🚒 Sound Beach’s Firehouse: A Tribute Built From Real Loss

❤️ 40 Years a Firefighter, Now He Needs Our Help

🚗 DWI Crash Sends Mercedes Through a Manorhaven Building

📿 44th Annual Paumanauke Pow Wow Returns to Copiague

You order the Stop, Drop, and Lobster Roll, and you laugh before you even taste it. Then you look up at the walls, a hundred year old alarm bell, patches from fire departments all over the country, helmet shields lined up in rows, and you realize the joke has a lot more behind it than a clever menu.

Firehouse Restaurant & Bar sits in Sound Beach, in the building that used to be Hartlin's, a neighborhood staple for years before the previous owners retired. Carolyn Ingoglia and her family bought the space during COVID and spent three years gutting it and working through town approvals before opening in 2024. The name and the theme are in honor of Carolyn's brother, FDNY Lieutenant Joseph DiBernardo, who was part of Rescue 3 and one of the firefighters involved in the Black Sunday fire of 2005, when six firemen had to jump from a fifth story window after the ropes they normally would have used had been taken away. Joseph was hospitalized for three months and forced to retire from his injuries, and he passed away in 2011. Carolyn's father, a retired FDNY Deputy Chief, pushed the city afterward to bring life saving ropes back into standard equipment, and started a foundation in Joseph's honor. He's raised over $1.5 million supporting fire departments that need equipment they can't otherwise afford.

Every piece of memorabilia on the walls came out of her father's basement, and every menu item carries the theme through, the Firehouse Burger, Nozzle Nachos, the Hook and Ladder Pretzel, along with wings in a house made firehouse sauce and rotating weekly specials from a chef with 25 years of experience. There's a full bar, an outside patio with regular live music, and a kids menu that comes with a little fire helmet, which explains why you'll spot plenty of future firefighters running around in their own jackets and boots.

Carolyn answers her own reviews, every single one, whether it's a five star Google review or a DoorDash rating, because she wants people to know a real person is behind the counter and paying attention.

Two years in, Firehouse is still building its name beyond the regulars who remember Hartlin's, and Carolyn wants locals to understand this isn't a themed restaurant slapped together for effect, it's a tribute her whole family built around real loss and real change that came out of it. Stop by for the Friday night band on the patio, grab a seat at the bar, and don't be surprised if a Sound Beach or Rocky Point firefighter is sitting a few stools down.

Find Firehouse Restaurant & Bar at https://firehouserestaurantli.com/ or follow along on https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553905931365# and https://www.instagram.com/firehouserestaurant_ for specials and events.

Every burger, every patch on that wall, every helmet on a kid walking in the door, it all traces back to one brave firefighter. That's what makes Firehouse more than a restaurant, and it's exactly what Carolyn wants all of our customers, from near and far, to remember every time they walk through the door.

John Gillen spent more than forty years serving Wantagh as a volunteer firefighter, working his way up from lieutenant to chief and eventually a decade as commissioner. He also spent decades with the NYPD, retiring as commanding officer of the 110th Precinct in Queens. Now the man who spent his life running toward emergencies needs the community to run toward him.

John's kidneys started failing this year after a quadruple bypass last November, and he's down to about fifteen percent function. At ten percent, he goes on dialysis. His wife Karen and daughters Meagan and Erin are searching for a living, Type O kidney donor, since a kidney from a living donor tends to last longer than one from the deceased donor list, which runs about ninety thousand people deep.

Those who know John say asking for help doesn't come naturally to him, first responders rarely like being on the receiving end. But his daughters say the community has been lining up anyway, hoping to give back to a man who spent four decades mentoring younger firefighters and showing up for his neighbors.

👉 Read more: Patch

A quiet stretch of Shore Road in Manorhaven got a rude wake up call just after midnight last Thursday when a Mercedes SUV left the roadway and plowed straight into a building.

Nassau County police say 66 year old Matthew Meyran of Port Washington was behind the wheel when the SUV struck the building, leaving what officers described as extensive damage. Thankfully the building was empty at the time and nobody was hurt, though the same can't be said for that storefront.

Meyran was arrested and charged with DWI along with operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol content over the legal limit. A building inspector is now assessing the damage, and it's a good reminder as summer nights heat up, call a ride home instead of testing your luck on Shore Road.

👉 Read more: Patch

Tanner Park in Copiague turns into a celebration of Native American heritage this weekend as the Paumanauke Pow Wow marks its 44th year.

The two day festival brings traditional, intertribal and Aztec dance performances, dance competitions, drumming circles, and a lineup of Native American artisans and vendors selling crafts and authentic foods. Saturday runs from 10am to 9:30pm with Grand Entry ceremonies at noon and 7pm, and Sunday wraps up from 10am to 5pm with a noon Grand Entry.

Proceeds from the event benefit the Native American Scholarship Fund, so grabbing a plate of fry bread and a seat in the grass this weekend supports more than just a good afternoon out. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for seniors and teens, cash only at the gate, rain or shine.

👉 Read more: Patch

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