Italian restaurant Angelo's replaces Bravo Nader in Huntington
Smoked salmon crostini with burrata at Angelo's, which has replaced Bravo Nader in Huntington. Credit: Newsday /Corin Hirsch
For 21 years, Angelo Guzman was a near-constant presence in the dining room of the idiosyncratic Italian restaurant Bravo Nader in Huntington, where he was longtime maitre ‘d. For 17 of those years, Oscar Canales was a chef.
Bravo Nader is now gone; owner and executive chef Nader Gebrin closed his restaurant in June after a quarter-century.Guzman and Canales, however, are still in place — as co-owner and chef, respectively, of Angelo’s, which opened on October 23.
"[Angelo] said, ‘what am I going to do, go and get another job?" said Michele Guzman, Guzman’s wife, who is his partner in the restaurant. "He didn’t really have another choice."
The couple kept the place closed all summer as they remade the interior; among the hyper-dramatic facelift is the addition of a service bar, so that the restaurant could serve liquor for the first time (previously, only beer and wine had been pouring.). "It was something that had been missing," said Angelo Guzman.
The restaurant is almost unrecognizable: The interior is cast in modern lines and neutrals, and broad windows render the dining room 1000 lumens brighter than Bravo Nader. A new stone patio wraps around one side of the building, and among the recently debuted cocktails ($13 to $14) is Tabula Rasa, a blend of Malfy Gin, lemon, cucumber and basil.
Canales has kept many of the dishes he cooked for years intact, though new additions include a sandwich-focused lunch menu and at dinner, an appetizer of smoked salmon and burrata on crostini, lemon-cream fettucini Alfredo and veal Milanese di Uovo, topped with a fried egg.
Lunch dishes — such as panini, or a gruyere-topped Wagyu beef burger—start at $10, dinner apps at $12 and larger plates fall primarily between $22, for pastas, and $29 (for shrimp scampi and artichoke hearts over risotto, for instance). As with Bravo Nader, the kitchen runs a dozen of more specials a day, from lollipop-style lamb chops ($20) to halibut in a lime beurre blanc ($36).
At half capacity, Angelo's has 24 seats inside, and Guzman said he will soon install a covering and electric heat on the patio. The restaurant opens at 12 p.m. Sunday to Friday, for lunch and dinner, and Saturday at 4 p.m. for dinner only.
Angelo's, 9 Union Place, Huntington. 631-351-1800. angelosofhuntington.com
