There are buildings on Long Island that hold time the way good leather holds memory — in layers, in grain, in the quiet accumulation of a story that refuses to end. The structure at 1305 Old Northern Boulevard in the Village of Roslyn is one of those buildings. It was erected in 1740 by a man named Jean Pine, passed into the hands of Dutch-speaking landowner Hendrick Onderdonk, hosted President George Washington for breakfast on April 24, 1790, survived the British occupation of the North Shore, operated as the Washington Tavern and later Washington Manor through most of the twentieth century, and was meticulously renovated and reopened in 2012 as Hendrick’s Tavern — one of the finest upscale steakhouse experiences on Long Island’s Gold Coast. That is nearly three centuries of continuous inhabitation, a timeline that makes the average restaurant lifespan of five years look like a footnote. As someone who has kept The Heritage Diner running for twenty-five years on Route 25A in Mount Sinai, I understand what it takes to maintain a place through decades. But Hendrick’s Tavern operates on a different scale of permanence altogether. It is a place where the past is not merely referenced but physically inhabited, where diners eat their dry-aged porterhouses within walls that witnessed the founding arguments of the American republic. This is the kind of provenance that cannot be manufactured — only inherited, and honored (Roslyn Landmark Society, 2024).

Where the Revolution Ate Breakfast

The historical gravity of this site is not decorative. Hendrick Onderdonk was the largest property owner in Roslyn during the mid-eighteenth century, the operator of both the Roslyn Grist Mill and the Onderdonk Paper Mill in what is now Gerry Park. During the Revolutionary War, British troops occupied Long Island’s North Shore after the Battle of Long Island, confiscating food, cattle, and timber from patriot families. The Onderdonk home itself was raided in 1781. Yet there is compelling evidence — documented by the Roslyn Landmark Society and explored in an NPR Student Podcast Challenge segment produced by Roslyn High School students in 2024 — that Onderdonk was secretly connected to the intelligence networks that supported Washington’s forces. The Onderdonk Paper Mill was reportedly part of a system used to pass secret war messages to American forces during the conflict (Roslyn Landmark Society, 2024; NPR, 2024).

On Saturday, April 24, 1790, Washington arrived in Roslyn from Oyster Bay on the final leg of his five-day tour of Long Island and breakfasted at the Onderdonk home. Washington recorded the visit in his diary, noting that he was received at the home of a certain Mr. Onderdonk and that his host operated a grist mill and two paper mills, the latter of which he conducted with considerable enterprise and profit. The purpose of the tour remains debated among historians, but the prevailing theory is that Washington was personally thanking Long Islanders who had served as spies during the war. As the Roslyn Landmark Society has noted, Washington would not have stopped to visit someone who had been a supporter of the Crown. Legend holds that the breakfast itself was a silent public signal — an acknowledgment that Onderdonk had risked everything for the patriot cause (Library of Congress, Diaries of George Washington, Volume VI; Forgotten New York, 2025).

A plaque placed by the Nassau County Historical Society in 1985 marks the entrance of the building. Two Roslyn High School students, in their NPR podcast submission, charmingly debunked the local myth that Washington actually slept at the Onderdonk house — he merely breakfasted there — but as the Bryant Library’s digital curator Ariel Morabito observed, the fact that Washington chose to stop in Roslyn at all is arguably more historically significant than a night’s stay (NPR Student Podcast Challenge, 2024).

The Poll Brothers and the Art of the Restaurant Empire

The present incarnation of Hendrick’s Tavern is the work of Gillis and George Poll, two brothers from Manhasset who have spent more than four decades building what is arguably Long Island’s most formidable restaurant group. Their story begins with a family food service business dating back to the 1920s in Brooklyn, where their father James ran Pappas Restaurant in Sheepshead Bay. Gillis started bussing tables at age twelve. By twenty-seven, he and his brothers opened their own Pappas Restaurant in Williston Park in 1980, which later became the popular Riverbay Seafood Bar & Grill (Poll Restaurants, 2024).

