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Scott Vogel

When was the last time you made a meal out of ceviche? The answer is never — never as in there’s never enough room in that goblet, martini or margarita glass (attractive though it may be)&nbsp;to deliver on the excitement that great ceviche promises, with its bracingly fresh morsels of fish, lime, chiles and cilantro. 
 Coming to the rescue, just when you’ve given up all hope, is the tiniest Peruvian eatery with the biggest bowl of ceviche you’ve ever seen. That’s right, they serve it in a bowl at Cuzco 41 — a 16-seat postage stamp that opened in&nbsp;Lynbrook in November — and it’s delightful. Why, just look at that picture up there and tell me that cevichedom has ever produced such a mixto specimen. Yes, it costs $25, but swimming in its superb broth is a bountiful collection of well-selected seafood, from shrimp to octopus to calamari, all of which deserve better than the accompanying pieces of swai (the fish of the day when I visited). 
 But Cuzco’s bowl does not disappoint otherwise, thanks to giant Peruvian corn —&nbsp;its kernels fat and pearly, tranches of sweet potatoes, a scoop of crunchy cancha (more corn but toasted), a ring toss of red onions and probably three or four other things I’m forgetting. Ceviche is at its best when offering a full panoply of flavors and textures, a fact of which Cuzco 41 is acutely aware, and as such it’s serving something truly worth feasting on. Indeed, theirs may be the only bowl of ceviche you don’t finish. But try. 
 Try their Peruvian chicken too, juicy and textbook ($12 for a leg-quarter with one side), accompanied in my case by tough if tasty planks of fried yuca. Buried within a pile of onion and tomato wedges was a good amount of strips of skirt steak in the lomo saltado, its well-marinated meat ladled over a carb fest of fries and white rice ($24). An avocado dip, bright and limey, paired nicely with the quartet of tostones encircling it ($14), although a few more of the latter would be appreciated. 
 Still, the ceviche is worth the trip alone, whether you opt for the mixto, vegetarian classico ($22) or leche de tigre, another seafood version but one offered peppery support from aji amarillo. That one is just $20, but then it comes in a martini glass, and what self-respecting ceviche lover will settle for that? 
 Cuzco 41 is at 379 Sunrise Hwy. in Lynbrook, 516-218-2322. Opening hours are 10:45 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; Friday and Saturday from 10:45 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Monday from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

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Cuzco 41, a Peruvian eatery, opens in Lynbrook

New Peruvian eatery opens in Lynbrook

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Erica Marcus

His partners didn’t like any of the names Dario Carosi came up with for their new West Hempstead pizzeria. He suggested Pala (for the wooden paddle used to transfer pies in and out of the oven) and Biga (the traditional pre-fermented dough starter). Finally, Sergio DeCiantis asked, “Why don’t we just call it Dario’s?” 
 Even though he is the chef and creator of the concept, that gave Carosi pause. And it strengthened his commitment to redefining the Long Island slice shop. 
 Dario’s, which opened in January&nbsp; in the former digs of Sauly’s Pizza (now at 336 Hempstead Ave.), treads a path similar to those forged by other Long Island pizzerias — King Umberto, Taglio, Mozzafiato, Dough &amp; Co. — that are upgrading the classic New York pie and serving it alongside other Italian traditions such as the Roman pizza al taglio (a pan pie sold by the slice). But Carosi comes at it from a singular direction: He is a trained pastry chef who emigrated from Italy in 2016 and has spent his short tenure in New York working at a series of bakeries and, most recently, at the cult Brooklyn pizzeria, L’Industrie. 
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 “When people walk in here,” he said, “they don’t see what they are used to. No garlic knots, no calzone, no penne alla vodka on the pizza. I am explaining everything to everyone.” 
 What customers do see are round, crisp-crusted New York pies and lofty rectangular Roman&nbsp;pies, both of&nbsp;whose toppings might be as simple as the “Italiana” (tomatoes and stracciatella), as classic as the “Crostino” (mozzarella, potato, cooked ham and rosemary oil) or as inventive as the “Rossa &amp; Verde&quot; (stripes of roasted-pepper cream and cilantro cream with mozzarella and pickled onion). Pies range from $20 to $29; slices start at $3.50. 
 Carosi makes his own little focaccia rolls and fills them with chicken cutlets, vodka sauce and stracciatella or, inspired by what else is trending on Long Island, braised “birria” beef with pickled onions, arugula and white sauce. 
 More important than any topping is the dough. Carosi has a stash of flours and is endlessly tinkering with ratios and hydration.. Right now,&nbsp;the Roman pies are made with the aforementioned biga, two “tipo 0” flours, plus a little semolina. The round pies are made with another blend, the focaccia with another and the sesame-seeded rolls he just came up with for big sandwiches, yet another blend — and instead of a biga, a poolish (same idea but wetter). 
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 And the guy likes to fry. He makes a mean suppl&igrave;, the Roman rice ball, and other dishes have a way of wandering over to his fryer — such as little blocks of eggplant Parmesan or, a recent special, deep-fried orbs of rigatoni alla carbonara. 
 Bomboloni (doughnuts) might be filled with jelly or custards of hazelnut, pistachio or Biscoff cookie cream,&nbsp;or lemon-scented mascarpone. 
 For all that’s going on in the kitchen (and in the mind of its chef), Dario’s is a modest-looking shop. It&nbsp;was spruced up, but not much changed when it was taken over last year by Carosi’s partners, Sergio DeCiantis (owner of Cara Mia in Seaford, plus five Guac Shops around Nassau) and his cousin, Francesco Maola (of Phil’s Pizzeria in North Massapequa). 
 Actually, Carosi believes that his concept is fundamentally modest as well. “It is all about the process of making bread,” he said. “No shortcuts, I’m just trying to respect what bakers have been doing for thousands of years.” 
 Dario’s is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Monday through Thursday, to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.&nbsp;239 Nassau Blvd., West Hempstead, 516-279-4390, <a href="https://www.dariospizzali.com/">dariospizzali.com</a>

