By Peter from The Heritage Diner | heritagediner.com/blog
Walk through the front doors at 605 Main Street in Islip and you are not simply entering a restaurant. You are stepping into a 1927 bank vault turned cathedral of American cuisine — a space where thirty-foot windows throw afternoon light across marble columns and art deco friezes, where the original Mosler safe now cradles ten thousand bottles of wine instead of savings bonds, and where USDA Prime beef has replaced certificates of deposit as the most valuable commodity in the building. Teller’s: An American Chophouse is the flagship restaurant of the Bohlsen Restaurant Group, and for more than a quarter century it has operated with the kind of unshakable institutional confidence that only comes from occupying a building that was literally designed to hold a community’s trust. The New York Times once called its dining room one of the most strikingly beautiful on all of Long Island (Joanne Starkey, NYT). As someone who has spent twenty-five years behind the counter of The Heritage Diner in Mount Sinai, watching restaurants appear and vanish like seasonal storms along Route 25A, I can tell you that what the Bohlsen family has built here does not vanish. It compounds.
From the Islip National Bank to Long Island’s Premier Chophouse
The building at 605 Main Street was originally constructed in 1927 and chartered as the Islip National Bank (Yelp, 2026). Over the following seven decades, the structure passed through the hands of Security National, Chemical Bank, and finally Chase Manhattan before the banking institution closed its doors permanently in 1997. What remained was an architectural monument — a neoclassical stone façade, soaring ceilings, brass fixtures, and that iconic Mosler vault that had secured the financial assets of Islip’s residents through the Depression, two World Wars, and the suburban boom of the postwar era. The Bohlsen family, third-generation Long Island restaurateurs already operating several successful concepts across Suffolk County, recognized what most developers would have missed: that a building engineered to inspire trust in an era of financial uncertainty could be repurposed to inspire trust of a different kind — the trust a guest places in a kitchen, a sommelier, a server who remembers your anniversary and your preferred cut.
Teller’s opened in 1999, and the name itself is an homage to the banking professionals who once staffed its counters (OpenTable, 2026). The conversion preserved nearly every significant architectural detail. Those thirty-foot windows remain intact. The art deco friezes still crown the walls. And the Mosler vault — once the most secure room in Islip — now functions as Teller’s famed Wine Vault, a walk-in cellar housing approximately eight thousand bottles and around one thousand labels (The Vendry, 2024). It earned a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence, which it has received repeatedly over the years (Great Restaurants of Long Island). There is something philosophical embedded in this transformation. I think of it often at the diner, where we operate within a humbler frame but with the same conviction: a building absorbs the seriousness of the people who work inside it. The Islip National Bank was built to protect value. Teller’s inherited that DNA.
The Bohlsen Family Legacy: Three Generations of Long Island Hospitality
Michael and Kurt Bohlsen did not stumble into the restaurant business. They inherited it, refined it, and expanded it across Long Island with the kind of disciplined ambition that separates family enterprises from family projects. The Bohlsen Restaurant Group — headquartered just down Main Street in Islip — now operates some of Long Island’s most recognized luxury dining establishments, including Prime: An American Kitchen & Bar on the Huntington waterfront, Harbor Club at Prime, H2O Seafood & Sushi in Smithtown, and their Stamford, Connecticut outpost (Bohlsen Restaurant Group, 2025). Teller’s remains the crown jewel, the concept that established the family’s authority in the fine dining space and continues to set the standard against which their other ventures are measured.
The Bohlsen philosophy is deceptively simple: service, style, cuisine, and what they describe with characteristic understatement as “a little fun along the way” (BRGroup.biz, 2025). But beneath that surface runs a rigor that anyone in the restaurant industry recognizes immediately. Robert, who served as General Manager of Teller’s from 2000 to 2006 before returning as Director of Operations in 2012, began his career as a dishwasher in his father’s kitchen (BRGroup.biz, 2025). James McDevitt, the group’s culinary architect, carries credentials that include a James Beard Foundation “Rising Star” nomination in 2001 and recognition as Best New Chef by Food & Wine in 1999 (BRGroup.biz, 2025). These are not hired guns brought in for a soft opening and then rotated out. These are people who have embedded themselves in the operation for decades, which is the only way a restaurant survives twenty-six years in one of the most competitive dining markets in the country.
I understand this architecture of commitment from the inside. At Marcellino NY, my leather workshop in Huntington, every briefcase I hand-stitch for a client — whether a Wall Street attorney or a surgeon carrying their instruments — carries the same philosophy that the Bohlsens apply to their dining rooms: the unseen details define the masterpiece. A customer at Teller’s may never tour the walk-in cooler where the 35-day dry-aged Prime beef hangs, just as a client may never examine the saddle-stitched gusset inside a Marcellino briefcase. But the work is there, holding everything together.
