Entre Cafe Officially Opens in New Hyde Park

Gather. Relax. Indulge.

That’s the axiom for , located at 271-16 Union Tpke., a new food store that offers healthy alternatives to traditional favorites.

Opened since October, Entre Café had its official grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony on Nov. 18 at 11:00 a.m.

“[Business] has been pretty good,” said owner Dan Hom. “It’s been a little slow…but the people who have been coming by have been giving a lot of great feedback.”

Entre Café has had another location in Great Neck for about seven years and Hom thought opening another store on the city side of New Hyde Park would draw a good crowd.

“Great Neck has a lot of doctor’s offices, so a lot of people who come to visit their doctors and things of that nature will stop by our store and say, ‘This is a great place, I just want to stop by and grab something to eat,’” Hom said. “A lot of people also mentioned they’d like us to open up in their town because their area is lacking a place where you can get healthy eats.”

Entre Café offers healthy choices such as Panini and wrap sandwiches, salads, Hale and hardy Soups, breakfast options, vegan options and bakery items for the sweet tooth. Entre Café also specializes in Bubble Teas in 27 different flavors and assorted fresh fruit smoothies with organic soy milk as a base.

 “We give customers the option,” Hom said. “Everything is made fresh to order, so if they want to customize something or omit something — say they have allergies to a certain vegetable or fruit — we can omit those and things like that.”

On that same note, one of the employees from the store said, “It’s like Burger King, we can make and do anything for you (as the slogan ‘have it your way’ suggests, only healthier).”

Hom said some must-tries include are the walnut-gorgonzola salad, garden-veggie Panini, the sun-dried tomato Panini and toasted sesame chicken wrap.

“We like to put together things that are out of the ordinary,” Hom said. “There is so much competition out there in the food business that the only way to be successful is…to be the innovators rather than copying someone else.”     

Hom’s family has been in the food business for over 40 years. Hom’s father was a partner at a Chinese restaurant on New York City’s Mott Street in Chinatown, NY and in the mid-1980s, the family had a sit-down restaurant in Hicksville, NY and a chicken and rib place in Plainview, NY.

After working in insurance for the last eleven years, Hom decided to go back to his roots and open his own store.

“I was doing so many hours that I said you know what, let me for myself instead of working all the hours for somebody else,” Hom said.

Before the official ribbon cutting held by the New Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce, partners Hom, Mui Yung and Kylie Chen gave respect to the Gods for their new venue with a Chinese Tradition.

“There’s always an offering of oranges and little dumplings and pastries and of course there is always a whole chicken,” Hom said. “There’s always roast pork or a whole pig…and we usually do liquor also to give thanks to the Gods [with] worship and prosperity and good luck and things like that.”

At the end of the day, Hom and his partners just hope for success.

“A lot of people have welcomed us and said they hope we stay here for a long time and of course we say the same thing,” Hom said. “We hope to serve this community.”