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Come hungry to Mineola
Vinoco Wine Bar & Tapas Restaurant opened last month in the storefront that used to house Mi Ranchito.
Co-owners Carlos Roman and Alex Meza teamed up with chef de cuisine Alberto Vega to come up with an imaginative assortment of global small plates, augmented by a few entrees. On a recent evening, the place virtually pulsated. Clearly, the concept of small plates and wines is going over big time in Mineola.
Steamed Asian buns were lovely. I also can vouch for the artichoke salad, chorizo-mozzarella flatbread, meatballs in tomato sauce. Three small plates go for $25.
Vinoco is at 147 Mineola Blvd., Mineola, 516-307-8056, vinocony.com.
Up the road, the Mineola Diner is under new ownership. Mike Alpert and Shane Fritsche relaunched the venerable diner in April.
Chef Carlos Romero roasts a whole turkey just about every day. I enjoyed an omelet special of turkey, asparagus and Alpine Lace cheese, as well as a grilled chicken sandwich and, on the side, hand-cut sweet potato fries tasting of nothing more complex than fresh sweet potatoes.
Mineola Diner is at 138 Jericho Tpke., Mineola, 516-877-1370. --JOAN REMINICK
Islip: Verace revamped
When Verace in Islip opened in January 2010, the kitchen was helmed by Francesco Torre, a Tuscan native who was key in creating the restaurant's "true Italian" concept. ("Verace" means "truthful" in Italian.) Portions tended toward the small-plate variety; the idea was that diners would compose a dinner from three (or four or five) small plates.
Torre left in January 2011 and Verace has evolved into a more traditional Italian-American restaurant. Gone are the sfizi (pre-appetizers), but there is still a nice selection of Italian cold cuts. Torre's salad of apples, blue cheese and pecans, still-excellent Caesar and his Asiago sformato now share the appetizer menu with steamed mussels and fried calamari, among others.
Pizzas used to be rectangular; they are now round. Pasta is still made on the premises and is available in two sizes: small plates range from $7 to $10; large from $12 to $19. My "small" portion of spaghetti carbonara was a great value at $9, although it was the cream-sauced American version of the dish and not the aggressively peppered confluence of eggs, cured pork and cheese that you get in Rome.
Where meat dishes used to be small-plated and priced less than $20, they are now full-size and range from the high $10s for chicken to high $20s for steak. I had the veal Marsala ($27), a big portion of fork-tender veal under a gutsy mushroom sauce. My pal had big, well-cooked shrimp over linguine ($17), though the too-creamy pesto sauce lacked herby vibrancy.
Verace still has one of the most stylish dining rooms on Long Island, as well as a lovely outdoor patio. The service is very good, the wine list excellent.
Verace is at 599 Main St., Islip, 631-277-3800.--ERICA MARCUS
