One of Northport’s most beloved restaurants is staging a comeback.

In January, Eric Allchin, owner of the Tribune Ice Cream & Eatery, announced the restaurant would close “in its current form and location” after nearly 10 years at 110 East Negonaba Street. 

This weekend, the Tribune will rebrand under the new name Faro and reopen inside the Northport Inn at 107 West Negonaba Street, just up the street.

Allchin and his team aren’t newcomers to that space.

“Four or five years ago, the Tribune started doing little pop-up dinners there,” he says. “That was an attractive option for us because we had seats for maybe 20 people at the Tribune, but could serve 40-50 at the Northport Inn.”

At the time, the food service component of the inn was known as the Northport Union and was more of an event space than a full-service restaurant. Allchin’s growing involvement led to an evolution of the Union’s business model, which eventually led to Faro.

“Once we got a full Class C liquor license [for the Northport Inn], I started transitioning the Union from an event space to a restaurant,” Allchin says. One key aspect of that transition was the purchase of a 1952 Ford F-600 truck, which Allchin bought from a local catering company. “It had a wood-fired pizza oven in the back, and it allowed us to shift our direction,” he says. “It’s difficult to make money nowadays in restaurants, but we figured that flour and water could be a profitable thing.”

The pizza oven helped make the Union a big draw in Northport, but also made Allchin feel like he was stretching himself and his team too thin.

“We built a staff last year for both properties and we were up to about 70 employees,” he says. “That’s really hard to do, and I started wondering ‘Why am I operating two businesses when it’s hard enough to staff one of them? Why don’t I just combine them?’”

That soul-searching coincided with the sale of the Tribune building, and while the building’s new owners wanted the Tribune to stay on as a tenant, Allchin ultimately decided to close and consolidate operations at the Union. 

While the Tribune name has some weight in the Northport community, Allchin felt strongly that he couldn’t take it with him.

“The Tribune was a site-specific name,” he says. “The restaurant was named after the old Northport Tribune newspaper, which used to be printed in that building. It wasn’t a name I wanted to transfer. And then the Union name was always synonymous with an event space.”

Rather than keep either name, Allchin decided to rebrand as Faro, which is Italian for “lighthouse.”

Fittingly, Allchin says Faro will focus primarily on Italian cuisine, with wood-fired pizzas taking center stage. This weekend’s soft opening, which will include 4-9pm hours on Friday and Saturday, will spotlight the pizzas as well as small plates and the restaurant’s full bar. The menu will then broaden and evolve as Faro hits its stride – and as construction on the still-unfinished kitchen wraps up.

Because the kitchen isn’t ready yet, Allchin says Faro’s early days will mostly look like how the Union looked last summer. Eventually the business will absorb more of the Tribune’s attributes, including that restaurant’s focus on offering a “vegetable-forward and locally-focused” menu. Specific Tribune menu favorites will also make the leap to Faro, though Allchin isn’t ready to share a full list.

“We will eventually do brunch, but I can’t make that happen until we have a kitchen,” Allchin says. “Our biscuits will come back. Our pancakes will come back. Our eggs benedict will come back. Those things were huge for us at the Tribune, and we’re definitely going to bring them over here.”

One way that brunch at Faro will look different than brunch at the Tribune? The availability of mimosas and Bloody Marys, drinks the Tribune was never able to serve because it lacked a liquor license.

There’s also one trademark item that Allchin says will definitely not be making the jump from the Tribune.

“The ice cream component of the business, unfortunately, is not going to be coming with us,” Allchin says, before teasing that “somebody will be taking over the ice cream business down the road” soon.

For his part, Northport Inn co-owner Lynden Johncock is thrilled to have Faro setting up shop at the property.

“The food is phenomenal,” he says. “We’re loving having them move over to our building. And this gives them the space to grow, because it was a very small space they had at the Tribune.”

Allchin is excited about growth, too.

“My capacity at the Tribune was 24,” he says. “Capacity up here is 92 inside and 100 outside. So, I just look at this move as an important step in the evolution of the Tribune.”

Johncock also touts Faro’s arrival as part of a larger evolution for the Northport Inn. Earlier this year, Northport adopted a new social district ordinance that allows people to take alcoholic beverages bought in bars or restaurants and drink them in outdoor areas. Johncock sees it as an opportunity to turn the inn into arguably the prime community hub in Northport.

“Obviously, [the ordinance] works great for us because we have a very large parking lot right smack in the middle of town,” Johncock says. “Now, with our property being a part of the social district designation, we're hoping to use our parking lot as a gathering space. We want to expand our courtyards, put tables in, and make it an event space with some fun bars and other touches. I envision it almost like a Hop Lot kind of setup.”