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Dario's Pizza opens in West Hempstead

New pizzeria opens in West Hempstead

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Joann Vaglica

Two years after two brothers opened <a href="https://www.newsday.com/beta/lifestyle/restaurants/food-and-drink/pyo-chai-stewart-manor-bubble-tea-c71813">PYO Chai in Stewart Manor</a>, they’ve brought their concept to a second location, in Hicksville, one that’s a smaller-scale replica of the original. 
 Shaheer Khan, 24, and Saqib, 19, take over the space that was formerly Frangos Peri Peri&nbsp;with their bubble tea spot, one that combines the drink’s original Taiwanese roots with South Asian flavors. 
 Shaheer said he hopes PYO Chai helps introduce&nbsp;&quot;South Asian flavors to people who may not have tried it before or who are maybe intimidated to try it&quot; while acting as a platform for South Asians &quot;to feel pride in sort of the flavors and culture they grew up with.&quot; 
 He brought the second installation of the business to Hicksville because he feels “it’s such a cultural hub,” he added. 
 The shop’s signature drinks feature brown sugar boba and the South Asian ice cream known as kulfi (made with clarified milk, sugar and natural flavors). There are five to choose from, including the popular malai kulfi milk tea, which is flavored with cardamom and nuts and is served with a scoop of malai kulfi, and the mango kulfi milk tea, a more fruity take on the former; plus newcomer paan kulfi milk tea, whose flavor leans toward&nbsp;mint chocolate chip. 
 Other newcomers to look out for: The Kashmiri chai (described on the&nbsp;menu as “a creamsicle with a floral taste”) and the pina coolada milk tea. Craving something hot? Go for the&nbsp;desi masala chai, Kashmiri chai or brown sugar milk teas. All drinks come in two sizes — regular, starting at $5.50, and large, starting at $6.25. 
 “We think back to our childhood, or our trips to Pakistan, or India, or Nepal,” Shaheer said&nbsp;about the concoctions he and his staff come up with that ultimately make up the menu.&nbsp; 
 Boba goes through a traditional boiling and stewing process, one that takes about 50 minutes, Shaheer said, adding that at PYO, they take it one step further and stew the boba for an additional hour in brown sugar molasses. Otherwise, boba, made from cassava&nbsp;root, comes flavorless. 
 Shaheer, a Stony Brook University graduate, and Saqib, who's currently studying at University of Buffalo, make up to four batches of it a day, each batch consisting of thousands of tiny pearls. 
 While bubble tea is all the hype here, the menu does encompass fruit teas as well. Basil seeds, popping boba, lychee jelly and the like are offered as additional toppings, too. 
 The space, which has a little more than a handful of tables, features the spot's signature “take life one sip at a time” sign,&nbsp;&nbsp;South Asian-inspired wall art by Raeqa Nuha Mahmud&nbsp;(<a href="https://www.instagram.com/aestheticsbynuha/?hl=en">@aestheticsbynuha</a>) and a 23-foot-long mural hand-painted by local Bengali artist Mohuya Khan (aka, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/labyrinthave/?hl=en">Labyrinth Ave</a>). 
 PYO Chai hosts events at both locations, including henna and sip nights, speed dating and paint nights. 
 PYO Chai is at 217 Bethpage Rd. in&nbsp;Hicksville (in the Kundan Galleria&nbsp;shopping mall&nbsp;by Mithaas and Apna Bazar). It’s open daily from noon to 10 p.m. More info: 516-460-8616; <a href="https://pyochai.com/">pyochai.com</a>

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Bubble tea spot PYO Chai opens second Long Island location, in Hicksville 

