{"id":167114,"date":"2026-03-18T11:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/167114\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T11:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:27:13","slug":"hercules-churrasqueria-opens-in-former-bay-shore-diner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/167114\/","title":{"rendered":"Hercules Churrasqueria opens in former Bay Shore diner"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the ashes of Bay Shore\u2019s old Forum Diner<\/a> have risen the flames of Hercules Churrasqueria, a Brazilian-style barbecue eatery whose first location opened in 2023 in Franklin Square. Hercules\u2019 new spot opened last weekend, and it\u2019s the second in a former diner.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that Long Island diners are closing in record numbers. But a related development is alleviating some of that sting: New concepts are opening in decommissioned diners.<\/a> Three years ago, brothers Oscar and David Hercules and their partner, Nelson Marquez, took over the old Franklin Square Diner (which closed in 2019<\/a> after more than 50 years) and turned it into Hercules Churrasqueira<\/a>. Marquez was a veteran of Mineola\u2019s Churrasqueria Bairrada, one of the first Portuguese restaurants on Long Island to specialize in rodizio: the tradition of all-you-can-eat grilled meats that started in Brazil, a former Portuguese colony. <\/p>\n

Bay Shore\u2019s Forum Diner closed in 2022 after 52 years. In 2024, BBD (Breakfast, Brunch, Dinner) took over, but lasted less than a year. The Hercules ownership team, now reinforced with two more brothers, Victor and Nelson (another Nelson), completely renovated the space. “We redid everything,” said Bay Shore manager Noel Ayala.<\/p>\n

Not only did they cover the stainless-steel cladding on the outside with a matte black surface and red trim, they carried the dramatic black-and-red scheme inside, and installed banquettes around the perimeter of the two dining areas. Whereas Franklin Square has about 100 seats, Bay Shore can accommodate almost 180 customers.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A whole grilled chicken at Hercules Churrasqueria in Bay Shore. Credit: Newsday\/Erica Marcus<\/p>\n

The menu in Bay Shore is bigger too, with pastas, Parms and Franceses filling out the mostly grilled meat lineup. All-you-can-eat steak is $60 a person, and you can also focus on individual non-AYCE cuts from skirt ($30) to tomahawk ($135). At $21.25, the grilled whole chicken for two is a delicious steal. There are also various mixed grills ($35 to $40), pork and lamb chops ($24 to $36), fish and shrimp ($26 to $45) and even lobster for two ($127). Portions are uniformly generous and almost everything comes with salad, fries, rice and mixed vegetables.<\/p>\n

Hercules Churrasqueria, 315 W. Main St., Bay Shore, 631-328-1048. Open 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily.<\/p>\n

\n\tErica Marcus, a passionate but skeptical omnivore, has been reporting and opining on the Long Island food scene since 1998.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the ashes of Bay Shore\u2019s old Forum Diner have risen the flames of Hercules Churrasqueria, a Brazilian-style…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[8695,10203,9,24,63,122,124,123,821],"class_list":["post-167114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-feedme","tag-fmopen","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167114","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=167114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}