East Lyme ― Change is coming to Main Street one familiar name at a time.

For three restaurants set to open over the next month within a half mile of each other, there is a common belief that growth in the quiet, bayside village can only come from infusing both tradition and new experiences into the mix.

There’s Tabatha Miranda, a self-described hard-working, accomplished Puerto Rican woman who started with nothing and is now expanding her cafe into what she hopes will become the western gateway to Niantic.

There’s the Formica children, grown now with a new generation already begun, who will bring their late mother’s wisdom and a little East Coast/West Coast chic to 374 Main St.

And there’s Chris Herbert, an emerging restaurateur in town whose newest venture invokes the name of a Niantic mainstay since the Great Depression.

Herbert last week was at 252 Main St., the home for more than 75 years of Constantine’s and now of Constantine’s on the Bay. He was meeting with vendors and preparing to hang canvases throughout the main dining space. The sea foam walls from the building’s most recent iteration as Main Street Grille will remain, but the nautical theme will be replaced with sea creatures painted in vivid shades by artist and chef Leo Jara.

Herbert said even if he didn’t call the place Constantine’s, everybody else would.

“If I called it Chris’s on the Bay, you would still say, ‘Hey, that’s the guy that owns the old Constantine’s,’” he said. “I call it Constantine’s so you can continue calling it Constantine’s. You’re welcome.”

The menu includes seasonal favorites like braised beef short ribs with roasted vegetables, classics like the chicken Francese recipe on which he honed his cooking chops, and seafood dishes like baked stuffed shrimp or lazy lobster.

It’s the kind of typical New England fare that’s not so typical anymore, he said.

His goal is to “bring back an established style of restaurant,” but he emphasized Constantine’s on the Bay will be making its own name for itself.

“I didn't choose the name of Constantine because I wanted people to think I was coming back with the same reputation. I don't want their reputation. I wanted to pay homage to the people before me,” he said.

Herbert still maintains an ownership interest in La Llorona on Hope Street with his wife, Gabriela Herbert, but no longer serves as a chef there. He said he wanted to focus instead on going back to his roots as a kid from Norwich who traveled the summer shoreline circuit with a grandfather who owned pool halls and arcades across the region.

He described the 1920 building, which sits near the intersection with Pennsylvania Avenue, as the heart of Main Street.

“They talked about tearing this building down and building another one of those yellow monstrosities over there,” he said with a nod to The Norton down the street, with Sift Bake Shop on the first level and luxury condominiums above. “It looks beautiful, but for who? Not for the people who have lived here their whole lives.”

Herbert declined to pinpoint when he’d officially open his doors. He said he’d spread the word on social media several days before a soft opening expected soon.

374 Kitchen & Cocktails

Not far up the street, Alli Coleman and her sister-in-law Michaela Formica were sitting down for a wine tasting in preparation for the opening of 374 Kitchen & Cocktails in mid-November. Contractors worked in the cleared-out dining room below, where remnants of red upholstered booths lining the perimeter remained as some of the only evidence of Lillian’s Cafe before it.

The women are part of a growing restaurant group anchored by Flanders Fish Market on Chesterfield Road with a summer presence on Crescent Beach at The Stand. The venture is led by retired state senator and former East Lyme First Selectman Paul Formica.

“It’s not going to be Fish Market Two,” he said of the new restaurant named after its Main Street location. “It’s going to be a new concept, a different concept revolving around a culinary experience.”

The proud father pointed to Coleman’s role as the general manager for a large steakhouse on New York City’s Upper East Side and Michaela Formica’s years in Los Angeles as the basis of the “East Coast/West Coast” feel they’re bringing to Main Street.

“I’m so excited and eager about the opportunity to kind of bring a city vibe to this place while maintaining the comforts of a small community,” Coleman said.

Flanders Fish Market executive chef Olivia Formica in a video phone call said she will head the kitchen at the new restaurant while keeping an eye on the fish market. Open 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week, 374 will serve a daily brunch in addition to lunch options. The evening menu will include about a half dozen seasonal dishes with a late night menu available Thursday through Saturday.

Olivia Formica will be joined by Coleman as the restaurant group’s director of operations and Michaela Formica as bar manager. They said Matthew Formica, brother to the Formica girls and Michaela’s new husband, will offer his business savvy. Sister Hannah will return from her post as executive chef at an Outback Steakhouse in Delaware to serve at the fish market.

“Our mom always encouraged us to go and spread our wings elsewhere and see what the world had to offer,” Olivia Formica said of Donna Formica, who died in 2009. “I just think it’s a very magical thing that we all decided as a team and a family to come back and rally our troops to honor her legacy and build a beautiful life for our families.”

Paul Formica served as first selectman from 2007-15 during a period when town officials and Niantic Main Street volunteers were making strides in turning the village into more of a destination.

“To now become a part of it on the other side, is something I’m very excited about,” he said.

He said development since then of multiple mixed-use buildings that combine businesses on the first floor and apartments or condominiums above has encouraged more shops and foot traffic.

He invoked The Norton with its upscale shops and condos, as well as the site next door to his new restaurant that has been approved as a three-story,16,950-square-foot building with space for four shops on the lower level and 18 apartments above.

“There are shops going down to where Sift (Bake Shop) is, and working their way back,” he said.

But the Zoning Commission this year, reflecting the views of a community leery of overdevelopment, approved new regulations prohibiting the construction of new three-story mixed use buildings.

“I don’t agree with that decision,” he said. “I think there are ways to grow downtown.”

Cafe SoL

Next door, Cafe SoL owner Tabatha Miranda was preparing to relocate her 12-year-old business about two-thirds of a mile up the street to the corner of Main and Black Point Road. The move comes after the planned demolition of her popular eatery to make room for the latest mixed use project from builder and investor David Preka.

Building inspector David Garside last week said no demolition permits have yet been filed.

Miranda described the building best remembered as the Silver Skate Christmas Shop as a place where people can gather comfortably for a breakfast and lunch “experience.”

“This isn’t where I expected to be, but it’s exactly where I belong,” she said.

She recalled Silver Skate owners Jack and Pat Lewis, who retired in 2007, visiting her current location recently to present her a photo collage of the shop’s long history.

“They wanted to give me their blessing and hoped that I loved it as much as they did,” she said. “We all shed a tear, and we all agreed I am definitely up for the challenge and very happy to put their property back as a destination.”

She noted similarities between the two families.

“My daughters work with me, their daughters worked with them growing up,” she said. “It’s oddly along the same path.”

Miranda will close her current location on Halloween. She is planning a sidewalk parade on Nov. 1 to make a ceremonial trek up the street to 488 Main St.

She pointed to a clipboard filled with customers who volunteered their time to help with things like moving, painting and cultivating her signature gardens.

Miranda, who was born in Puerto Rico, recalled coming to Niantic in 2001 as a recent divorcee with two daughters, aged 3 and 6. She said she was determined to give them the opportunities that her mother always strove to give her.

She credited a customer base built over a decade through an attention to good service and a bright, funky vibe.

“It takes a village, and this is the village,” she said.

e.regan@theday.com