MAY 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 85
RESTORATION KITCHEN CHEF BILLY MILLER TASTE OF CHARITY
BY ALAN KRAWITZ
The motto at Restoration Kitchen &
Cocktails restaurant in Lindenhurst is,
“When you have more than you need,
build a longer table, not a higher fence.”
For Restoration’s owner and executive
chef Billy Miller, the motto is much
more than aspirational. It has been his
reality since opening in August 2018
on the former site of a Lindenhurst
civic organization, Old Fellows, whose
mission was to anonymously give back
to the needy.
Miller, born and raised in nearby West
Babylon, says the concept of Restoration
is quite simple: “We give back to those
people who really need it.”
The restaurant takes all its net profits
every four months and gives them to
local charities. Net profits are calculated
after all other expenses, such as food
vendors, utilities, and staff salaries,
including his own, have come out. So
far, Miller says, Restoration has donated
more than $153,000 to local charities.
Currently, the two recipient charities
are Splashes of Hope, a group that
paints murals for hospitals and healthcare
centers, and Momma’s House, an
organization that helps young mothers
and babies in crisis. At the end of each
meal at Restoration, diners are given the
option of which charity they want the
proceeds from their bill to be donated
to. At each table, placards describe the
charities being donated to and exactly
who is being helped.
“They are always a Long Island charity,”
Miller says. “I don’t like to cross a
bridge...There are enough people right
on LI who need help.”
Miller, 37, says that Restoration has been
years in the making, going back to his
start in business at age 15. He recalls
having an array of jobs, from busing
tables and running food to operating a
tiki bar on Myrtle Beach and then bartending
at Del Fuego in Babylon Village
for three years. Unlike other chefsturned
restaurant owners, Miller did
not attend culinary school but utilized
restaurant work to finance a master’s
degree in counseling that led to a career
in social work.
“I got a job as a teacher, moved briefly
Billy Miller donates his restaurant’s profits to local nonprofits.
to South Carolina and even taught at
Myrtle Beach High School, coaching
football and baseball,” he explains.
Miller also worked as a social worker,
helping kids with disabilities for
nonprofit organizations including the
Family Service League in Huntington
and Bay Shore. Miller says the impetus
for Restoration came when he was
working in the nonprofit world, where
oftentimes top executives make high
salaries at the expense of direct services
for needy families.
He told his wife he wanted to continue
to help people by using his skills as
a social worker, but also wanted to
return to the restaurant industry, his
other passion.
Miller says that while the pandemic
has been challenging, they are
adapting. Since Restoration’s indoors
is too small to accommodate many
diners, given current capacity limits,
diners are comfortably seated and
spaced in the restaurant’s parking lot
greenhouse.
“It was weird — they send you the
pipes and you assemble it,” says Miller,
noting the greenhouse took a month to
complete, with ventilation and heating
systems.
He says the greenhouse gave his
employees an opportunity to work
when lots of other restaurants were
giving up.
“So many restaurant employees were
laid off for months and I refused to do
that to my employees,” he recalls.
Other challenges, Miller says, included
difficulty getting food and products and
having to pivot to delivery as well as
developing an app for people to order
items like to-go cocktails.
Although Restoration has a full-time
chef who handles most kitchen duties,
Miller still helps.
Specialties include a buffalo cauliflower
appetizer, a chicken avocado sandwich
made with antibiotic-free chicken and
fresh baked bread, a surf and turf wrap,
and a skirt steak quesadilla.
“People appreciate our food because everything
is homemade and fresh, from
using a special blend of meat for burgers,
from-scratch dressings and sauces,
and even cocktails that are all - natural...
made from fresh fruit,”he says.
Asked about the restaurant business as
a career, Miller says it is a great business
— but not for everyone.
“This industry is physically and
mentally taxing and you’ve got to be
prepared to work 90 hours as a normal
work week,” he says. “This is not a getrich
business...but if you have the time
and energy to put into it, I believe it’s
fantastic.”
Restoration restaurant is located at
49 East Hoffman Ave. in Lindenhurst.
It can be reached at 631-592-1905 or
restorationli.com.
MAIN DISH
“We give back to those people who really need it.”
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