There’s a building at 340 New York Avenue in Huntington Village that has fed this community Greek food for over four decades. First it was Skorpios. Then Skorpios by Avli. Then Sunnyside Diner. And now, according to Newsday, that door is closed again — after less than a year.
I’ve eaten at that address. I’ve walked past it hundreds of times. My Marcellino NY workshop was just down the block on Gerard Street, and before that, I built the bones of that business — quite literally — in a Huntington basement. This town holds a piece of me, and restaurants like these are part of why.
So when I say this closure hurts, I mean it.
A 45-Year Greek Legacy: The Story of Skorpios
To understand what Sunnyside Diner was, you first have to understand what came before it.
Theotokis Goussis — known to everyone in the neighborhood as Dennis — came to America from Greece and first opened Souvlaki Place in Bayville in 1969. A decade later, in 1979, he brought his vision to Huntington and opened Skorpios at 340 New York Avenue. For the next 44 years, he ran that kitchen with his wife Eleni and their four children, feeding the community, contributing to the Huntington Hospital meals program during COVID (even after contracting the virus himself), and quietly doing what Greek restaurateurs have always done — working without stopping, without complaining, without fanfare.
That’s not a restaurant. That’s a life’s work.
In February 2023, Dennis retired at 76 years old. His daughter Christina, who had grown up in that kitchen, took over the space with her husband John Koukounas — a seasoned restaurateur whose family owns Avli: The Little Greek Tavern in Bayside and Avli: The Little Greek Kitchen in West Hempstead. Together they reopened the location as Skorpios by Avli, blending the Goussis family recipes with the Koukounas family’s modern Greek approach. The community embraced it — 4.7 stars on DoorDash, packed with regulars who had been eating there for decades.
And then, quietly, Skorpios by Avli closed too.
Some reviews hint at the usual: change of ownership friction, food that wasn’t quite the same as under Dennis. One reviewer noted the falafel wasn’t right anymore. Another missed the original tzatziki. That’s a story as old as restaurants themselves — when the founder steps away, something intangible sometimes goes with them. It’s not a failure of effort. It’s just the gravity of a legacy.
Enter Sunnyside Diner
In April 2024, a new name appeared on the door. Sunnyside Diner opened at the same address, the same phone number, and with what looked like genuine ambition. The menu honored the location’s Greek roots — lamb gyros at $9.99 all day — alongside classic American diner fare: Belgian waffles with fresh fruit, the Farmer’s Breakfast, egg platters, omelettes. Their social media was active. They were on DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub. Reviews averaged 4.5 stars on Yelp.
By any external measure, they were doing something right.
And yet — after barely a year — Newsday is reporting they’ve closed.
Why Does This Keep Happening?
I’m not going to pretend I have inside knowledge of Sunnyside’s books. I don’t. But I’ve been in this industry long enough, and I grew up inside it — as a kid running around the back of my family’s diner, playing with the potatoes while my parents worked — so I know the forces at play.
Long Island’s diner industry has been shrinking for years. As Patch reported in May 2025, operators across the Island are battling exorbitant rents, competition from food delivery platforms taking their cut on every order, a generation of consumers with different late-night habits, and a brutal labor market for kitchen and overnight shifts. Owners who survived told Patch the same thing: the ones who make it are the ones who own their building and work seven days a week themselves for thirty-plus years without stopping. That’s not a business model. That’s a calling.
And then there’s the shadow of a legacy location. Sunnyside walked into a space where people had memories. Where Dennis Goussis had personally known his customers by name for forty-four years. Where the smell of the gyro rotisserie was practically municipal infrastructure. That’s both a gift and a weight.
Some places survive that transition. Many don’t. Not because of bad food or bad intentions — but because a restaurant tied to a specific person is almost impossible to replicate once that person is gone.
Greeks Are Resilient — I Know This From the Inside
I want to say something directly to the people behind Sunnyside Diner, and to the Goussis and Koukounas families whose work preceded them: I see you.
The restaurant business is brutal in a way that’s hard to explain to people who haven’t lived it. My parents worked it. I watched them work it. I’ve talked to enough Greek diner owners on Long Island to know that what they build — often from nothing, often in a new country, often with every member of the family working the floor and the kitchen simultaneously — is extraordinary. The Greek immigrant work ethic in the restaurant industry isn’t a cliché. It’s a fact I watched with my own eyes.
Closing a place is not defeat. It is a chapter. Dennis Goussis ran his for 44 years and earned his rest. Christina and Yanni took a swing at continuation. Sunnyside tried to carry a torch in a difficult market, in a difficult time, at a location loaded with expectation. None of that is small.
Greeks are resilient. They rebuild. They find the next location, the next concept, the next reason to fire up the grill at 6 AM. I have no doubt whoever was behind Sunnyside will be back somewhere, in some form, doing what they do.
Huntington, and What It Means to Me
I lived in Huntington for 15 years. I built Marcellino NY at a small workshop on Gerard Street, just down the block from 340 New York Avenue. The reputation I carry as a leather craftsman — the briefcases that ended up on CNBC’s Billion Dollar Buyer — started in a Huntington basement. This town gave me something real.
And restaurants like Skorpios, like Sunnyside, are the connective tissue of a place like that. They’re where you eat lunch between deliveries. Where you sit across from your family on a Tuesday night. Where the owner comes out from the back and asks how your father is doing because he actually knows your father.
When those places close, the town loses something that can’t be replaced with another yoga studio or another nail salon. The address will probably fill again — it always does. But 340 New York Avenue won’t be Skorpios again. And that matters.
Good luck to everyone who poured themselves into that kitchen. Come back soon. Huntington needs you.
Peter Kalafatis is the Founder of Heritage Diner in Mount Sinai, NY, and the founder of Marcellino NY. He is also a published author and artist.
