Feed Me
The dish on Long Island's restaurant and food scene
Amarelle chef Lia Fallon @ James Beard House
Photo credit: Gordon M. Grant, 2011
Lia Fallon, chef at Amarelle restaurant in Wading River, is slated to prepare dinner on March 7 at the James Beard House in Manhattan.
The cost is $130 for James Beard Foundation members, $170 to the general public. The foundation, named for the author and gourmand, is a culinary center and oversees the annual James Beard Awards.
Fallon, whose New American eatery earned a two-and-one-half...
Cedarhurst Cafe: First bites
Photo credit: Newsday/Joan Reminick
It was midday when I hit the new Cedarhurst Cafe, situated across from the Cedarhurst railroad station. And almost every member of the sizable lunch crowd was eating a big, colorful salad.
I was skeptical about trying something called a portobello spinach burger salad ($14.95), but odd as it sounded, chef co-owner John Cordoba knocked that one out of the park.
There was, first of all,...
Ciao Bella in Hewlett: First bites
Photo credit: Charles Eckert
Just over a year after closing in Valley Stream, Ciao Bella has reopened in Hewlett, where the restaurant prepares robust Italian food.
The trattoria-style eatery now is next to Pantano's, the breakfast-to-dinner spot on Broadway.
Freddy Sammarone continues to send out excellent lemon chicken and spaghetti alla chitarra with tomato-and-basil sauce. You'll also enjoy the serious...
Feed Me video: Prime Burgers
Photo credit: Newsday/Joan Reminick
Hamburgers are usually a feature of fast food restaurants. But at Prime Burgers in Albertson, the burgers have a new stage. This isn't your typical ground beef sandwich found at a barbecue. This is a gourmet piece of art placed in front of each customer. Using three different types of meat, chef Justin Gaines, makes sure everything in his kitchen is made from scratch, "We worked with the butcher...
Cafe Symposio closed in Bellmore
Photo credit: Newsday Pnoto/Daniel Goodrich
Cafe Symposio, a Bellmore fixture for more than 15 years, has closed. The gracious Italian restaurant often served as a setting for live piano music.
I recall, back in 2009, being bowled over by crisp, puffy, near-perfect Margherita pizza. Yet a mere month later, I ordered the same pie and ended up with a far lesser version.
A sign out front heralds the coming of a churrascaria. Updates...
LL Dent in Carle Place: Valentine's Day
LL Dent, the southern-style restaurant in Carle Place, plans a three-course Valentine's Day dinner. The $50 fixed-price, per person menu covers salad, main course and dessert.
Selections include shrimp-and-roasted corn salad or spinach-and-walnut salad with goat cheese; main dishes of chicken and penne alla vodka, a 12-oz. rib-eye steak, and jambalaya; and, to conclude, either ”American Beauty”...
Porto Fino in Huntington opens with pizza, pasta, flair
Photo credit: Newsday/Peter M. Gianotti
The just-opened Porto Fino Ristorante brings breezy style and Italian-American favorites to downtown Huntington, where it's already becoming a popular stop pre-and-post showtime at The Paramount.
This bright, casual eatery is situated on a corner diagonally across from the concert venue. You'll find appetizers and soups ranging from crabcakes to chicken wings, pasta e fagioli to...
Ara in St. James: An open and shut case
Photo credit: Fotolia/
Ara International Grille & Bar in St. James, which opened in September, is already closed.
On an early visit — which proved a final one — Newsday critic Peter M. Gianotti found the restaurant's repertoire “all over the map” in more ways than one.
The two-story site, located at the busy junction of Route 25 and Route 347, previously housed Intermezzo and, for a brief time afterward,...
This week’s restaurant reviews
Photo credit: Linda Rosier
Joan Reminick reviews Flip Pizza in Mineola, whose Neapolitan wood-fired pizza “is fast food in the best possible sense.”
Peter Gianotti visits Grill 454, “the sprawling newcomer, in the Commack shopping-center site that used to house Charlie Brown’s.”
Pictured above: Inside the wood-burning oven at Flip Pizza in Mineola...
Ahuva's Grill in; Piñatas out in Hewlett
Photo credit: Newsday/Joan Reminick
Ahuva’s Grill, a glatt kosher Middle Eastern restaurant, has moved into the strip mall space last occupied by Piñatas Mexican Grill, which now has a single location in Bethpage. Ahuva’s manager Avi Tsadok said the new restaurant's chef is his mother, Ahuva Tsadok, a Yemenite Israeli-American who makes virtually everything “from scratch.” That includes crispy kubaneh whole-wheat bread and all the...
