What’s the oldest restaurant on Staten Island? The reply’s not that simple.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — What’s the borough’s oldest restaurant? It will depend on how a contemporary particular person considers 4 spots — Adobe Blues of New Brighton, Basilio Inn of South Seashore, Liedy’s of New Brighton and Killmeyer’s Previous Bavaria Inn of Charleston.

ADOBE BLUES — 63 Lafayette Ave., New Brighton; 718-720-BLUE

The restaurant is underneath renovation presently with the hopes of a late 2023 opening. The nook spot has housed taverns since previous to 1859, based on maps of the world, when it neighbored an space known as Elliotville (now Livingston). Within the mid-1800s, it served as a three-story construction with a brothel on the highest ground. It was known as The Cottage Tavern.

The previous sailors at Comfortable Harbor favored the bar, Advance data present. When a fireplace struck in 1907, the watering gap took on its flat roofline. The Cottage Tavern took place within the Fifties. Within the mid-’60s, the place turned Pat McCarthy’s Tavern, house of the singing waiters.

The Southwestern spot often called Adobe Blues was opened in 1992 with restaurateur Ken Tirado, who was concerned till 2003.

After sporadic openings and closings in the course of the pandemic, Adobe Blues, underneath tutelage of Jim Stayoch, served its final meals in December 2021. He was proprietor for nearly three many years.

The constructing at 63 Lafayette Ave. had been on the market for a number of years. New homeowners lately have overhauled the historic construction, including an remark deck-style roof. Inside-wise, it has retained some sections of the previous constructing in its trendy iteration.

By dates that is the oldest restaurant footprint.

BASILIO INN — 6 Galesville Court docket, South Seashore; 718-720-6835; BasilioInn.com

Basilio Inn will return in March for its 102nd season. The previous carriage home — constructed within the 1850s — served as a vacation spot for Italian immigrants spending summers on the seashore on Staten Island. The restaurant’s namesake hails from Basilio Giovannini, the founder and authentic proprietor of Basilio Inn in 1921.

Proprietor Maurizio Asperti and his household are likely to the rolling patch of land, its fig bushes, backyard and bocce ball courtroom, a setting that hasn’t modified a lot through the years. Additionally a fixture within the place is a portray of Mount Vesuvius that overlooks the eating room correct.

It’s the oldest East Shore meals institution and one of many borough’s most enduring buildings.

LIEDY’S — 748 Richmond Terr., New Brighton; 718-447-9240

Saloonkeeper Larry Liedy has a reminiscence like a metal lure. Quiz him about his household’s authentic place, then 802 Richmond Terr., and he’ll let you know that former handle was the place George Washington as soon as stayed.

“When he went to New York he slept there. And my nice grandfather had a bar subsequent to that 100 years later in 1898 for seven years. It was known as the Knickerbocker Lodge,” Larry shared with the Advance.

Liedy’s opened in 1905, based on Staten Island historical past knowledgeable Pat Salmon. Jacob Liedy is listed as a saloon keeper within the 1910 census and as a gardener within the 1920 census (Prohibition was in impact). This makes Liedy’s is the longest repeatedly operated tavern run by the identical household.

KILLMEYER’S — 4254 Arthur Kill Rd., Charleston; 718-984-1202, Killmeyers.com

By the construction alone, Killmeyer’s is the oldest Staten Island tavern used as a tavern in the present day.

Proprietor Ken Tirado has researched the legacy of his location through the years. He recounts how Balthazar Kreischer bought an authentic constructing at 4254 Arthur Kill Street — the footprint the place the facet eating room is presently positioned — from a person surnamed “Bachelor” in 1845. Kreischer held onto it for a number of years as he made his fortune within the brick-making enterprise, sourcing the mud from clay in land now often called Clay Pit Ponds State Park Reserve.

Kreischer wanted a retailer within the creating city, dubbed “Krescherville.” So he arrange Bavarian immigrant Nicholas Killmeyer in enterprise in 1855 after which bought it to him in 1859. Finally the shop was expanded upon and, in 1888, developed into Killmeyer’s Union Lodge, as per Albert and Theodore Killmeyer, the sons of Nicholas.

By the mid-Nineteen Thirties, the Poillon household rented the spot from the Killmeyer heirs. In 1947, the Simonson household bought the property from the Underhills — the nice granddaughters of the Killmeyers. And, then the place turned often called Rube’s, a nod to saloonkeeper Ruben Simonson, till his son Cappy [Cyrenius] Simonson renamed it the Century Inn. The moniker caught by the Nineteen Seventies, not less than till 1977, mentioned Tirado, when it needed to be vacated because of no Certificates of Occupancy.

Killmeyer’s opened as a German restaruant in 1995 by Tirado and two companions. Since 2014 it’s now house to an 8-foot, super-sized model of the “The Merry Wanderer” Hummel figurine.

What do you say is the oldest restaurant?

Pamela Silvestri is Advance Meals Editor. She will be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.