Claudio’s employees to use Greenport School District parking lot to open up additional spaces in village

Claudio’s Restaurant and Greenport High School are teaming up to make parking a little easier in downtown Greenport. 

Claudio’s has entered into an agreement with the Greenport School District to use their parking lot to help combat the shortage of parking in the village, according to Mikayla Vielot, a spokesperson for Claudio’s.

The parking arraignment began Friday and will continue through Sept. 8 when school reopens, she said. 

“This initiative to shift Claudio’s team members’ parking to the high school will provide increased parking at the Claudio’s property’s lot for visitors seeking to enjoy local businesses as well as Claudio’s,” she said.

Since the school lot has almost 100 spaces, and Claudio’s only needs between 40 to 60 spaces for their employees, the restaurant has agreed to make the remaining spaces available at no cost to all local business employees, freeing up more parking in other lots.

The proposal was the idea of Tora Matsuoka, a partner of Seasoned Hospitality, the management company that oversees Claudio’s.

“Instead of just finding a solution for Claudio’s, we focused on finding a way to help the community at large,” Mr. Matsuoka said in a press release. “That said, the safety of our team and neighboring business employees that utilize the lot is of the utmost importance to us. We’ve hired a Claudio’s attendant that will direct traffic and watch over the cars. Additionally, for any Claudio’s team member who desires it, a security guard will escort them to their car after sundown.”

In addition the main restaurant, Claudio’s operates Crabby Jerry’s and Claudio’s Waterfront.