Something unusual is happening in Manhasset right now. The two commercial spines of the town are moving in opposite directions in the same two weeks. Northern Boulevard has more open doors than it has had in years, with three new storefronts on Manhasset Row and a full restaurant buildout at the old TGI Fridays site. Plandome Road, meanwhile, just went dark after its summer street-closure series ended, and it will stay that way until the Halloween crawl in October.
If you live here, that split is the story of your August. Where you eat, park, and spend a Thursday night looks different than it did in June, and different again than it will in September.
The Miracle Mile Row That Finally Filled In
For most of 2025, the strip between 1575 and 1595 Northern Boulevard was a stretch of empty glass that Miracle Mile drivers stopped noticing. That changed over the last nine months. Manhasset welcomed three new storefronts to Manhasset Row between 1575 and 1595 Northern Blvd. over the past few months, with Sweetgreen the first to open on Nov. 25, 2025, at 1593 Northern Blvd. This is the fourth Long Island location for the Los Angeles-based chain, which also has restaurants in Garden City, Woodbury, and Huntington Station.
LaserAway followed at 1595 Northern Blvd. after its Jan. 12 opening, offering a range of services such as hair removal, tattoo removal, injectables, and body contouring from the Beverly Hills-headquartered chain. Visual Comfort & Co. took the third bay. That gives Manhasset Row a specific character now: a fast-casual salad counter, a dermatology clinic, and a lighting showroom, all on the same block. It is a very 2026 mix of tenants, and it tells you what Castagna and the other Northern Boulevard landlords believe about the daytime foot traffic they have to work with. Lunch, wellness, and the trades that serve the housing stock behind them.
For residents, the practical read is simpler. The southbound side of the Miracle Mile between Shelter Rock and Community Drive is worth a fresh look. If you had written it off during the vacancy years, the block has a working reason to stop again.
What's Going Into The Old TGI Fridays
The bigger news sits half a mile east. Tony's Di Napoli is aiming to open its first Long Island location around Thanksgiving, bringing the family-style Italian restaurant one step closer to its debut in Manhasset at the former TGI Fridays building at 1445 Northern Blvd. on the Miracle Mile, which will be Tony's Di Napoli's first location outside New York City's five boroughs.
The building matters here. That corner has been a chain-restaurant address for a generation, and the interior is being kept rather than gutted. A grand staircase, uncovered and restored from the Lorraine Murphy era, sits at the center, dropping down to a large flexible space with several options for private dining. If you remember eating at Lorraine Murphy's before it became TGI Fridays, that detail is worth the trip on opening night by itself.
There is also a Long Island story inside the ownership. Before Tony's Di Napoli became a New York City institution, the Wetanson family founded the Wetson's hamburger chain in Levittown, and third-generation owner Stuart Wetanson has said opening in Manhasset brings three generations of the family together while returning to the community where their restaurant legacy began. A Thanksgiving open is aggressive for a project this size, and Wetanson has been transparent about the risk. He has said the restaurant will not be taking holiday reservations at this location until they are more certain everything is tracking on schedule.
Two practical points for the neighborhood in the meantime. The 1445 site sits directly across from the Americana, so construction traffic and delivery staging will be visible from the Cartier and Hermès sidewalks through the fall. And if Tony's does hit Thanksgiving, it changes the Miracle Mile's dinner geometry. Right now the reservation-driven Italian names in the area are Cipollini inside the Americana and Stresa on Plandome Road. A 200-plus-seat family-style room at Northern and Community would be the first true group-dinner Italian option on this stretch since Bertucci's closed.
A Free Concert On Thursday The 20th
While the boulevard is loud, the town's evening entertainment has quietly moved off Plandome Road and onto the park circuit. The Mary Jane Davies Green Monday-night series ran through the first week of August. What remains on the calendar in the village itself is a Town of North Hempstead concert at Whitney Pond Park at Community Drive.