Brothers open 2nd LI location of bubble tea spot

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Andi Berlin

The best meals at JaydSiri start with a bouquet of dumplings. The owner, a truly skilled&nbsp;tweezer artist, shapes the dainty&nbsp;bulbs&nbsp;into rose petals&nbsp;tinted with pink beet juice. The steamed rice flour dough&nbsp;leads to a savory center of minced&nbsp;chicken,&nbsp;garlic and shallots. A&nbsp;dish for the romantics,&nbsp;chaw muang draws its history from 19th century&nbsp;Thai royalty, often found in Bangkok dessert houses&nbsp;flavored with&nbsp;sweet coconut&nbsp;milk.&nbsp; 
 Here in Great Neck, it's&nbsp;a delightful&nbsp;little nibble that&nbsp;gets you set up for a&nbsp;blowout&nbsp;meal of regional Thai cooking. Owner Sirikanya Suworrapan&nbsp;prepares&nbsp;a robust&nbsp;selection of Isan dishes from the Northeastern region of Thailand. Originally from Nong Khai near the Laotian border, she had&nbsp;been on-and-off involved with&nbsp;Krungtep Thai Bistro since 2014, and decided to buy out her previous partner and change the concept to JaydSiri on&nbsp;New Year's Eve. Hyper-focused on quality,&nbsp;it takes her a full day to make the&nbsp;dumplings, so labor intensive she's&nbsp;considering turning them into a weekly special.&nbsp; 
 It's only starting to get popular in the United States, but&nbsp;Isan&nbsp;is&nbsp;a rural heartland of Thai cuisine, known across&nbsp;Bangkok for its spicy papaya salads and pungent minced pork&nbsp;larb. The region isn't big on curries, but more for grilled meats and bright and herbal salads that sing with sweet and spice. Stir fries of steak in fragrant&nbsp;lemongrass, and&nbsp;duck basil kraprao&nbsp;are highlights of the house specials menu here. (But don't worry, there's pad thai and familiar favorites too, as well as an economical&nbsp;lunch special.) The servers will help you find the Isan dishes, taking pains to&nbsp;explain the various&nbsp;ingredients and preparation techniques. 
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 One of their favorites was sold out&nbsp;that day, a slow-braised pork leg dish palo ($24)&nbsp;stewed in an herbal five spice sauce with hard boiled eggs and Chinese broccoli. Instead, the staff recommended a light soup from the vegetarian section of the menu. Gang ohm ($18) is an artfully arranged medley of fried tofu and vegetables in a clarified broth flavored with fresh dill. The soup didn't have a zing like a tom yum, but what it lacked in oomph it made up for in refinement, the carrots crisp and the kabocha squash hearty.&nbsp; 
 For the crescendo, the kitchen produced the&nbsp;Thai Ocean ($28), a sizzling&nbsp;stir fry of ringed calamari, plump shrimp and crispy battered fish with onions and red bell pepper.&nbsp;In Thailand it's&nbsp;pad cha, named for the bursting sound the ingredients make as they hit the hot wok. The&nbsp;dish screamed with spice and sourness.&nbsp;The seafood was plump and bright, even a bit floral after being tossed with bundles of fresh green peppercorns, a hallmark of the best regional Thai restaurants. 
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 For dessert, the servers insisted on&nbsp;the brownie, not overtly Thai in any way at all, but cooled down all that rising heat with its rich chocolate hug. Masterful.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 JaydSiri, 23 S. Middle Neck Road, Great Neck. Open 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 5-10:30 p.m. Friday, noon to 10:30 p.m. Saturday and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday.&nbsp;516-696-3654,&nbsp;<a href="https://jaydsirithaibistro.com/">jaydsirithaibistro.com</a>

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Thai restaurant JaydSiri opens in Great Neck

Thai spot opens in Great Neck with showstopping dumplings

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Crumbl, a cookie chain put on the map by foodies posting taste tests on TikTok and Instagram,&nbsp;is set to open its first Long Island location on Friday in Levittown’s Nassau Mall. 
 Co-owners and friends Lori Rung and Tara Costa are bringing the chain's multi-packs of cookies in identifiable&nbsp;pink boxes&nbsp;to the Island&nbsp;via an open-kitchen concept where&nbsp;you can see bakers making dough and baking cookies right in front of you. 
 For the uninitiated, Crumbl&nbsp;Cookies is different from other <a href="https://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/restaurants/food-and-drink/long-island-cookies-v52287">over-the-top</a>, <a href="https://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/restaurants/chip-city-oceanside-cookies-g9lxca4y">stuffed cookies</a> that we’ve seen take over Long Island in recent years. These are mainly flat, 5-inch cookies coated with frostings like chocolate fudge, melted white chips and lemon cheesecake, &nbsp;and topped with sprinkles, caramel and peanut drizzles, crumbles, fruits, candies and more. 
 Crumbl&nbsp;offers a rotating four flavors&nbsp;each week, with its signature chocolate chip and pink sugar (a vanilla sugar cookie with pink almond frosting) cookies being menu mainstays. The chain has a roster of more than 200&nbsp;options — specialties include cookies and cream, s’mores, Key lime pie, caramel popcorn, buttermilk pancake and galaxy brownie. 
 Cookies go for $5 apiece; new weekly flavors drop on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@crumblcookies">TikTok</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/crumblcookies/">Instagram</a> at 8 p.m. on Sundays. Come Feb. 15, the shop’s goods will become available for delivery through its <a href="https://crumblcookies.com/nylevittown">website</a> and app. 
 Rung and Costa, who are also partners in Orange Theory Fitness locations in Connecticut, and Costa, who was a&nbsp;contestant on NBC's &quot;The Biggest Loser,&quot; plan on opening two additional&nbsp;Nassau locations. The chain’s first Suffolk location, in Smithtown, is slated to open this fall by separate&nbsp;operators. 
 Crumbl was first started by cousins Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley in Logan, Utah in 2017. Today, there are more than 500 locations nationwide. 
 Crumbl, 3511 Hempstead Tpke., in Levittown; open Mondays through&nbsp;Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to midnight. More info: 516-421-7111, <a href="http://crumblcookies.com/nylevittown">crumblcookies.com</a>.

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Crumbl Cookies opening first Long Island location, in Levittown

