Northport Sweet Shop Wins Best Luncheonette On LI: 'We're Grateful'

NORTHPORT, NY — Oh, how sweet it is. For the first time, Northport Sweet Shop was voted Best Luncheonette on Long Island in the 2025 FourLeaf Best of Long Island Awards.

The shop, located at 55 Main Street, has been in the Panarites family for its 96-year history. Owner Pete Panarites said he is "very proud" and proud of his family to have won the award.

"They always worked hard here over the years, serving the best quality food, ice cream and candy," Panarites told Patch.

Panarites, now 84, said he enjoys working, and said it was an "honor" to receive the award.

"I was blindsided, period, when someone mentioned it to me," he said. "There are a lot of other good stores in the area, so to be recognized with that is an honor. It's my father and mother who would have been proud to have gotten that over the years. It's a reflection on them."

Panarites said people sometimes ask him why he is still working at his age.

"It's very simple. I like what I'm doing, and that keeps me going."

Northport Sweet Shop has become known for its ice cream, with recipes being used across generations. Panarites, who inherited the skills from his father, is determined to pass it down. He taught his nephew and niece, as well as his niece's husband. Panarites recalls when he was ill in the hospital, he was on the phone with his niece's husband 11 p.m. at night teaching him how to make ice cream.

"I was laying in the hospital, telling him what ingredients and how much," Panarites said. "The nurse thought I was nuts."

In addition to the ice cream, Northport Sweet Shop prepares all the Americana food typical of a luncheonette: eggs, pancakes, hamburgers, chicken fingers, and BLT sandwiches, to name a few. The shop also serves soda and ice cream floats, egg creams, and sells chocolates and hard candy favorites.

"The Northport Sweet Shop is one of the few places where you can still feel like a kid in a candy store," FourLeaf wrote on its awards page.

The luncheonette has been around for so long, Panarites called it "part of my life." He also has watched Northport evolve over the years.

"I am very grateful being able to work at my age and very grateful to have the shop with my kids," he said. "Northport is a great town, I tell you. I liked it back then, but I still like it today. Back then, in the past, it was more of a village. But times change. You didn't have the big chain stores. Now people shop there. You had local stores. Northport had a couple of butcher stops, a shoe store, a hardware store. I could go right down the line. Now it's mostly restaurants and ice cream parlors. It's still a great town. I enjoy it. We're on the water. Great people. One of my friends told me that Northport was an oasis in the desert, and they found it."

While Northport has changed over the years, Panarites has tried to keep shifts at Northport Sweet Shop to the bare minimum, to preserve its "character." Marble tables, black and white decor, a retro vibe — everything that makes the "old-school, old-fashioned look."

"The only problem I had with that, recently, this year, is you have old equipment," Panarites said. "You want to maintain the character of the shop. They don't make [parts] anymore. To get parts, it's difficult. Any time you have something old, that works against you."

Panarites said he wants to maintain anything he can get parts for. He came close to changing some things over the years, but he did not, because it would have had a "drastic effect" on the store. A piece of equipment broke down once, when an old customer came to the rescue and told Panarites he could get it fixed.

"I thought he was pulling my leg," Panarites said. "He [fixed it]. He knew where to go to get these old parts. He found some basic things I needed, and he got it up and running. I was so grateful for him."

Panarites said he has met a lot of nice people over the years. He's watched families grow in real time.

"When I was a teenager, I see guys courting young ladies in high school," he said. "Real boyfriend-girlfriend situation. They get married, have kids. The kids are now bringing their grandparents in, who were those young kids at that time. It makes me realize I'm getting old, too."

Panarites's father, George, who opened Northport Sweet Shop in 1929, had to endure the Great Depression. Pete Panarites's own challenge came in navigating the coronavirus pandemic.

At the time, Pete said a lesson that George taught him was that a strong cash reserve is needed for times of economic hardship. Those lessons helped Pete steer the sweet shop through the pandemic shutdowns and aftermath.

"You've got to realize when you have a big operation, you can't be living on a shoestring," Panarites said. "I've always believed in that. I'm very conservative with money. I have different investments. If one is weak, the other brings it up. Diversify it, in other words. Same thing in stock trading."

Panarites said he strives to help other people in need, just as George did.

"What you give comes back," Panarites said. "That's our philosophy. It's always a good feeling to help someone."

That philosophy was put to the test during the pandemic.

Customers would call the store and ask Panarites for a quart of ice cream or a sandwich.

"I would deliver it to their house," he said. "They wouldn't come out to pay me. They told me, 'Let me know what it is,' and they left a check in the mailbox. I'd ring the bell, put the bag on the porch and leave. That's a service. That is not making money. People like that, over the years, you go out of your way to help them that way."

Northport Sweet Shop old-timers may know Georgia, who is Pete's sister. Georgia has recently fallen "very ill," Pete said. Pete gave his sister "a lot of recognition" for her work at the luncheonette over the years, while he was teaching high school math for 31 years.

"She held the place together. She was the backbone," Panarites said. "My father and mother had passed. She ran the business, and I helped her out after school and on the weekends and during the summertime."

In the end, Panarites neglected to pursue an administrative job and assume control of Northport Sweet Shop.

"This was my business here," he said. "I had to weigh the priorities."

Panarites plans to leave the sweet shop in the care of his nephew, John, or niece, Marlene, one day. But he does not have any plans of retirement yet.

Panarites said he and his family are "very grateful and thankful" to customers of Northport Sweet Shop.

"More importantly, we enjoy your friendship," he said. "We are very beholden to people like you who keep the store going. We've had our ups and downs. Northport has its peak season, and then it slows down during the wintertime. And everyone's affected. We're grateful for the loyalty and support our patrons have given us throughout the years. Without them, we wouldn't be here for 96 years. It's been a pleasure. You meet a lot of wonderful people."