Long Island Restaurants

18 Bay

There are 20 seats in 18 Bay. Every one should be filled.

This bright, cozy restaurant sits opposite the beach and has a sunny, summery style. But the refined, creative Italian food makes it a year-round destination.

Chef-owners Elizabeth Wolff and Adam Kopels, who worked at the good-but-gone Il Panino in Huntington, give this newcomer a warm personality -- in the kitchen and the dining room.

18 Bay suggests a coastal Italian spot via New England. It's politely restrained, with a polished wood floor, and soothing paintings of flowers against maize walls. Pumpkins and squashes add a seasonal note, and become updated luminarias at one end of the handsome bar, which itself takes up about a third of the place.

A wedge of mellow, near-caramelized cheese pumpkin highlights the vegetable antipasto, which also stars tangy caponata. The respectable seafood antipasto includes tender, blond fried calamari and skewered shrimp.

Pasta piselli arrives as a delightful soup, with little shell-shaped pasta, Parmesan cheese and peas, in a light egg drop broth. It's better than the underseasoned version of clam chowder.

Crostini capped with roasted red peppers and delicate, olive-oil poached tuna could double as a satisfying lunch. The herbaceous, mellow dish should be a menu regular.

Silky ribbons of housemade fettuccine star in the playful "duck carbonara," a riff on the classic Roman pasta. The shards of duck prosciutto, however, are tough as beef jerky, throwing off a spirited dish.

Linguine with clam sauce avoids the usual pitfalls and is easily recommended: an aromatic, white production punctuated by thin ovals of garlic and bolstered by a day's catch of dime-size shellfish. The penne alla Bolognese is more workmanlike and could use a bit more salt.

The fritto misto of whiting, scallops and shrimp, perfectly gilded, clean and light, evokes a lazy summer afternoon at a shoreline trattoria. Snowy, crisp-skinned blackfish rivals it.

Turn the calendar and enjoy rich, terrific braised short ribs, accented with kimchi. The grilled rib steak, juicy and full flavored, with crunchy rounds of potato, tart onions and sauteed spinach, stands out, too.

But chicken-under-a-brick is a bland poussin, on a pile of savory root vegetables that deserve top billing. And a duet of pan-seared meatballs is dry, nearly blackened on the outside. The string bean-potato salad alongside works on its own.

Desserts are led by a cream cheese cheesecake, with hints of cassis and marzipan. Chocolate bundt cake is on the dry side; panna cotta, routine; poached pear, underdone.

But 18 Bay has a well-chosen cheese plate, anchored by sweet Gorgonzola and a New Jersey blue, and rounded out with quince jelly and apricot mostarda. A glass of red wine is all you'll need.

By the way, four of those 20 seats are at the bar.

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti, 11/20/05.

Assessment

Cuisine