Cookie chain popular on TikTok opening first LI location

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Marie Elena Martinez

The Olive Room Meeting Pointe, a cozy Mediterranean spot that feels ripe for both date night or a family meal, has opened in Port Washington, featuring a vast menu full of dishes from the many countries surrounding the iconic southern European sea.&nbsp;Late last year, Daniel Pedisich and Bruno Oliviera, partners in the <a href="https://www.newsday.com/beta/lifestyle/restaurants/vinoteka-46-huntington-konoba-rp6mqtju">Croatian-inspired Vinoteka 46 in Huntington</a>, moved into the former Wild Honey space in Port Washington with a similar tapas and wine concept. 
 “Croatia doesn’t have its own national food identity,&quot;&nbsp;Pedisich explained. &quot;It pulls from Greece to the south, Italy to the west, even Austria and Hungary to the north.” 
 To that end, Italian pastas like gnocchi with a creamy pesto ($16) and squid ink pasta ($32) share menu space with Middle Eastern classics like hummus&nbsp;laden with feta, olives, tomatoes and roasted red peppers ($20), lamb meatballs&nbsp;with whipped feta and pickled cucumbers ($17), and falafel bites ($16). Spanish cod croquettes ($17), Croatian ćevapi ($17), or beef-lamb-pork sausage, as well as an exquisite grilled octopus ($28) further explore the Mediterranean region. 
 With small plates and large, flatbreads like the Adriatic fig and prosciutto ($18), an inherently Greek salad called&nbsp;the Meeting Pointe, plus charcuterie and cheese boards built to spec, the options are vast. Bring your children; there’s even a kids’ menu. 
 Pedisich, a former importer of Croatian wine in the U.S., and co-owner Tony Vidakovic know their way around the many bottles showcased on their global list. Particularly enjoyable was the 2021 Voštinić — Klasnić Ŝkrlet, a dry, light white, from Moslavina, a micro-region near Zagreb, Croatia's&nbsp;capital, sold by the glass in 3-ounce ($7.50) and 6-ounce ($14) pours, as well as by the bottle ($50). 
 The Olive Room Meeting Pointe, 172 Main St., Port Washington.&nbsp;Open 5-10 p.m. Monday, Wednesday&nbsp;and Thursday, 5-11 p.m.&nbsp;Friday, 4-11 p.m. Saturday&nbsp;and 5-9 p.m. Sunday;&nbsp;516-734-5612,&nbsp;<a href="http://theoliveroommp.com">theoliveroommp.com</a>

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Tapas and wine bar Olive Room Meeting Pointe opens in Port Washington

Family-friendly tapas spot opens in Port Washington

The fried whiting, says Bobby Ford, is indeed just like mama’s. These crisp, golden shards of briny&nbsp;goodness are a highlight of the menu at his new Freeport restaurant, Bobby Q’s … Jus Like Mama’s, and, like Elizabeth “Betty” Ford, his South Carolina-born mother before him, he coats the fillets in corn flour and fries them to a delicate golden brown. 
 In and around Freeport, Ford became known as Bobby Q back in 2017 <a href="https://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/restaurants/bbq-restaurant-bobby-q-opens-in-freeport-u75477">when he opened Bobby Q’s less than two miles north</a>. With only a dozen seats, it became a local takeout barbecue-soul food staple. The&nbsp;new venue, with a bi-level dining room and a much larger kitchen, opened in December. Ford sees it as “the next phase in our evolution” that “offers more of a dining experience.” 
 Bobby Q’s crammed a lot of soul food onto its menu; moving forward, Ford said, it will concentrate on smoked meats while Jus Like Mama’s will incorporate barbecue into a more extensive lineup. There are the classics, all expertly rendered here: fried, barbecued and jerk chicken; smothered pork chops; shrimp po-boys, mac-and-cheese made with nine (!) cheeses: collard greens, candied yams, fried okra, sauteed cabbage and many more vegetables as Ford has noticed an uptick in vegans among his patrons. 
 Barbecue still has pride of place. Tender brisket is rubbed with whole mustard seeds, juniper berries and peppercorns; ribs are meaty and tender (but not so tender that you don’t need teeth to eat them) and glazed with a sweet-tangy sauce; rib-eyes, prime rib and short ribs are also smoked as are a new item: “big ol' turkey legs.” 
 The menu also features some items that Mrs. Ford probably wouldn’t recognize, like the Wagyu burger topped with lobster or the charcuterie platter. Actually, “charcuterie platter” is her son’s cheeky way of describing his sampler “for barbecue-curious people.” 
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 Ford has taken a circuitous route to the hospitality industry. Born in Brownsville, Brooklyn and raised in Queens, his first jobs were at Burger King and Red Lobster, but his first career was at the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan where he started as a security guard and rose to the position of working with the art departments to hang, pack and transport masterpieces all over the world. Wearing gloves, he handled paintings by Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, bronzes by&nbsp;Gaston Lachaise. 
 But he didn’t fancy spending his life at the Whitney, so he enrolled in the NYPD Academy. “I thought, wouldn’t it be great to go back to the old neighborhood with a sense of purpose?” He did just that, first as an officer in Brownsville and then joining the department’s Organized Crime Control Bureau and, at 29, making detective. After 11 years on the force, he left to join the Freeport Police Department which afforded him a more family-friendly schedule, and the flexibility to become a barbecue magnate. 
 Ford brings all this experience to bear at Bobby Q’s. “One thing that I’ve learned in all my jobs is that work takes patience,” he said. “Of course barbecue is all about patience — letting time and temperature do their work — but also patience managing people and handling customers.” 
 He concedes that running a restaurant&nbsp;doesn’t require quite as much patience as being an officer of the law. Police officers &quot;broker in the business of misery,” he explained. “You see people at their worst. But when you are serving them soul food … it’s an ‘ice cream’ moment.” 
 Bobby Q's … Jus Like Mama's,&nbsp;365 West Sunrise Hwy.,&nbsp;Freeport; open Wednesday through Saturday from 12:15 to 9 p.m. and&nbsp;Sunday from 12:15 to 8:45 p.m.;&nbsp;516-460-8056,&nbsp;<a href="https://bbqjuslikemamas.com/">bbqjuslikemamas.com</a>

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Bobby Q's ... Jus Like Mama's opens in Freeport

