Vegan oyster mushroom "calamari" -- pictured at 3 Brothers Pizza...

Vegan oyster mushroom "calamari" -- pictured at 3 Brothers Pizza in Farmingdale -- is also on the menu at 3 Brothers Italian Kitchen in Albertson. Credit: Daniel Brennan

Vegan diners in central Nassau have a saucy new option, especially if they like carbs: A restaurant serving vegan pizza, pastas and Italian dishes has opened in Albertson.

3 Brothers Italian Kitchen on Willis Avenue has taken over the space where Shi Wei Tian used to be. It is the fifth location of an expanding chain of restaurants with parallel vegan and non-vegan menus.

For its plant-based dishes, the kitchen uses things such as seitan, tempeh bacon, mushrooms and house-made cashew cheeses to create meatless and dairyless versions of things such as seitan scarpariello ($20), rigatoni alla Norma with tomatoes, eggplant and cashew ricotta ($17) and an oyster-mushroom “calamari” delivered with two kinds of sauce ($11). Personal 12-inch pizzas come on vegan crusts topped with melted cashew mozzarella.

The non-vegan menu mirrors many of the dishes blow for blow, from burrata with roasted red peppers ($12) to chicken scarpariello ($18) to beef-laced lasagna ($16).

Chef Jay Astafa introduced plant-based dishes at his family’s Farmingdale restaurant, 3 Brothers Pizza Cafe, in 2009. Since then, locations have followed in Copiague, Rockville Centre, and Lynbrook, all serving dual vegan and non-vegan menus. The Albertson spot, with 45 seats and a full bar, is owned by Alban Estafa and Heskell Khozouri-Zadeh, who has worked at various restaurants on Long Island.

The business cements the neighborhood as something of a vegan mecca. About a mile away, on Hillside Avenue in Williston Park, is a vegan cafe called Sweet to Lick Vegan Bakery, and its adjacent supermarket, Sweet to Lick: The Market.

Though 3 Brothers Italian Kitchen currently closes Mondays and Tuesdays, the restaurant will soon be open daily for dinner, starting at 4 p.m.

3 Brothers Italian Kitchen, 947 Willis Ave., Albertson. 516-506-7680. 3brothersitaliankitchen.com

 
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