Four Brothers brand extends throughout the Harlem Valley

HARLEM VALLEY — Just about everyone in Amenia, Millerton, Pine Plains and Dover knows the name Four Brothers. Made famous by their pizza for more than 40 years, the chain run by the Stefanopoulos brothers keeps growing in size.

The Stefanopouloses’ work over the years has yielded nine Four Brothers Pizza Inns across the Hudson Valley, as well as a drive-in theater in Amenia, the Boathouse in Lakeville, Conn., and Yianni’s Restaurant in Chatham.

Most recently, Peter Stefanopoulos purchased two local landmarks — one in the village of Millerton and another in Amenia — that are being transformed into an inn and a bed and breakfast, respectively.

New additions

The big, yellow building that sits across from The Moviehouse on Main Street in Millerton, once known as Simmons’ Way Village Inn, was bought by Stefanopoulos about two years ago and has undergone renovations for approximately seven months. It is to become the new Millerton Inn.

The soon-to-be-inn features 11 rooms and will boast a new Mediterranean restaurant with a full bar adjacent to it.

The structure, built sometime in the 1860s, has had its share of owners. It was a doctor’s office at one point in its history.

This building, according to  Eleni Stefanopoulos — daughter of Peter and soon-to-be-manager of the new venture — is one of Millerton’s historic landmarks.

The second building, located at 4981 Route 22, Amenia, sits directly across from the Town Hall. It’s a historic Victorian and is more moderate in size than the Millerton building, with half the room capacity.

Featuring five bedrooms and three baths, the house will be configured as a bed and breakfast.

The Amenia location was bought about a year ago and has been undergoing renovations and restoration work for nearly six months.

Although opening dates have not yet been specified, the goal is to have the new businesses ready before the New Year,  Eleni explained.

“This is crunch time for us. We’re trying to get as much done as we can in a 17-hour day so we can open up before the holidays,” she said.

Renovations

There’s been a need to renovate at the Millerton site.

“It’s an old building,”  Eleni said. “We wanted to preserve as much as we possibly could. We didn’t want to do too much renovation; we didn’t want to do too much of anything other than installing a bar.

“Unfortunately, because it’s a very old building, once you take one wall down and you see that there is one beam rotting, you have to rreplace that. And then you kind of keep going, and it becomes the snowball,” she said. “We then said to ourselves,  ‘OK,  let’s just get everything done now and not have to worry about it in the next two to three years.’ We wanted it to be ready to go with no issues.”

The Amenia site is currently getting its exterior revamped.

“It turns out, because it is such an old building, there are certain procedures that we have to go through in order to get it going,”  Eleni said, adding the community has been very supportive of the project.

“This has been the most amazing part of the process,” she said. “The project has had an incredible amount of local support from the community. Knowing that we have all this support, we can’t wait until we are up and running.”

Strengthening

the local economy

The Stefanopouloses’ plan for their business is to continue to strengthen the community by drawing more people to Harlem Valley.

“We’re hoping to encourage more people to visit and stay in Millerton and Amenia,” said  Eleni. “We’ve lived here for 40 years, and we plan on being around for another 40 more, so we want our businesses to thrive so we can continue to share the beauty of the Harlem Valley with everyone. And we’re lucky enough to be an arm’s length from New York City.”

In addition, the Stefanopouloses will continue their tradition of sourcing local food products, amenities and more.

“We’re really big believers in keeping things local and working with the people of our community to create a strong economy,”  Eleni said. “So I think this project will definitely be good for our towns and the area.”