The pivotal moment came with the opening of Bryant & Cooper Steak House in 1985, just down the road from Hendrick’s Tavern on Route 25A in Roslyn. Their vision was to bring Manhattan-caliber steakhouse culture to Long Island’s North Shore, and they succeeded spectacularly. Bryant & Cooper is widely considered the premier steakhouse on Long Island, and it established the template the brothers would refine across their growing portfolio. Today, the Poll Restaurant Group operates eight restaurants including Cipollini Trattoria & Bar and Toku Modern Asian at the Americana Manhasset, Bar Frites in Greenvale, Majors Steakhouse in East Meadow, The Bryant in Huntington Station, and Toku’s second location in Aventura, Florida (Poll Restaurants, 2024; Newsday, 2024).

When the Poll brothers undertook the renovation of the Onderdonk house in 2012, they faced a challenge that few restaurateurs ever encounter: how to build a modern, high-volume dining operation inside a structure that predates the Constitution. Their philosophy — articulated by Gillis in multiple interviews — was deceptively simple: give the customer the best quality, never cut corners, and assemble a staff that can execute at the highest standard. On a busy Saturday night, the Poll brothers’ restaurants collectively serve more than three thousand meals, with Hendrick’s Tavern alone accounting for six to seven hundred covers (Long Island Pulse Magazine, 2012). That is the kind of operational intensity that separates serious restaurateurs from hobbyists, and it resonates deeply with anyone who has spent decades working a line.

The Architecture of Appetite

Walking into Hendrick’s Tavern is an experience in temporal compression. The main dining room is adorned with wood-paneled walls, classic photographs, antique mirrors, and burgundy leather banquettes that project a clubby, urban sophistication. The George Bar — named for the historic portraits of George Washington that line its walls — features high-top seating and full-screen televisions. Beyond the main spaces, the restaurant expands into an event complex that can accommodate a seated dinner for one hundred and twenty-five guests, incorporating two bar areas, three private dining rooms, a VIP bar designed for cocktail receptions, and a ballroom for large-scale catering events (Hendrick’s Tavern, 2024; OpenTable, 2025).

The outdoor patio has become one of the most sought-after dining settings on the North Shore, particularly during the warmer months when the combination of historic architecture, mature landscaping, and the gentle rhythm of Old Northern Boulevard creates an atmosphere that reviewers consistently describe as exceptional. Valet parking is included — a detail that signals the kind of full-service commitment the Poll brothers bring to every operational element. The space carries a 100 out of 100 Estimated Health Score on Yelp, a 4.7-star rating across nearly 2,700 reviews on OpenTable, and a Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice designation ranking it in the top ten percent of restaurants worldwide (OpenTable, 2025; Yelp, 2026; Tripadvisor, 2025).

As a leather craftsman at Marcellino NY, I think about materials constantly — the way a space communicates through its textures. The burgundy leather of the banquettes at Hendrick’s Tavern, the wood grain of the paneling, the weight and hang of the antique mirrors — these are design choices that speak the same language as a hand-saddle-stitched English bridle leather briefcase. They declare that quality was never an afterthought. They declare that the unseen details were attended to with the same rigor as the visible ones.

The Menu: Prime Cuts and the Raw Bar

The cuisine at Hendrick’s Tavern operates at the intersection of prime steakhouse tradition and modern American comfort, anchored by the same dry-aged and USDA Prime beef program that made Bryant & Cooper legendary. The dinner menu is extensive and serious. Steaks include an eight-ounce filet mignon, a sixteen-ounce Colorado rib eye, a thirty-ounce Tomahawk rib eye (available Cajun-style), a ten-ounce Wagyu sirloin, and for the table, a dry-aged porterhouse for two and a stunning forty-eight-ounce prime bone-in rib eye served sliced with roasted marrow bones. Sauces run the classic steakhouse gamut: au poivre, béarnaise, blue cheese, and chimichurri (Hendrick’s Tavern Menu, 2025).

The raw bar is a proper production: oysters at market price, cherry stone and little neck clams, jumbo shrimp cocktail, crabmeat cocktail, Maine lobster cocktail, and seafood towers in medium and large formats. Seafood entrées range from seared Norwegian salmon and whole Mediterranean-style branzino to Chatham halibut with basil and pine nuts, sashimi-grade yellowfin tuna with yuzu miso, and seared jumbo sea scallops with corn, edamame, and tomato vinaigrette. The three-pound Maine lobster, broiled or steamed, is available at market price (Hendrick’s Tavern Menu, 2025).

