Gastropub EGP Land & Sea opens in Island Park
The Nicoise salad at EGP Land & Sea in Island Park is made with seared tuna, baby arugula, green beans, potatoes and roasted red peppers. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
For the past eight years, customers of Jordan Lobster Farm have had their pick of the parking spots on Pettit Place, but now the competition has just gotten fiercer. EGP Land & Sea has opened just across the street, in the spot that, from 1992 to 2011, was Montego Bay.
This is a second location for EGP, a gastropub that opened in Oceanside in 2014. Tim O’Hagan, one of the partners, said that while the two menus were similar — “great burgers, great wings, great beer selection” — the new restaurant is honoring its seaside (or across-the-street-from-the-seaside) location with more seafood entrees such as shrimp scampi, $24, and a “seafood pot” cioppino, $27, with mussels, clams, calamari, shrimp and fish. It also features a salad Nicoise with seared tuna ($21).
For now, the Island Park menu is smaller than Oceanside’s, and a little more “gastro” than “pub.” Appetizers, $14 to $15, include calamari with Thai chilies and mixed greens, meatball sliders with peppers and arugula pesto. Sandwiches, $16 to $21, range from the Land & Sea burger, topped with lobster salad and crispy chicken with avocado, bacon and chipotle mayo to filet mignon on ciabatta with mozzarella, sun-dried tomato and ricotta pesto.
At the top end of the entrees, EGP steak and cake ($35) involves a Wagyu flatiron, lump crabcake and creamed spinach; there’s also a Berkshire pork chop ($21), chicken with shrimp and crab ($21) and daily fish and meat specials.
EGP Land & Sea also has a lighter feel than the more rathskellerian original. There's still a bit of reclaimed wood, but also neutral tilework and floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides. Between the bar, dining room and patio, there are about 100 seats.
Running the kitchen is William Merget who most recently was the chef at Da Gigi in Lynbrook.
There are two dozen beers on tap, a similar number of wines (half of them, by the glass) and, of course, craft cocktails. Bridging all three categories is Swashbuckler sangria on tap.
EGP Land & Sea is at 2 Pettit Place, Island Park, 516-544-2879.