The details worth putting on your phone:
Soul Jam Revue, a Tribute to Philly Soul Thursday, August 20 at 7 p.m. Whitney Pond Park, Community Drive & Community Drive East, Manhasset Free. Bring a chair.
The Town has been consistent about the format across the summer, and the Whitney Pond shows have historically been the least crowded of the North Hempstead lineup because the park sits behind the Miracle Mile rather than on a residential street. If Mary Jane Davies felt packed in July, the walk-up experience here is different. Parking is on the Community Drive side, and the lawn faces west, so a 7 p.m. start means the first thirty minutes are into the sun.
Plandome Road After Al Fresco
The Plandome Road street-closure nights are over for the year. The Manhasset Chamber of Commerce wrapped up another successful season of Manhasset Al Fresco on Sunday, July 12, drawing one of its largest crowds yet for an evening of outdoor dining, live music and family-friendly entertainment along Plandome Road. Co-president Antonietta Manzi said the event was overwhelmingly successful, and that the Chamber is happy with the timing in early June and July because so many people are still in town before leaving for summer vacations.
That timing choice is the interesting part for anyone doing the math on downtown foot traffic. The Chamber has explicitly decided that late July and August are dead weeks on Plandome Road and moved the flagship event earlier. If you have been on the street on a Sunday night in the last three weeks, you have felt that. Louie's, Greens Irish Pub, and Stresa are open and steady, but the sidewalk is quiet by 9 p.m., and the parking that Al Fresco pulls off Andrew Street is fully available again.
The upside for residents right now is real. Reservations that were impossible in June are walk-in tables in August. If you have been meaning to try the Kissaki omakase counter or the Cipollini patio at the Americana, the two weeks between the concert and Labor Day are the softest window on the calendar. The Chamber's next major activation is Halloween on Plandome Road, so you have roughly nine weeks of the quiet version of downtown before the Sunday closures start again.
An August Weekend, Put Together
If you want a single Saturday-into-Sunday that uses what is actually running this month, here is a version that reflects the current calendar:
- Saturday morning coffee at Ralph's Coffee inside Ralph Lauren at the Americana. The first Ralph's Coffee on Long Island opened at the Americana Manhasset in 2023, located inside the Ralph Lauren. It opens with the mall and clears out by 10:30.
- Walk the Miracle Mile north side down to Manhasset Row. Look at the new Visual Comfort showroom even if you are not shopping. It is the most restrained retail buildout on the strip.
- Lunch at Sweetgreen at 1593 Northern, or at Toku inside the Americana if you want a real sit-down. Toku is a destination for modern Asian dining that is predominantly Japanese with Chinese elements and touches of Thai, in a space created by architects Bentel & Bentel based on a 19th century Japanese home brought into the 21st century.
- Saturday evening on Plandome Road while it is quiet. Walk from Louie's down to Mary Jane Davies Green and back.
- Sunday morning at the Port Washington Farmers Market. It is the closest walkable market to Manhasset, and it combines local shopping with a waterfront setting overlooking Manhasset Bay, with fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers and specialty foods, and Town Dock a short walk away.
- Thursday the 20th, close the week with the Soul Jam Revue concert at Whitney Pond.
What This August Actually Tells You About Manhasset
Read the two axes together and the pattern is clear. The Miracle Mile is entering a new tenant cycle after several soft years, with a national chain restaurant preparing a landmark corner and three new leases just west of it. Plandome Road is running on a compressed programming calendar that concentrates activity into June, early July, and October, and leaves the rest of the summer to the local regulars. If you own here, that is a useful thing to know. The commercial energy in town has quietly shifted north to Northern Boulevard, and the village center has become the quieter half of the equation for most of the year.
If you are thinking about what all of this means for your block, your commute, or your next move, Elaine Tian works these micro-markets every day and is happy to talk through it. Schedule a free consultation whenever you want a direct read on how the Manhasset map is changing.
