Haviland Kitchen & Bar is a Home-Grown Homecoming Story

Almost 300 years after Joseph Haviland built his tidewater gristmill in this neighborhood in 1688, Chef Victor LaPlaca and Don Poland met while working just across the Rockaway Channel from this kitchen and bar at the Porthole in the late 80's. Don was managing and bartending, Victor started his restaurant career there, and the bedrock of their relationship was established.

Ten years prior to their meeting, Don began his career as a bartender and manager at Long Island institutions like the Milburn Inn and Dr. Generosity’s where he honed his cocktail mixing craft while serving delicious libations to the local Islanders when they weren’t on the ice winning their four consecutive Stanley Cups.

Victor decided to go to culinary school and Don penned a letter of recommendation that led to Victor being accepted into the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), where some of the greatest contemporary American chefs also studied.

From CIA, Victor set out on a culinary journey that took him far and wide working with famed cooks, chefs, and restauranteurs. While Don grew his roots deeper in the neighborhood as a high school teacher and manager of several notable Long Island restaurants, Victor opened and operated restaurants for one of the largest, most successful culinary enterprises in the world. He has wanted to bring those experiences back home to share with the neighborhood for many, many years.  And now, with Don, they finally have that opportunity here, at Haviland Kitchen & Bar.