Feed Me
The dish on Long Island's restaurant and food scene
Mardi Gras and me
Photo credit: AP
I was born on Mardi Gras. Eating for a living must have been foreordained.
There are plenty of Long Island restaurants joining in the revel today. Big Daddy's in Massapequa keeps a countdown clock on its website for Mardi Gras. It announces Fat Tuesday today with three exclamation points. The Bayou in Bellmore advises "this is the party of the year."
Mardi Gras also is...
Read more »Island Empanada in Ronkonkoma says I heart you
Photo credit: Handout
Roy Pelaez, resourceful owner of Island Empanada in Ronkonkoma, has come up with a heart-shaped edition of his eatery's little fried pies for Valentine’s Day.
Choose any empanada from the menu and — with advance notice — you can have it made as a heart. Augmenting the regular menu of savory empanadas are new additions — spicy cheese, pernil and jerk chicken, to name a few. There are also dessert...
Read more »James McDevitt leaves Jellyfish in Centerport
Photo credit: Kirsten Luce
James McDevitt, profiled as a Newsday All-Star Chef back in 2009, has left Jellyfish. The Centerport restaurant opened in October 2012.
McDevitt, whose Long Island credentials include the former Two Steak & Sushi Den, as well as K. Pacho in New Hyde Park and Four Food Studio in Melville, said he will be corporate executive chef for ESquared Hospitality, whose BLT Steak on 57th Street in...
Read more »Nick & Toni's, East Hampton: Closing to update dining rooms
Photo credit: Gordon M. Grant
Nick & Toni's, celebrity magnet and three-star restaurant, will close for a face-lift starting next Monday.
The hardest Hamptons' table to snag on a summer Saturday, Nick & Toni's is refreshing and updating its dining rooms and bar, including floors, tables, seating, lighting. But the layout and the style of the 25-year old Mediterranean eatery are expected to remain the same. Under...
Read more »Duck tortilla takeover on Asian dining scene
Photo credit: Randee Daddona
Not long ago, at Show Win in Northport, I noticed — and ordered — a duck tortilla roll from a menu insert of dinner specials. The crisp and alluring little cylinders ($8), made with duck, scallions, hoisin sauce and flour tortillas, are fried and then cut on the bias. They bring to mind a much costlier, more complex dish: Peking duck.
Yet this was far from the first time I’ve encountered...
Read more »Hemisphere debuts in Bay Shore
Photo credit: Gordon M. Grant
New to the nightlife scene in Bay Shore is Hemisphere, a supper club with a New American small plates menu from chef Jeffery Slade. Previously, Slade cooked at the former Farmhouse restaurant in Greenport and, more recently, Madison’s in Williston Park.
Hemisphere co-owner Chris Cox speaks of a sophisticated cocktail menu as well as a changing roster of musical performers — mainly jazz and...
Read more »Vespa in Great Neck: Sporting dinner in Great Neck
Photo credit: Fotolia
Maybe I’m too competitive but I often consider dining a sport where each course constitutes a round with a winner and a loser. At a recent meal at Vespa, I placed in the middle
Vespa Cibobuono, which has stood at the corner of Northern Boulevard and Great Neck Road since 1992, closed for a while last year for renovations and reopened in October 2012. Not much has changed; it’s still a friendly...
Read more »Bottomz Up, Carle Place: Take 2
Photo credit: Handout
Some call it a sports bar and grill. Others, a gastropub. The term “breastaurant” has also been bandied about. Classify it as you will, Bottomz Up — staffed by curvaceous young women in short-shorts and tank tops — is now up and running in Carle Place.
You may remember that the 6,000 square foot place with 50 large flats screen TVs opened last July, only to close in August because...
Read more »Snow-cones: Go out (side) for dessert
Photo credit: Newsday /
Erica Marcus
The makings of a wonderful dessert are just outside your door: fresh, fluffy snow. Before you put on your boots to harvest it, make a flavored syrup:
For each snow-cone, thin 1/4 cup fruit jam or jelly with a little warm water to make a syrup. If you're using jam, force the syrup through a fine-mesh strainer to remove the fruit.
Pack fresh, clean snow into a small glass and pour...
Read more »This week’s restaurant reviews
Photo credit: Heather Walsh
In this week’s Newsday, Peter M. Gianotti reviews Five. Five. 2 in St. James, “a restaurant so confident and convincing that you’ll start using 5-5-2 as lottery numbers.” In the space that used to be O’s Food and Wine Bar, chef Adam Pitré makes stylish plates, small and large.
Joan Reminick visits Mermaid Asian Bistro in Ronkonkoma. In a “Long Island restaurant pool already swimming with hybrid...
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