Gastropub Vauxhall opens in Huntington
Vauxhall, a new burger bar in Huntington, is open until 4 a.m. for drinks. Credit: Newsday / Erica Marcus
Huntington’s new late-night eatery, Vauxhall, has a hipster vibe and a seasoned chef, Michael Meehan.
The gastropub takes over the corner location that housed the short-lived Char Grille.
Burgers (made with a half pound of custom-blended beef from Farmingdale’s Main Street Meat) take center stage here, from the classic Villager (tomato jam, Applewood bacon and Cheddar, $15) to the baroque Kitchen Sink (bacon, pepper jack cheese short ribs, mac-and-cheese and crumbled potato chips, $18).
This also may be the first Long Island appearance of the Ramen Burger, $16, a Japanese import that made its East Coast debut in 2013 at Brooklyn’s Smorgasburg food market and whose “bun” is two slabs of crisped ramen noodles. Here the burger is topped with pork belly, napa slaw and spicy yuzu ketchup.
Meehan first hit Long Island’s culinary big time in the early 1990s at Mill River Inn in Oyster Bay. He went on to run, among other restaurants, Tupelo Honey in Sea Cliff and Clearwater in Massapequa. His last restaurant gig was at H2O in Smithtown, which he left in 2014 to become the executive chef at Noyac Golf Club in Sag Harbor.
Vauxhall is owned by Eric Finneran, Sal Mignano and Dan Valentino. The three partners are involved, collectively or singly, in The Leaky Lifeboat Inn in Seaford, ZA Late Night Pizza in Rockville Centre and Seaford, and Amityville Music Hall. All are musicians (as is Meehan) and the name of the place, pronounced “vox hall” is an homage to Morrissey’s 1994 album “Vauxhall and I.”
“We’re big fans,” Finneran said, “and Morrissey is a vegan. It might seem strange to name a burger bar after a vegan, but we want to be a burger bar where vegan is not just an afterthought.”
Witness the vegan “Alt. burgers,” one made from black beans and sweet potatoes, the other with chickpeas and edamame.
On the drinks front, Vauxhall offers 14 beers on tap, 15 in cans, six wines, specialty cocktails and a “nitro tap,” whence issues both Prosecco and Sail Away cold brew (which teams up with Bulleit Bourbon, bitters, and mole chocolate in the Cold Brew Old Fashioned, $12).
Vauxhall is open from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. seven days a week. The kitchen is open from 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, and 4 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. A late-night menu, plus lunch and weekend brunch, are in the offing.
Vauxhall is at 26 Clinton Ave., Huntington, 631-425-0222.
