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JEFF'S BAYVILLE REOPENS
Jeff's Seafood & Chowder House in Bayville has reopened for the season. Chef Billy Bob McLellan, who left shortly after the restaurant opened last year, is back at the helm. McLellan said the place is now fully functioning, with both air-conditioning and a liquor license, both notably absent last summer.
McLellan, who is also executive chef for Jeff's Seafood of Halesite, gained a local following in East Northport more than a decade ago as co-chef of the wacky but surprisingly good Hook In Me Aye Cafe. In Bayville this season, his specialty is a bread bowl filled with a stew of mussels, clams, shrimp and sea scallops in a red broth with herbes de Provence ($16). Also on the menu: clams oreganata ($8), a lobster roll ($20) and an oyster po'boy ($13). Right now, the place is open for dinner Wednesday to Sunday but will shortly offer both lunch and dinner all week.
Jeff's Seafood & Chowder House is at 18 Bayville Ave., Bayville, 516-628-0124. -- JOAN REMINICK
GONE IN A FLASH
A little more than a month after it opened, the promising Roman-style trattoria Testaccio at the Gardens in Garden City Park has closed. Diners who had made reservations for Saturday night arrived to find a dark restaurant with locked doors and no sign indicating what had happened.
The restaurant was in the Jericho Turnpike building long occupied by the Garden Inn and then, in turn, by McGillicuddy's, Patrick's East Side Grill and, for about a year, Vintage. It was a collaboration between Michael Izzo, a partner at Vintage, and Carlo and Paul Bordone, owners of the well-regarded Testaccio Ristorante in Long Island City. -- ERICA MARCUS
... ALSO CLOSED
The Original Kasper's Hot Dog, across from the harbor in Northport, has closed after about a year in business. In addition to steamed beef hot dogs, the place also served chicken sausages and chicken dogs, along with a few simple side dishes. A sign in the window says Kasper's will reopen under new management after renovations. Exactly what that means remains to be seen.
-- JOAN REMINICK
SWELL SIBLINGS
Siblings Brooke Jankow and Steve Zoerner just teamed up to open a Cal-Mex place called Swell Taco in Babylon. The casual counter service eatery is situated in the back-alley-parking-lot-facing space that last hosted Lucy's.
Jankow, in fact, worked at Lucy's for several years. Zoerner, who cooked at several Southern California restaurants, trained at Ricardo's in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., a place he and Jankow frequented while growing up. Many of the recipes served in Babylon come from there.
Both soft and hard corn tortillas, along with soft flour tortillas, are offered. On the menu: a fish taco ($3.50), a "crunch and munch" ground beef taco featuring a hard corn tortilla wrapped in a soft flour one ($2.50), a "San Clemente" burrito ($6.25) with grilled chicken, and a steak quesadilla ($4.95).
Swell Taco is at 135 Deer Park Ave. (rear entrance; suite 2), Babylon, 631-482-1299. -- JOAN REMINICK
