Bay Shore's popular Mexican restaurant Verde Kitchen & Cocktails to reopen after kitchen fire

Two days after a kitchen fire shuttered Verde Kitchen & Cocktails in Bay Shore, the popular Mexican restaurant is reopening. 

"Our plumbers, electricians, alarm company, fire-suppression company, the Town of Islip, the health department, the fire departments — everyone jumped in to help us," owner Anthony Tartaglia said. "We've got all our inspections and we open at noon on Saturday." 

The fire broke out around 1:17 a.m. Thursday at the restaurant on East Main Street when it was unoccupied, said Bay Shore Fire Department Chief John Ippolito Jr. 

When Fire Department officials arrived on the scene, they found a blaze in the kitchen that they were able to hold back with a fire extinguisher until the first two engines arrived on the scene, Ippolito said.

The fire was contained to the kitchen area and was fully extinguished in less than an hour, he said.

Tartaglia said that it was one piece of equipment — a 48-inch flat-top with a double oven — that caught fire. "We don't know if it was grease or some food that got caught, but it has now been replaced." 

There were no injuries, and the cause of the fire, he said, is not believed to be criminal.

Two apartments above the restaurant were temporarily evacuated but the residents were permitted to return, the chief said.

The Verde team is also putting the finishing touches on a new location, a two-story building two blocks away at 55 W. Main St. Tartaglia said he hopes to open early in the new year.

Newsday's Erica Marcus contributed to this story.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.