OPEN / CLOSED · TOWN OF BABYLON

Two changes this week: a door that is now open on Wellwood Avenue, and a long-dark corner of Deer Park Avenue with a plan in front of the Town.

OPEN · East Coast Buds, West Babylon. If you drive Wellwood Avenue north of the Southern State Parkway, you may have watched work go on at an old building there for months. It is now East Coast Buds, a cannabis dispensary at 1228 Wellwood Ave., according to a community post on Patch on October 21. The post describes a freshly paved lot, garden beds of mums, an awning, and security checking ID at the door. Hours, per the post: Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The store is on the state Office of Cannabis Management’s list of dispensary locations. So is a second one on the same stretch, The HighLife NY at 1300 Wellwood Ave., though we have not confirmed that it is open.

PROPOSED · a cafe at Deer Park and Long Island avenues, Deer Park. The northeast corner of Deer Park Avenue and Long Island Avenue holds a former restaurant and catering hall and a former pub. At the Planning Board on October 5, the applicant’s engineer said the buildings had been vacant “for quite some time.” The plan is to turn the catering hall into a 2,648-square-foot Metro Physical Therapy office, open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays. The old pub would become a 924-square-foot coffee shop with 16 table seats and four stools at the counter. The plan also brings new landscaping, a rebuilt sidewalk and curb on Long Island Avenue, and a repaved rear access lane shared with the other businesses on the block.

Two things stand between that plan and a latte. The owner is “in talks” but has no signed tenant for the cafe, the team told the board. And the site has 24 parking spaces where the code calls for 38, so it needs a 14-space variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals. The board closed the hearing and reserved its decision, and the matter was still listed as reserved on the October 26 agenda.

Opening, closing or moving a business in the Town of Babylon? Tell us, and we will check it and list it here.

Sources: Patch, “Long awaited recreational cannabis dispensary, now open,” Oct. 21, 2026 · NYS Office of Cannabis Management, Dispensary Location Verification · Town of Babylon Planning Board, minutes, Oct. 5, 2026 · Planning Board agenda, Oct. 26, 2026

Photo: Tim Mossholder / Pexels. Stock photo.