Freeport cop opens 2nd soul-food eatery

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At Stop ’n Nyamm, chef Kwame McNeil is putting it all together. Blending his Jamaican culinary roots with decades of experience in corporate and fine-dining kitchens, he stocks the steam tables at this Shirley eatery with dishes of&nbsp;distinction. 
 The curry chicken, for example, benefits from a spell roasting in the oven before being stewed into mellow-but-spicy submission. Traditional Jamaican recipes didn’t call for oven-roasting as so few homes had them, he explained. “When I grew up in Port Antonio, our kitchen had no oven — we cooked outside with live fire.” (Now, when he returns to the island, he has to wear goggles when he cooks over the fire. “They tease me that I’ve gotten&nbsp;soft.”) 
 McNeil’s curry chicken and goat (which has a bit more of a kick) occupy pride of place with his brown-stew chicken and oxtail, both of them a dark-mahogany hue bestowed by imported molasses and, somehow, tasting even darker and richer than they look. 
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 The menu is rounded out by a hauntingly spiced jerk chicken (smoked daily out back), escabeche fish, Jamaican patties (beef, chicken and vegetable), soups (chicken, fish, beef, goat head and red pea) and a range of West Indian breakfast specialties such as salt fish with ackee (a native fruit) or callaloo (a leafy green), and porridges made with corn hominy, peanuts or oatmeal.&nbsp; 
 McNeil and his team at Stop ’n Nyamm (Nyam&nbsp;= &quot;eat with relish&quot; in Jamaican patois) keep the trays full and temptingly garnished with bright strips of carrots and peppers. He started as a cook working at Suffolk County Community College and &nbsp;was executive chef at the LIRR headquarters in Jamaica, Queens. 
 Alongside his day job, McNeil gigged with chef Marc Anthony Bynum at his restaurants Four Food Studio in Melville and Hush Bistro in Farmingdale. He also worked at AHRC Nassau, an organization that helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Five years ago he left Florian to devote more time to AHRC but kept being drawn back to the kitchen. In 2021 he was the opening chef at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/restaurants/shirley-mastic-moriches-restaurants-eakgez59">Good Bickle, a Jamaican restaurant in Center Moriches</a>. Last June, he was lured west a few miles to help open Stop ’n Nyamm owned by Carlton and Annet Williams (who supplements the Jamaican food and imported groceries with her own fresh-squeezed juices).&nbsp; 
 Stop ’n Nyamm is open every day from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 921 Montauk Hwy., Shirley, 631-772-1544.

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Stop 'n Nyamm Jamaican eatery opens in Shirley

Jamaican eatery opens in Shirley

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Joining other build-your-own-salad chains like Chopt and sweetgreen,&nbsp;Just Salad feels like a bit of a misnomer. There are wraps and toasts, bowls, also soups and smoothies. But salad reigns supreme at the NYC-based fast casual chain’s first Long Island location, in Commack’s Trader Joe’s shopping center. 
 Offering menu items for all lifestyles —&nbsp;vegan, keto, paleo, gluten-free — guests choose whether they want a lettuce, wrap, or&nbsp;grain bowl base, then pile on their veggies, proteins, crunchy toppings and housemade dressing of choice. If you’re not picky or creative, there are 15 chef-designed options. Standards&nbsp;like Cobb ($12.69) and Caesar ($11.99) salads live alongside&nbsp;modern creations like Crispy Chicken Poblano ($12.69) comprised of chicken, corn, avocado, pickled onions and Cotija cheese with a smoky ranch dressing, and Tokyo Supergreens ($12.69) which features organic sesame tofu, edamame, avocado, carrots, broccoli, and a sprinkling of furikake&nbsp;with&nbsp;miso ginger vinaigrette. The brand’s “Earth-Friendly Salads,” which boast low carbon footprints, use vegan cheeses and plant-based meats. 
 The same canvas applies to wraps ($11.99) and bowls (starting at $11.99) with warm ingredients ranging from sweet potatoes to brown rice to quinoa. There’s also avocado toast ($11.99) and soups ($3.99) like broccoli Cheddar and chicken noodle. 
 Just Salad was founded in 2006 and now has over 70 locations from New York to North Carolina, Pennsylvania to Dubai. Focusing on sustainability and plant-centric eating, all ingredients are prepped in-house daily, and Just Salad boasts the world’s largest reusable restaurant initiative — The Reusable Bowl Program. This strategy invites diners to purchase a bowl for $1, rewarding them with a free salad topping for every reuse. It’s catching on; on opening day,&nbsp;blue bowls could be seen dotting the&nbsp;tables of in-restaurant diners. 
 A Westbury outpost is slated to open next month, as well as Huntington and Oceanside locations later this year. 
 Just Salad, 6040 Jericho Turnpike, Commack;&nbsp;866-673-3757, <a href="http://justsalad.com">justsalad.com</a>.&nbsp;Open Monday — Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday-Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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Just Salad opens first Long Island location in Commack

Salad chain opens first LI location

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“Where can I get a good, old-fashioned rye?” is a question that comes up again and again among Long Island bread aficionados. For years, the best source was weekly farmers markets that, in season, hosted Orwashers, the Manhattan bakery that has been making old-fashioned rye — dense, crusty and full of caraway seeds — since 1916. And if you wanted to score a loaf, you needed to get there early. 
 Well, there’s no more need to mark your calendar or set your alarm. Orwashers has opened a proper store, its first outside New York City, in Roslyn Heights. And rye bread is just the beginning of the treasures you’ll find there. 
 For Keith Cohen, who bought the bakery from the Orwasher family in 2007, Roslyn Heights was a no-brainer. Not only had the brand been established at the Roslyn farmers market about two miles away in Christopher Morley Park, but, he said, “this location pulls from the North Shore and the South Shore and since we are right off the expressway we are convenient for people going back and forth from city to Hamptons.” 
 The Queens native and Stony Brook graduate also had a personal connection: He raised his family a few blocks away. 
 All of Orwashers’ artisanal breads are here: Sourdough, levain, m&icirc;che, pumpernickel, cinnamon-raisin, whole grain, multigrain and more. There are doughnuts and sticky buns and babka, hot sandwiches to order, ready-to-go sandwiches, avocado toast and banana toast and, in a Mediterranean vein, fat breadsticks studded with Castelvetrano olives and za-atar.&nbsp;&nbsp;There's also a new, proprietary pastry, called the Orwasheire, inspired by the Proven&ccedil;al gibassier, an olive-oil enriched brioche flavored with anise seed and candied orange peel. &nbsp;A&nbsp;nascent pizza program offers&nbsp;personal pies and, coming soon, Roman and Detroit pies. 
 Ultimately, though, Cohen said “we are a New York bakery.” He pointed to the store’s bold, unadorned logo font: “No script, no flourishes.” 
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 That forthright modesty can also be seen in Orwashers’ sweets. Cohen delights in bringing back old-fashioned desserts such as a majestic, nearly black, three-layer chocolate layer cake — nothing flourless or molten about it — and its opposite number, vanilla cake with buttercream frosting. He still makes the nearly extinct Charlotte Russe (a red-and-white striped paper cup filled with vanilla sponge, raspberry jam and whipped cream, topped with a candied cherry), and he invented a confection that honors another New York institution, Peter Luger Steakhouse. Orwashers’ “schlagberry shortcake” layers sponge with equal parts schlag, the sweetened whipped cream that Luger’s profligately heaps onto strudels and sundaes. 
 Orwashers, 377 Willis Ave., Roslyn Heights;&nbsp;open daily&nbsp;from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (except Sunday when the shop opens at 8 a.m.);&nbsp;516-686-6370, <a href="https://www.orwashers.com/">orwashers.com</a>.

