Mama's Family Italian Opens 280 Seats in Carle Place

Mama's of Copiague opened its second location at 231 Old Country Road in Carle Place on May 24, taking over the former Passione restaurant space near Roosevelt Field and giving central Nassau County a family Italian restaurant with room for 280 guests across three distinct dining areas.

The restaurant is run by siblings Nora, Adam, and Ahmy Sala, whose family has operated Italian restaurants on Long Island for more than 40 years. The original Mama's, in Copiague on the South Shore, built a following for its homestyle cooking, generous portions, and family-oriented atmosphere over more than four decades. The Carle Place location carries that identity into the heart of Nassau County's busiest commercial strip.

The Sala siblings gutted the former Passione space and rebuilt it from scratch. The main dining room seats 120, a private banquet room holds 100 for events, and an outdoor brick-and-stucco patio with a full bar accommodates 60 more. The total capacity of 280 makes Mama's of Carle Place one of the larger independent Italian restaurants to open in Nassau in recent years.

Mama's of Carle Place is open seven days a week. The kitchen runs 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday. Lunch and dinner service runs daily, with the menu centering on Italian-American classics and house specials. The banquet room is available for private bookings.

Carle Place sits along Old Country Road in central Nassau, midblock between Westbury and Mineola. The former Passione space had cycled through multiple restaurant tenants in recent years before the Salas signed the lease. Proximity to Roosevelt Field and the surrounding retail corridor gives the restaurant a natural lunch and dinner market from shoppers, office workers, and families in the area who need a sit-down option off the mall loop.

The Copiague original remains open under the same family operation. The expansion to Carle Place is a deliberate push into Nassau's middle, where the family believes their South Shore model, full-service Italian in a casual, large-format space, can compete with chain dining that has dominated much of Old Country Road for years.

For residents of Mineola, Westbury, Garden City, and surrounding Nassau communities, Mama's at 231 Old Country Road, Carle Place, opened May 24 and is now taking walk-ins and reservations. Phone number and full menu details are available through the restaurant directly.