The Menu: USDA Prime, Dry-Aged Conviction, and Progressive Classics
Teller’s anchors its identity in the American chophouse tradition, and the cornerstone of that tradition is beef. Specifically, USDA Prime, 35-day dry-aged beef sourced with the kind of selectivity that places Teller’s among the most serious steak programs on Long Island (OpenTable, 2026). The classic Teller’s offerings include filet mignon in multiple preparations, a boneless Delmonico ribeye, dry-aged New York strip, bone-in ribeye, and a porterhouse for two that routinely draws comparisons to the city’s most legendary steakhouses (Johnny Prime Steaks, 2016). Enhancement options — au poivre, béarnaise, blackened, bleu cheese, horseradish crème fraîche, foie gras butter, and Oscar — allow guests to customize each cut with the specificity of a bespoke commission.
Beyond the steaks, Teller’s culinary team constructs what they call “progressive takes on the classics” (TellersChophouse.com, 2025). The appetizer program includes beef tartare with mustard, capers, anchovy, and parmesan; a jumbo lump crabcake with caper gribiche; and their famous baked clams with Teller’s special stuffing (Foursquare Menu). The raw bar and seafood program stand as serious counterweights to the beef — live Maine lobsters prepared steamed or in their spicy Millennium style, seared scallops, rock shrimp scampi, and a full raw bar featuring oysters, clams, shrimp, tuna, crab, and lobster. Their signature burger — “Main Street’s 1946 Blend” — combines Kobe brisket, Angus rib cap, and boneless short ribs with an Angus chuck base, topped with applewood smoked bacon, cheddar, and Teller’s secret sauce (DoorDash Menu, 2025).
Desserts are crafted in-house, including homemade ice cream churned on premise each morning, crème brûlée, cheesecake, and a Nutella hazelnut tart with chocolate ganache on an Oreo crust (AllMenus, 2025). The attention to pastry at a chophouse of this caliber signals a kitchen that refuses to outsource any element of the guest experience — the same ethos I apply at The Heritage Diner, where every component on the plate passes through the same quality filter regardless of whether it is the main attraction or the supporting cast.
The Gold Bar and the Wine Vault: A Beverage Program Built for Connoisseurs
The Gold Bar at Teller’s pays homage to the classic American bars of a previous generation — an era when a cocktail was an occasion, not an afterthought. Positioned within the main building, the bar operates its own distinct menu featuring bar bites, a full seafood bar, and a cocktail program that includes craft espresso martinis, old fashioneds, and rotating seasonal offerings (OpenTable, 2026). Zagat once described the Gold Bar as “hot” and “beautiful,” praising its imaginative martini list featuring freshly squeezed juices (Great Restaurants of Long Island). The bar also serves as an ideal pre-dinner staging area and, for those who prefer a less formal experience, a destination in its own right — complete with a fireplace lounge that transforms the chophouse atmosphere into something closer to a private club.
The Wine Vault, however, is what elevates Teller’s beverage program from excellent to extraordinary. Housed within the original Mosler bank vault — complete with the massive steel door and iron gate still attached — the cellar holds approximately eight thousand bottles and around one thousand labels of wine (The Vendry, 2024). As a regular recipient of Wine Spectator’s Best of Award of Excellence, the program is overseen by a sommelier-led team that curates an international list with particular strength in bold reds suited to dry-aged beef, along with a deep selection of Long Island wines from producers like Bedell, Macari, Paumanok, and Wölffer (West Islip Patch, 2012). Whiskey enthusiasts will find an extensive selection as well, and the program includes wine pairings for dessert courses, prix fixe menus, and special wine dinner events throughout the year.
For Paola and me, as we build toward the 2026 launch of Maison Pawli — our boutique real estate venture focused on Long Island’s North Shore — Teller’s Wine Vault stands as an object lesson in adaptive reuse. A space designed for one kind of value has been repurposed to hold another, and the result is more compelling than either function alone. The best real estate on the North Shore operates on the same principle: the history of a structure amplifies rather than limits its future potential.
Private Events, Teller’s Next Door, and the Architecture of Celebration
Teller’s has expanded its physical footprint with the opening of Teller’s Next Door, a dedicated private event space located adjacent to the main restaurant at 599 Main Street. The expansion includes two distinct venues: The Pavilion, a Sperry sailcloth-framed tent with clean lines and an airy aesthetic accommodating up to 120 seated guests, and The Parlor, an intimate private dining room ideal for gatherings of up to 60 (TellersChophouse.com Events, 2025). Combined with the original Teller’s spaces — the Main Dining Room, the Gallery with its custom tapestried chairs and local historical photographs, and the Boardroom with built-in AV capabilities — the campus can host up to 250 guests across both properties, with full buyout options available (The Knot, 2025).