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Orwashers opens in Roslyn Heights

Century-old NYC bakery opens in Roslyn Heights

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Roto Grocery is a little slice of Brooklyn smack in the middle of Bay Shore. The tiny shop’s proprietors, Brock Ferraro, 25, and Jack Monahan, 26, were inspired not only by that borough’s retro-chic Court Street Grocers — a combination cafe, gourmet market and sandwich shop — but also by hip Charleston cafes such as Babas and The Daily. 
 “We wanted to bring in that eclectic vibe that Bay Shore had been missing,” Ferraro said. Roto opened in December.&nbsp; 
 Breakfast is served all day and includes rustic sourdough toast topped with avocado, za’atar and Aleppo pepper&nbsp;or&nbsp;lox, cream cheese and capers&nbsp;or peanut butter, banana and chia seeds; egg roll-ups (wraps filled with egg and crisped prosciutto or mashed potatoes); homemade banana bread with espresso whipped cream and sea salt; and crepes topped with pistachio cream. Most breakfast items are under $8. 
 For lunch, there’s broccoli-leek-spinach soup; blood-orange salad with mint and feta; and winter salad with spinach, beets and goat cheese. &nbsp;Ferraro and&nbsp;Monahan love melted cheese, topping their meatloaf sandwich with munster along with caramelized onion jam and horseradish aioli. Roasted chicken is pulled and piled onto ciabatta with fried onions and garlic aioli before being blanketed by Gouda. All lunch items are under $16. 
 To drink, you can get anything from a cappuccino to a tahini latte. 
 There’s also a small selection of exclusive dry goods such as Senesi tomato paste, Graza olive oil, Fly by Jing Sichuan chili sauce and&nbsp;Righteous Felon black garlic. 
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 Ferraro and&nbsp;Monahan became fast friends when they were both attending The College of Charleston, drawn together by their love of good food and travel, and their desire to share it. Neither was a trained chef, both had worked in restaurants throughout their lives and neither wanted to pass up the opportunity to take over what had been a market attached to Fire Island Vines, a winery-wine bar that opened in 2020. 
 “They weren’t doing much with the space,” Monahan said, “and we saw great potential in it.” 
 “Roto” refers to rotation, the idea that the menu is always changing and so is the concept. “It’s a proving ground,” he said. “A work in progress,” Ferraro added. 
 Right now Roto is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. On Sundays, the kitchen offers “Sunday Sauce Service,” a complete takeout meal such as rigatoni with meatballs and sausages&nbsp;or pork loin with cherry-pepper gravy, accompanied by salad, sides and dessert. A full tray, which feeds 5-7, is $120; half is $75. 
 Roto has two tables but to-stay customers can also spill over into the adjoining dining room of Fire Island Vines. Once a wine permit has been secured, there will be small plates and evening service. 
 Roto Grocery is at 17 E. Main St., Bay Shore&nbsp;

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Roto Grocery opens in Bay Shore

Brooklyn-style cafe opens in Bay Shore

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To a Turkish speaker, “vegan kofte” signifies an oxymoron: Vegan means meat-free; kofte means meatball. But at Nefista in East Islip, the first Long Island branch of a Turkish chain, the phrase makes delicious sense. 
 The kofte served at Nefista is modeled on the specialty called cig kofte, made from raw meat kneaded with seasonings. At Nefista, bulgur (cracked wheat) and walnuts are mixed with smoked pepper, tomato and pepper pastes, carrots, celery, garlic, onions, parsley and many more herbs and spices to produce a brick-red paste that staffers&nbsp;squeeze between their fingers to make the distinctive, ridged logs that the diner then wraps up in lettuce leaves with fresh herbs and pickles and, if desired, pomegranate sauce. 
 Or you can get the kofte mixture schmeared on a super-thin flour wrap. It's generously sprinkled with lettuce, onions, walnuts, corn, mint, parsley and peppers before being rolled into a tight cylinder and inserted into a specially made sack that makes for a neat eat-while-driving snack. Nefista also packs the kofte mixture into taco shells. 
 Unlike industrially produced Beyond or Impossible Burgers, it is entirely possible to create vegan kofte in your own kitchen&nbsp;(in East Islip, the mixture is made fresh a few times a day).&nbsp;In fact, owner Serkan Canbulat was making it in his own kitchen until last year. 
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 Canbulat, Turkish-born a contractor, had enjoyed Nefista while visiting Istanbul. Upon his return to Long Island, he started fiddling around on his own to perfect the recipe until he learned that, lo, there was a Nefista in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. Then he learned that the company was offering franchises and, with his wife’s encouragement, he bought the rights, found a location and — the easy part for a contractor — renovated the former New Wave Seafood into a gleaming shop with about a dozen seats. It opened in late December. 
 Beyond kofte, Nefista offers herbed chickpeas in wraps and bowls, hummus in pita and, for dessert, baklava. Almost everything on the menu is less than $10. 
 Nefista is at 91 East Main St., East Islip, 631-228-3500, <a href="https://www.nefista.com/long-island.html">nefista.com</a>.

