Mainstay Mejlander and Mulgannon moves in with Bean Post Pub

It’s the best of both worlds.

Mejlander and Mulgannon (M&M) – a nearly 25-year-old Ridge restaurant-turned-local institution – has found a new home in the kitchen of one of its neighbors, well-known watering hole Bean Post Pub, 7525 Fifth Avenue.

“In my opinion, we’re taking the best parts of M&M and bringing it home,” said Anthony LoPorto, Bean Post owner and longtime friend of M&M’s own Tommy Mulgannon Stramka. “It’s an important part of Bay Ridge; it’s certainly somewhere I’ve been going for as long as it’s been open, and we’re excited to take this next step with them.”

Though still in a transitional period, the new M&M Deli Bean Post Grill (507 76th Street) has jumped right into a soft opening and today offers all 20 of M&M’s signature sandwiches both within the pub (premiering with their own page on the menu) and from behind the counter of the deli’s new outpost, constructed in what LoPorto said used to be a staffers’ room.

“I’m a very community-oriented guy,” the Ridgeite said, “and I wanted to make sure we kept something that meant so much to the community right here, not even a block away from where it’s always been.”

M&M, established in 1992 at 7615 Fifth Avenue by three childhood friends, started out as a neighborhood German style delicatessen and, before long, grew into one of the busiest caterers in the borough, and one of the avenue’s go-to lunch spots.

With a full selection of cold cuts, salads and sandwiches already available, LoPorto said that there is even more coming down the pipeline including a full selection of customer-favorite soups, at least one daily hot meal and five new-and-improved premiere sandwiches to be fashioned by both owners to signify the merger – two of which (“The M&M Prime” and “The Bean Post Best”) have already been dreamt up.

“The premiere sandwiches are expected to make their debut by grand opening time,” LoPorto said, stressing that, while he and Stramka are still working out the kinks (“We still have a lot to do with contractors and permits and all that”), the pair hopes to celebrate an official grand opening sometime this summer. “We want to get a grip on what still needs to be done and what we can make better before we call it. We want to celebrate a grand opening when we can really give the customers what they deserve.”

Above all, LoPorto said, he is excited for both parties to see some new customers.

“Both of us see different crowds,” LoPorto noted, calling the merger a classic example of give and take. “Look at it this way: In all the years that I’ve been here, my mom’s eaten at Bean Post once or twice. We’ve had M&M here six days and she’s eaten here four times.

“What I hope to see here is a group of three friends coming in and ordering one #9, one #11 and a 24 of Bayou Wings,” he said. “I want the guy who got a burger last week to come in this week and say, ‘you know what, I’m going to try a sandwich today.’ People are going to get the best of both in one place.”

The joint-kitchen – which used to fire up the grills at 5 p.m. – will now open at 11 a.m. every day. The M&M portion of the menu will see a 7 p.m. cut-off for the time being, said LoPorto, but the rest of the menu will be available until midnight Sunday through Thursday and until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

LoPorto expects delivery service to be up and running by next week.