Private event menus feature the same USDA Prime, 35-day dry-aged steaks and elevated seafood that define the main restaurant, with the addition of French-style tableside carving service exclusive to the event spaces (WeddingWire, 2025). Recent wedding reviews consistently describe the experience in superlative terms, with guests highlighting the seamless coordination, the dramatic architectural backdrop, and the culinary team’s ability to execute at scale without sacrificing the intimacy that defines the Teller’s brand (The Knot Reviews, 2025). Teller’s was named a Nextdoor Neighborhood Favorite in both 2023 and 2024 (Nextdoor, 2024), and TripAdvisor ranks it as the number one restaurant in Islip with a Travelers’ Choice Award (TripAdvisor, 2026).
Community, Craft, and the Bohlsen Commitment to Long Island
What distinguishes a restaurant that survives twenty-six years from one that flames out after three is not merely the quality of the steak or the depth of the wine list. It is the relationship between the institution and the community it serves. Michael Bohlsen serves on the board of Long Island Cares — The Harry Chapin Food Bank, and in the fall of 2025, the Bohlsen Restaurant Group hosted the Chefs Against Hunger dinner series at Teller’s Next Door, bringing together nine acclaimed chefs and Long Island wineries for eight sold-out events that raised approximately $46,500 for families facing food insecurity across the region (Islip Patch, 2025). Each $195 ticket translated to roughly 122 meals for Long Islanders in need (Islip Patch, 2025).
Bohlsen has spoken publicly about the personal roots of this commitment. During the COVID-19 closures, when the restaurant group’s locations were shuttered for eleven weeks, the Bohlsens discovered that many of their line employees were living paycheck to paycheck and launched an internal food bank that grew to serve more than 175 families per week (Huntington Now, 2025). That emergency response evolved into a sustained partnership with Long Island Cares, an organization founded in 1980 by Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Harry Chapin that now distributes over fifteen million pounds of food annually to more than 330 pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters (Going Local Long Island, 2025).
This is the deeper architecture that matters. At The Heritage Diner, I have watched the same dynamic play out on a different scale for twenty-five years — the understanding that a restaurant’s survival is inseparable from the survival of its neighborhood. We are not stand-alone enterprises. We are anchors. The Bohlsens understand this at a level that transcends marketing copy, and it is reflected in every dimension of how Teller’s operates, from the sommelier who remembers your preferred vintage to the organizational commitment that ensures no neighbor goes hungry.
Practical Information and How to Experience Teller’s
Teller’s operates on the following schedule: Monday through Thursday, 12:00 PM to 10:00 PM; Friday, 12:00 PM to 11:00 PM; Saturday, 12:00 PM to 11:00 PM; and Sunday, 12:00 PM to 9:00 PM. The Legacy Brunch runs Sundays from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM (TellersChophouse.com, 2025). Reservations are strongly suggested. The restaurant requests business casual attire and does not permit baseball caps, with the exception of religious or medical reasons. Teller’s is not considered suitable for children under six years of age.
The Power Lunch, available Monday through Friday, offers a two-course prix fixe served in 35 minutes or less — a format that has earned devoted followers among South Shore professionals and is frequently cited as one of the best lunch values in Suffolk County (OpenTable Reviews, 2026). Seasonal prix fixe menus, Restaurant Week offerings, wine-pairing dinners, and anniversary events are hosted throughout the year. The restaurant offers both on-site dining and takeout, and delivery is available through DoorDash (DoorDash, 2025). Parking is available on Main Street in front of the restaurant and in the municipal lot behind the building.
A structure built in 1927 to house the financial assets of a Long Island community now houses something arguably more essential — the rituals of celebration, the formality of a great meal shared with people who matter, and the accumulated expertise of a family that has staked three generations on the conviction that hospitality is not a transaction but a craft. This is what the best restaurants do. They convert raw materials — beef, wine, marble, light — into memory. At 605 Main Street, the vault door is still there, still heavy, still magnificent. But it no longer closes. It invites you in.
Peter from The Heritage Diner writes about food, craftsmanship, and the culture of Long Island from Mount Sinai, New York. Peter holds graduate degrees in Philosophy from Long Island University and The New School in NYC. The Heritage Diner has served the community at 275 Route 25A since 2000. Marcellino NY handcrafts bespoke English bridle leather briefcases from Huntington, NY — visit marcellinony.com. Maison Pawli, a boutique real estate venture with Broker Paola, launches in 2026 on Long Island’s North Shore. For apps and projects, visit x9m8.com.
Address: 605 Main Street, Islip, NY 11751 Phone: (631) 277-7070 Website: tellerschophouse.com Email: info@brgroup.biz DoorDash: Order on DoorDash Reservations: OpenTable Instagram: @tellersislip
