Watershed owners to open Abigayle’s in downtown Riverhead

Patricia and James Mangiacapre, the owners of Watershed Kitchen & Inn in South Jamesport, were preparing to open Abigayle’s in Riverhead’s Preston House, a move that turns a historic Main Street building into the couple’s next test of downtown’s year-round draw.

The restaurant was planned for 428 E. Main St. in the three-floor Preston House, a structure built in 1905 and originally home to Henry H. Preston, Suffolk County’s first full-time sheriff and a wounded Civil War veteran. The building has already gone through several lives. Riverhead Fire Department occupied it until 2008, then the property was renovated and expanded into a 20-room boutique hotel that opened in 2018.

Abigayle’s will follow Myles on Main, which opened in the same space on June 29, 2024 as a family-oriented, family-friendly casual restaurant and closed by last fall. The quick turnover underscores how downtown Riverhead continues to be shaped by operators willing to stake a claim on a historic district that still depends on consistent traffic, especially outside the summer season.

For the Mangiacapres, the Riverhead move was tied as much to the building and the broader redevelopment around it as to the restaurant itself. Joe Petrocelli’s company was named master developer of Riverhead’s planned town square in April 2022, and his portfolio includes the Long Island Aquarium, Hyatt Place East End, the East Lawn building and the Howell House. That track record helped make the Preston House opportunity more attractive as Riverhead pushes to knit together its central business district and hospitality corridor.

The couple’s decision also reflects how deeply they have rooted themselves on the East End. They have run Watershed through and beyond the early pandemic years, and over that stretch they built a fuller life around the business, getting engaged, married and moving closer to the North Fork as their ties to the area strengthened. They have said a second restaurant was always part of the plan, and that the timing finally lined up for a Riverhead address.

The name Abigayle’s comes from the Mangiacapres’ Yorkie, Abigayle, a personal touch that gives the new restaurant a brand identity of its own. More broadly, the project adds another named dining room to downtown Riverhead, brings more foot traffic to a restored landmark and gives the Preston House another chapter as a commercial anchor on East Main Street.