New restaurant and bar coming to former site of Bayside Pub in Webster

Fantauzzo Family Brands, owner of the Salvatore’s Old Fashioned Pizzeria chain, will open a restaurant on the site of the old Bayside Pub in Webster in March 2025, the company has announced.

The business at 279 Lake Road on the northern shoreline of Irondequoit Bay will be a new concept — not a pizzeria, the company announced July 1 in a statement.

“We hope to bring back some of the old, add some new, with many surprises for this future new beautiful restaurant on the bay,” it said.

Open year-round, the 2,400-square-foot establishment also will have a full bar, seating overlooking the bay and stages for live entertainment.

The project will be a public/private partnership. The restaurant site is in Sandbar Park, which the town owns.

The town will build at least the restaurant shell. The cost will be covered by a special bond and will be recouped by charging the restaurant tenant rent, including interest on the bond.

At a Town Board Workshop meeting in June, the town said it plans to put the project out to bid in early fall.

As the tenant, Fantauzzo Family Brands has the option of building out the interior space itself or leaving that to the town.

“Obviously, the more work that the town does, it drives the cost up for the tenant,” said Chris Bilow, Webster’s commissioner for parks and recreation.

The Bayside Pub, a longtime, beloved seasonal destination, closed in January 2022 and subsequently was torn down, the result of an $11.1 million town-led project to revamp Sandbar Park and mitigate flooding.

Bayside owners Robert Buono and Tom Ban, who had been renting their humble tavern space from the town for $3,500 a month, initially expressed interest in reopening in the town-built structure. They later bowed out , citing unrealistic costs, a long timeline and too many unknowns.

Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com . Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood .

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: New restaurant and bar coming to former site of Bayside Pub in Webster