Appetizers reveal the kitchen’s range — steak tartare with hand-cut filet mignon, a jumbo Maryland crab cake, grilled octopus with citronette, roasted bone marrow with shallot marmalade, lobster truffle mac and cheese, and a Kobe beef hot dog wrapped in puff pastry that has become a signature conversation piece. The Robiola pizza with truffle oil and the Thai mussels with pineapple and coconut milk demonstrate a willingness to move beyond steakhouse convention without abandoning the genre’s commitment to bold, unapologetic flavors (Hendrick’s Tavern Menu, 2025).

Weekend brunch runs Saturday and Sunday from 11:30 AM to 4:00 PM, featuring organic eggs, waffles, pancakes, French toast, and the full lunch menu alongside brunch specialties. The avocado toast and the brunch burgers have earned particular praise from regulars (Poll Restaurants, 2024).

A Place for Occasions

Hendrick’s Tavern has established itself as one of Long Island’s premier event destinations, and this is not an incidental feature — it is central to the Poll brothers’ vision. The expandable event spaces, the dedicated event management team, the ballroom, the VIP bar, the three private dining rooms — these are not retrofitted afterthoughts but purpose-designed environments for celebrations ranging from intimate anniversary dinners to corporate galas and wedding receptions. Families gather here for milestone birthdays, engagement parties, baby showers, holiday celebrations, and the kind of Thursday-night-just-because dinners that remind you why restaurants matter in the first place (OpenTable, 2025; Hendrick’s Tavern, 2024).

The restaurant’s connection to the broader Roslyn community runs deep. The Village of Roslyn, incorporated in 1932, is one of Long Island’s most historically significant communities — settled in 1643, home to poet and newspaper editor William Cullen Bryant’s estate Cedarmere, site of the iconic Ellen E. Ward Memorial Clock Tower built in 1895, and anchored by more than eighty pre-Civil War structures within a single square mile. The Roslyn Landmark Society has worked for decades to preserve this heritage, and Hendrick’s Tavern — occupying what is arguably the village’s most historically consequential building — serves as a living embodiment of that preservation ethos. You are not merely dining; you are participating in a continuum that stretches back to the Dutch colonial settlement of Hempstead Harbor (Village of Roslyn, 2024; Roslyn Chamber of Commerce, 2025).

As Paola and I prepare to launch Maison Pawli in 2026, our boutique real estate venture focused on Long Island’s North Shore, I find myself drawn to communities like Roslyn precisely because of establishments like Hendrick’s Tavern. They are proof that provenance, craftsmanship, and community investment are not abstract values — they are tangible forces that shape property values, define neighborhoods, and attract the kind of discerning residents who understand that a place worth living in is a place worth investing in.

The Verdict from the Heritage Diner

Peter from The Heritage Diner does not bestow praise lightly. Twenty-five years of six-day weeks behind a griddle will cure anyone of sentimentality about the restaurant business. But Hendrick’s Tavern earns its reputation through the same principles that have kept our diner alive on Route 25A: relentless consistency, obsessive attention to the invisible details, and a genuine respect for the community that walks through your door. The Poll brothers have built something remarkable — not just a restaurant, but a stewardship of one of Long Island’s most irreplaceable architectural and historical assets.

Whether you are visiting for a Tuesday evening filet, a Saturday brunch on the patio, a private celebration in the ballroom, or simply to sit at the George Bar and absorb three centuries of accumulated atmosphere, Hendrick’s Tavern delivers an experience that justifies every dollar of its upscale price point. It is a place where the past is not merely remembered but actively inhabited, where the same walls that hosted the first President of the United States now host families celebrating the milestones of their own unfolding stories.

That is what a great restaurant does. It holds time. It holds people. And it refuses, against all odds and economic logic, to let go.

Contact & Reservations

Address: 1305 Old Northern Boulevard, Roslyn, NY 11576

Phone: (516) 621-1200

Website: hendrickstavern.com

Reservations: OpenTable — Hendrick’s Tavern

DoorDash: Order Delivery

Instagram: @hendrickstavern

Part of: Poll Restaurants

Hours:

Monday – Wednesday: 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Thursday – Friday: 5:00 PM – 11:00 PM