The owner of Adriana’s Restaurant has opened a new “Italian steakhouse” on Long Wharf in the former home of Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale — on the future site of hundreds of planned new waterfront apartments. That new restaurant is called Il Gabbiano, Italian for “The Seagull.”

On Monday afternoon, restaurant owner Valentin Stakaj joined dozens of friends, employees, and supporters for a “soft opening” of the restaurant at 501 Long Wharf Dr. Sitting at one of the tables looking out over the sun-flecked Long Island Sound and New Haven’s oil-tank-lined industrial harbor, Stakaj described the new restaurant as an “Italian steakhouse.”