A renowned City Island restaurant served as host to a Golden Globe winning actor starring in a new television cable series.
Artie’s Steak and Seafood located at 394 City Island Avenue, will be featured in an upcoming episode of the television series, ‘Billions’ which filmed a scene featuring co-star, Damian Lewis dining at the eatery.
This new Showtime series follows actor Paul Giamatti as U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades pursuing Lewis’ hedge fund king character, Bobby ‘Axe’ Axelrod, in a battle between two powerful figures.
Spiros Chagares, Artie’s owner, said the scene sees Lewis’ character enjoying shrimp and scallop over glazed tomatoes with a glass of red wine as he listens to a musician performing a humorous Italian song.
Artie’s owner said the scene will appear in the series’ seventh episode titled ‘The Punch’ slated to air on Sunday, February 28 at 10 p.m. on Showtime.
He added an additional scene was shot outside in the restaurant’s parking lot, but it does not contain any exterior shots of the eatery.
Previously, two episodes of the VH1 reality television series, ‘Basketball Wives’ were filmed at this restaurant.
Producers from ‘Billions’ reached out to Chagares to ask for his permission to film there.
The restaurant owner said he heard of ‘Billions’ prior to the producer’s call because he is a fan of both Giamatti and Lewis’ work.
The film shoot, which took place on a Tuesday last November, began at 7 a.m. with the crew entering Artie’s to prep it for the shoot.
Chagares explained the crew altered the restaurant’s appearance to fit what they envisioned for the scene.
The crew removed booths, placed checked table clothes over every table, changed mirrors and lighting and replaced the Artie’s artwork and vases with their own for the scene.
“It was a little nerve racking to see them come in and moving everything, but they were very careful and did an excellent job,” said Chagares.
Once the restaurant was fully prepared, the crew called in a bus filled with extras dressed as waiters, waitresses and guests to appear in the scene.
“There were over 200 people here just to shoot a few minutes of the show,” said Chagares. “We were all very excited to be a apart of this and enjoyed every minute.”
The scene featuring Lewis was filmed inside Artie’s main dining hall and took four hours to shoot, he added.
Artie’s chefs were on-site preparing meals for the cast and crew during the film shoot.
“Both the crew and Lewis really enjoyed dining on our shrimp and scallops over glazed tomatoes,” he noted.
The filming lasted all day.
After wrapping up, Chagares, Laura Vandenberge, Artie’s general manager and restaurant staff had the opportunity to meet the ‘Billions’ co-star.
“We met Damian Lewis afterwards and he was very gracious to all of us,” said Chagares. “He spoke about the show and took photos with everyone.”
This episode of ‘Billions’ will also be viewable on Showtime’s website, www.sho.com/
