Unique Nassau Restaurant Focuses On Focaccia Bread

LONG BEACH, NY — Focaccia bread is a staple in many Italian restaurants. One man has taken people's passion for focaccia and turned it into its own dining experience in Long Beach.

At La Focacceria, patrons can choose from a dozen different toppings on focaccia.

It's the brainchild of owner John Edwards, who opened the eatery on July 3.

"I was in the baking business for many years," Edwards told Patch. "I ran a company called Cannoli Factory."

While there, Edwards also did product development for food service companies, including Costco.

"One of the items I made for Costco, about 10 years ago, was something called a three tomato focaccia," he said.

That remained in the back of his mind, even after Edwards retired. A couple of years ago, someone asked about that focaccia. At the same time, Edwards' daughter was running a health food business and a gym.

"So we started to play around with putting different topping on focaccia," he said. "It started to take some shape."

That led to creating pop-ups at some restaurants.

"It was really well received," Edwards said. "Now, I had to open a store."

The next step was finding a location. Edwards said it took a month to find the right fit.

"We looked in Williamsburg and neighborhoods where we thought it would click," he said. "But the rents are very high."

Ultimately, Edwards and his team found a workable spot in Long Beach on West Beech Street "that we thought would be a safe environment [and] not too much risk."

In the two months since finding a suitable location, Edwards said the unique menu is gaining a following with customers.

"It seems to be working," he said. "The people like the food."

Despite that, Edwards cautions La Focacceria is not profitable yet.

"That's the headache. I'm not a young guy, so sometimes I second guess myself," Edwards said. "The walk-in, sit-down restaurant, which I thought I had, has not really materialized. It's all about to-go."

Toppings include cheeseburger, taco, bolognese and chicken marsala.

"We can basically do anything on it," Edwards said.

Some selections have not proven as popular, so new items will replace the "slow movers."

In the kitchen, they bake the focaccia on 10-inch round dough, slice, drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil and toast it. At that point, the focaccia gets its toppings.

"The idea is that the bread is crisp and crunchy, and the toppings are fresh and flavorful," he said.

Edwards grew up in Brooklyn and calls the Rockaways home today. He's looking to hire a manager from Long Beach.

"The plan is to hopefully get the thing profitable and then pass the controls over to somebody else," he said.

Edwards feels his restaurant, which he refers to as a fancy Italian Chipotle model, is scalable, but expansion has to wait — for now.

"It might just be one and done. But if it really works well, and we get some more energy, maybe we do open multiple units," Edwards admitted. "I'm not sure. We're kind of making it up as we go along."