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Nefista opens in East Islip

Turkish chain specializing in vegan eats opens first LI location

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For the Arahovitises, the restaurant business has always been a family affair. From 1966 to 1972, Nicholas Arahovitis’ grandfather owned Syosset Coach and Grill&nbsp;in the space adjacent to their new Hilltop Kitchen &amp; Bar, which takes over an old Friendly's. 
 Until early 2020, the younger Arahovitis, along with his parents George and Sandy, owned the Holbrook Diner. Nick’s wife Sara,&nbsp;sister Kristina,&nbsp;brother Victor and fiance Nicole&nbsp;joined for the long-anticipated opening of Hilltop, which brings Syosset an all-occasion, neighborhood restaurant. 
 The Arahovitis family grew up in Syosset, frequenting Friendly’s after chorus concerts and Little League games. No remnant of the nostalgic chain remains in the immense, modern&nbsp;building that lords over Jericho Turnpike. What grows is a convivial spot to meet friends for drinks, grab a quick lunch, impress a date, or wrangle whatever crew needs wrangling for a leisurely dinner. 
 “We grew up here,” says Arahovitis. The&nbsp;project began in 2020 with the original intention of opening in early 2021. Enter COVID. Hilltop finally opened its doors earlier this month. 
 Open for lunch and dinner, Hilltop is&nbsp;“American with a twist,” as&nbsp;Arahovitis calls it, featuring elevated comfort food. The Bang Bang Tacos ($15),&nbsp;made with chicken&nbsp;and sauced with a just-right signature tang, and the skirt steak ($38), a hefty cut of beef served over airy, honey-glazed potatoes and&nbsp;snap-perfect asparagus, and piled high with crispy onions, are two standouts. Kids (and grown-ups) will relish&nbsp;the Bavarian pretzel ($12), a pillowy, big-as-your-head specimen, and “dancing” shrimp ($15) presented vertically on skewers and wrapped in Middle Eastern kataifi dough.&nbsp;The menu also features burgers&nbsp;($18-$21),&nbsp;a rib eye ($65), fish and chops. Loaded salads, rich soups, cheesy pastas&nbsp;and sandwiches like the BLTB ($16), a BLT with &quot;dirty&quot; bacon and Brie cheese, round out the selections. 
 Ian Russo, of Plainview’s now-shuttered DirtyBurger, helms the kitchen and he’s brought his “dirty” concept — a spice blend made from cayenne pepper, cumin, allspice, black pepper, and paprika (to name a few), that caramelizes into a sweet and spicy condiment when honey is added during the grilling process.&nbsp; It's an option for proteins&nbsp;and fries, and even the bar menu gets in on it; the Dirty Paloma&nbsp;uses &quot;dirty&quot; simple syrup to jazz up a classic cocktail. 
 &nbsp;“We spoke about what would be smart, keeping prices down with items people could share, and catering to a growing gluten-free dining population,” says Russo of the current menu. Of note, all gluten-free options have menu designation, and there are many. 
 The no reservations policy has produced long waits in the restaurant's first few weeks. Arahovitis says&nbsp; they’ll move to a reservation system, as well as unveil a happy hour menu, soon. 
 Hilltop Kitchen &amp; Bar, 150 Jericho Tpke., Syosset; open Sunday — Thursday from noon&nbsp;to 10 p.m., Friday — Saturdays until 11 p.m.; 516-921-7748,&nbsp;<a href="http://hilltopkitchenandbar.com">hilltopkitchenandbar.com</a>

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Hilltop Kitchen & Bar opens in old Friendly's space in Syosset

New eatery takes over Syosset Friendly's

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It was 13 years ago that California brothers Leo and Oliver Kremer opened their first Dos Toros Taqueria, featuring San Francisco’s iconic Mission-style tacos and burritos, just off Union Square in New York City. This month, Dos Toros opened its first Long Island taqueria in New Hyde Park.&nbsp; With 18 locations across New York and New Jersey, this new location marks the brand’s 19th restaurant. 
 For the uninitiated, Dos Toros draws inspiration from the Bay Area’s supersize&nbsp;Mission-style burritos, which are known for their steamed flour tortillas, melted cheese and the capacity to hold a hefty smorgasbord of fresh ingredients within, ranging from rice and beans to pickled red onions to guacamole. The tacos — made from steamed corn tortillas, cheese and a choice of fillings — are equally popular. 
 Everything at Dos Toros is made daily from scratch, from the chunky guac to the trio of hot sauces (mild smokey, medium verde, hot habanero) to the excellent, sturdy chips. The restaurant’s offerings — burritos, tacos, quesadillas, salads, and bowls — are customizable, and meats are antibiotic-free. 
 After joining the fast-casual assembly line, diners pick their vessel and main — carne asada, adobo-marinated chicken, pork carnitas, Impossible ground beef, rice and beans, or even sweet potatoes — pile on some toppings like pico de gallo, saut&eacute;ed onions and peppers, or corn salsa, and dig in. Throw in nachos&nbsp;made with house-fried chips, queso and choice of toppings. Wash it all down with Mexican beers (Tecate, Corona, Pacifico) and Ahora Spiked Seltzers. Mexican Coke and Jarritos sodas pair just as beautifully. Taco pricing starts at $3.90, burritos and bowls start at $7.79, and salads at $9.29. Portions are generous. 
 &quot;To us, food equals community,&quot;&nbsp;Leo Kremer said.&nbsp;&quot;We wanted to create a space with a vibey, welcoming setting where our guests can enjoy the food we grew up on.&quot; 
 Dos Toros Taqueria, 1624 Marcus Avenue, New Hyde Park;&nbsp;open Sunday — Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.;&nbsp;516-834-1920,&nbsp;<a href="http://dostoros.com">dostoros.com</a>

