{"id":134602,"date":"2026-02-15T20:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T20:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/134602\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T20:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T20:03:11","slug":"monarca-bar-grill-opens-in-holbrook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/134602\/","title":{"rendered":"Monarca Bar &#038; Grill opens in Holbrook"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Transformation and resilience are the themes of the story behind Holbrook\u2019s new Monarca Bar &amp;\u00a0Grill.<\/p>\n<p>Monarca is Spanish for the monarch butterfly, which inspired owners Jorge and Martha Lopez with the\u00a0up to 3,000-mile migration the orange-and-black butterflies make to coastal California or central Mexico each year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It represents freedom, it represents migrating for your own good, for transformation, resilience,&#8221; said Jorge Lopez, who came to the U.S. from Nicaragua 30 years ago. &#8220;We had to leave our families behind and go to another country and try to rebuild ourselves into something [outside] our comfort zone. That\u2019s really what it represents.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The restaurant opened in January\u00a0<a class=\"nd-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsday.com\/lifestyle\/restaurants\/momos-sports-bar-holbrook-ia5q62kk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in the former Momo\u2019s Sports Bar<\/a>,\u00a0which closed after 16 years. Lopez was the longtime chef at Garden Grill in Smithtown, trained under Johnathan Perkins, now chef-owner of Baiting Hollow\u2019s Cooperage Inn. Jorge and Martha\u2019s children also help out at the restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wanted to keep the essence of the sports bar,&#8221; Lopez said, and &#8220;I looked at prices, which is very important.\u00a0I didn\u2019t want to become something too expensive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> <img alt=\"The hort rib flatbread with queso fundido at Monarca in...\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"770\" height=\"433.125\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771185791_308_image.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The hort rib flatbread with queso fundido at Monarca in Holbrook.  Credit: Newsday\/Melissa Azofeifa<\/p>\n<p>Comfort food favorites include wings ($18), a Bavarian pretzel ($13.50), and queso fundido ($25), a mix of melted Oaxaca and mozzarella cheese with crumbled chorizo, jalapeno corn and chips. Mains encompass tacos, sandwiches, wraps and salads. The short rib flatbread ($21) with mozzarella cheese and creamy horseradish aioli is a must try. There is lobster mac and cheese ($33), plus fish and chips ($23.50).<\/p>\n<p>Cocktails include\u00a0the Basil Smash ($14) made with gin and lemon juice, and the vodka-triple sec Honey Drop ($14).<\/p>\n<p>The 1,800-square-foot space has seating for 40 and TVs dotted across its white-and-royal blue walls. Coming soon: Sunday brunch, a happy hour menu, lobster rolls and outdoor seating.<\/p>\n<p>Monarca, 350 Union Ave.\u00a0Holbrook, 631 648 9669, <a class=\"nd-link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.monarcany.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">monarcany.com<\/a>. Open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday\u00a0through\u00a0Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Melissa Azofeifa\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"88\" height=\"104\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771185791_61_image.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Melissa Azofeifa is a restaurants reporter with Newsday&#8217;s FeedMe team. Having grown up on Long Island, she loves talking about food and its impact on culture. A graduate of Stony Brook University, she joined Newsday in the fall of 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Transformation and resilience are the themes of the story behind Holbrook\u2019s new Monarca Bar &amp;\u00a0Grill. Monarca is Spanish&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8695,10203,9,11,10,49,51,50,821],"class_list":{"0":"post-134602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-feedme","9":"tag-fmopen","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-new-york-state","14":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-state-news","16":"tag-restaurants"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}