Tony's Tacos is set to welcome guests to its newest Long Island outpost this Saturday, Nov. 14, when the Italian-inspired taqueria opens inside The Shops at SunVet in Holbrook. It's the brand's sixth location, landing in a shopping center at 5801 Sunrise Highway that's in the middle of a major redevelopment.
According to Newsday, the Holbrook restaurant covers more than 4,000 square feet, with indoor seating, retractable outdoor seating, and a garage bar. Breslin Realty confirmed Tony's Tacos signed a long-term lease to occupy roughly 4,400 square feet of pad space at the 168,000-square-foot center, which is being redeveloped around a new Whole Foods anchor.
A Garlic-Toasted Take on the Taco
Owner Mike Scotto came to the United States from Italy in 2014 and trained alongside Umberto Corteo of the Umberto's Italian Restaurant Group, rising to executive chef before he ever tasted a taco — something he didn't try until he was 29, per the same Newsday account. That origin story shows up in the food: the restaurant's tortilla is made with 00 Italian flour, contains no yeast, and gets toasted in garlic and oil, a detail Newsday also reported in an earlier piece on the chain's expansion.
Fillings lean into that Italian-Mexican mashup too, with rotisserie chicken, sausage and broccoli rabe, meatballs, and chicken parm all appearing on a menu that's identical across every location. Among the offerings in Holbrook: a chicken milanese taco for $6.85, a chicken parm taco for $6.25, a steak and cheese taco for $7.25, and a hot crispy chicken taco for $6.25 dressed in habanero and spicy mayo. A surf and turf taco loaded with steak and shrimp runs $7.25, while a fall squash and mushrooms taco goes for $5.95. For a limited time, there's also a lasagna taco with burrata for $6.85. Thirsty diners can order an apple pie margarita with a cinnamon rim for $10.
From a 12-Seat Storefront to a Statewide Rollout
Tony's Tacos already operates in Floral Park, Franklin Square, Garden City, Huntington and Elmhurst, and the Holbrook opening continues a rapid build-out across Long Island. Reports differ on exactly when the chain began: Newsday's expansion coverage put the Floral Park debut in 2019 as a stand-alone concept with just 12 seats, while Scotto told the Long Island Press in 2024 that the first location opened in June 2021.
Whatever the exact starting line, the pace has clearly accelerated. Scotto told Newsday he started with one location a year and is now opening five a year, adding that the pace of expansion scares him somewhat but brings the same headache whether he's opening one restaurant or five. Newsday also reported that he'd signed leases for five additional Long Island locations to open by the end of 2026, including sites at the Levittown Mews shopping center on Hempstead Turnpike and on Deer Park Avenue in Babylon.
Mall Food Courts and a Few Scheduling Twists
Scotto has also been pushing into mall food courts, with Tony's Tacos opening in a Queens Center Mall food court in late July. He's said mall locations are strategic for boosting brand visibility, reasoning that people visiting Queens Center for other reasons may stumble onto the taco counter. A Green Acres Mall location in Valley Stream is planned to open in early 2027, and Scotto has said he's planning several more Long Island openings through 2027.
The Holbrook timeline itself has shifted more than once. An earlier Newsday report on the SunVet redevelopment said Tony's Tacos and Shake Shack were expected to open together in a shared 7,600-square-foot building in the second quarter of 2026, and Greater Long Island later reported an expected early-September opening, with Green Acres forecast to follow during the second week of November. Neither of those dates lines up with Saturday's confirmed opening, and the available reporting doesn't explain why the timeline moved — only that it did.
Beyond the rollout schedule, the broader numbers point to a chain that has scaled well past its 12-seat roots. Scotto told Greater Long Island that Tony's Tacos now sells approximately 3 million tacos a year. Scotto said he could not wait to welcome Holbrook, and with the company's menu, pricing and footprint largely locked in across its locations, the Sunrise Highway opening marks another step in a Long Island expansion that shows little sign of slowing down.
