with different types of candies."

Loucas wanted to pay homage to this era when he and his brother bought the diner.

"I was thinking about all this nostalgia to the old theater and I thought, you know what, we should really embellish on that," he said. "The place at the time was 80 years old, so we started to leverage the old theater in our marketing and branding, and we spruced up the place."

They added framed classic movie posters and old Laurel Theater photos to the back wall. Slowly but surely, sales began to increase, Loucas said.

Then came Superstorm Sandy in 2012, devastating Long Beach.

"The building was falling apart," Loucas said. "The restaurant was in really bad shape. There were holes in the floors behind the counter; you had to really watch where you were going."

The brothers decided to use this time to renovate the diner, adding splashes of red and orange with Art Deco-style booths and signage throughout the space.

'My perfectly beautiful room'

When you walk into the back portion of the furniture store, it is literally the theater as it was built, but filled with beds and La-Z-Boy recliners.

— Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi

'Money makes the world go around'

We want to be a home for new talent... I'm committed to this, not just for the community but for myself. This is my dream.

— Tony Leone, owner of Strongbox Theater

By Rachel Weiss

rachel.weiss@newsday.com@RachMWeiss

Rachel Weiss joined Newsday in 2016. As a real estate/living multimedia reporter, Rachel writes feature stories and contributes to and appears in on-camera video packages. She was the lead reporter on Newsday’s LI Acts of Kindness series.