For the Vendome family, hospitality has always been about bringing people together. At Nino’s Beach, brothers Michael and Franco Vendome have brought generations of Italian-American restaurant experience to Port Washington, pairing the warmth of their family tradition with a vibrant waterfront setting.

Set within Safe Harbor Marina at 43 Orchard Beach Blvd., Nino’s Beach spans 8,500 square feet with expansive outdoor seating, marina views, boat slips, live entertainment, and a lively social atmosphere. The coastal Italian menu features fresh seafood, housemade pastas, artisan pizzas, premium meats, craft cocktails, wine, and Champagne, alongside an inventive sushi program that blends Japanese technique with Italian flavors.

For Michael Vendome, hospitality was part of everyday life long before it became a career. Raised in a close-knit Neapolitan family, he grew up surrounded by relatives who lived within blocks of one another, with large family gatherings, summer afternoons, and shared meals forming the backdrop of his childhood. “We were a very tight-knit community,” Vendome says. “We always had this deep-rooted passion for hospitality — opening our doors, inviting people over, and bringing people into our household.”

His introduction to the restaurant business came early. At eight or nine years old, Vendome began spending his summers working at his family’s Midtown restaurant, starting with small jobs like folding pizza boxes, grating cheese, and cutting garlic before gradually learning every side of the business. Today, he and his brother Franco continue that legacy through their restaurant ventures, including Fermento, their pizzeria known for its exceptional crust and carefully developed fermentation process.

That same attention to tradition and technique carries into Nino’s Beach. The idea for the restaurant began during the pandemic, when Vendome transformed the outdoor patio of his Queens restaurant with palm trees, music, and a tropical atmosphere. The response sparked an idea: “I always thought, if I could create this kind of vibe on a sidewalk in Queens, imagine what I could do with a nice waterfront.”

Port Washington offered the opportunity to bring that vision to life. The marina naturally shaped the menu, inspiring a lighter, seafood-forward approach while maintaining the Italian identity at the heart of the restaurant. Guests can begin with oysters, crudo, tuna tartare, grilled octopus, or a seafood tower before moving into housemade pastas, pizzas, seafood, and premium meats.

One of Vendome’s favorite dishes is the Lobster Bucatini, featuring fresh pasta, lobster, spinach, and a rich cognac cream sauce built from roasted lobster shells and a housemade stock that takes approximately 12 hours to develop. The menu also puts creative spins on Italian classics, including a White Bolognese made with ground shrimp instead of traditional meat.

The restaurant’s sushi program follows the same philosophy. Rather than offering a conventional selection of rolls, the Vendomes spent nearly two years developing a menu that would feel authentic to Nino’s Beach. The result includes creations such as the Caprese Roll, made with toro tuna, basil-shungiku pesto rice, stracciatella di bufala, pickled Campari tomato, caviar, and crispy prosciutto, and the Gold Coast Roll, pairing wild salmon with mascarpone, cucumber, salmon caviar, and candied lemon.

“We didn’t want to do what every other place was doing,” Vendome says. “We really wanted to do it with our identity.”

That philosophy extends to the experience itself. On a warm summer evening, the marina becomes part of the restaurant, with guests arriving by boat, lingering over cocktails, listening to live music, and dining against the waterfront backdrop.

For the Vendome family, Nino’s Beach represents a new chapter in a family tradition that began with full tables and neighborhood restaurants. The setting may have changed from the streets of New York to the Port Washington waterfront, but the central idea remains the same: create a place where people can gather, eat well, and feel at home.

Story By: Jahleah Santiago