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Dos Toros Taqueria opens first Long Island location, in New Hyde Park

NYC taco spot opens first LI location

Hatice Doyuk delivered the white platter of cheeseburgers, filling up the table with a colorful assortment of Turkish&nbsp;dipping sauces, dried peppers and grilled vegetables. 
 Okuz Burgers is&nbsp;a well-known hamburger chain in Turkey, and&nbsp;Doyuk&nbsp;and her son&nbsp;Ali Buyuknisan&nbsp;put a great deal of&nbsp;care into its first U.S. location in Great Neck, presenting&nbsp;the fast food&nbsp;like a&nbsp;gourmet&nbsp;tasting experience. There was&nbsp;no sommelier, but every meal came with a free can of Diet Coke, and even though you ordered at the counter, members of the family&nbsp;swirled around assuring that&nbsp;everything was made from scratch&nbsp;and&nbsp;checking how patrons liked their French fries.&nbsp; 
 Believe it or not, Okuz Burgers isn't the only Turkish fast food chain that's infiltrated Long Island as of late. The&nbsp;vegan fast casual spot <a href="https://www.nefista.com/long-island.html">Nefista</a> expanded its New York presence with a franchise in&nbsp;Islip this December. 
 Okuz, which means&nbsp;ox, is the more decadent of the two chains as it delves into an icon of Turkish drinking culture, the hamburger. Doyuk's&nbsp;brother-in-law&nbsp;Mustafa Uver&nbsp;owns the chain in Turkey, which has a location at&nbsp;Istanbul's&nbsp;Metroport Mall.&nbsp; 
 In Istanbul's&nbsp;famous Taksim Square, the late night option of choice is an islak burger or wet burger, named so because it's dipped in garlicky tomato sauce and steamed in its&nbsp;box like an al vapor taco. Okuz doesn't&nbsp;serve wet burgers, but you're essentially able to make your own by dipping your burger in the tomato based sauce on the table. 
 There is a separate section of chicken sandwiches and wraps such as the chicken roasted eggplant, which had a luxurious spread that lent vegetal creaminess to the&nbsp;melted cheese that spilled&nbsp;out the side of the bun. The eggplant, an essential ingredient in Turkish cuisine, can also be found on the eggplant burger. But Doyuk insisted&nbsp;the original Orkuz burger is their pi&egrave;ce de r&eacute;sistance. (Not the&nbsp;Texas burger with barbecue sauce?)&nbsp; 
 The original Orkuz burger ($13.49) comes with caramelized onions and all the other familiar fixings: lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo, ketchup. It's more slider-like in shape, so it's easy to eat, and it's worth noting that the seasoned fries on the side are just superb. 
 Like at Nefista you can also get kofte, but at Okuz it's grilled and served with ground beef as flat&nbsp;little meatballs. The kofte platter ($17.99) comes with grilled peppers, tomatoes and yogurt sauce so you can mix and match the flavors of each bite. 
 Don't skip the homemade desserts,&nbsp;a honey-glazed şekerpare almond cake and&nbsp;a canister of baked rice pudding&nbsp;with&nbsp;some cinnamon for sprinkling. And for the final course, a teacup of potent Turkish coffee brewed in a long-handled cezve and&nbsp;paired with a couple of nutty squares of Turkish delight. Beats&nbsp;a McFlurry, any day.&nbsp; 
 Okuz Burgers, 348 Great Neck Road, Great Neck. It's open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day. 516-570-6252,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.okuzburgers.com/">okuzburgers.com</a>.

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Okuz Burgers opens first U.S. location in Great Neck

Turkish burger chain opens first U.S. location in Great Neck

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The scent of fresh dill wafts&nbsp;around the dining room as a&nbsp;crowd of train commuters lines&nbsp;up for pierogi. The sweet smell is&nbsp;a reminder that Polish cuisine isn't always just hearty meats and potatoes, it&nbsp;can be&nbsp;delicate, too. And the brand-new Pierogibites in Bellmore&nbsp;brings&nbsp;an artisan feel to the foods of Poland and Ukraine.&nbsp; 
 Operating more or less as a takeout spot&nbsp;with a few tables in the dining room, the menu is&nbsp;filled with&nbsp;interesting regional dishes&nbsp;such as kopytka, a different type of dumpling that more resembles&nbsp;Italian gnocchi. Thimble-sized nibs of fluffy&nbsp;potato dough arrive&nbsp;in a plastic container without sauce, save for a helping of chopped bacon and caramelized onions. For a flavor boost, dip each&nbsp;little glutinous puff&nbsp;in some bright pink beet horseradish spread; sweet, with a fierce kick. (Consider asking for this one on the side.)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Owned by two couples&nbsp;from Poland&nbsp;—&nbsp;Basha and Chris Karolak, and Anetta and Daniel Jurski&nbsp;— Pierogibites serves&nbsp;smaller shareable portions with a menu that's designed to mix and match. You can still get a heaping box of pierogi stuffed with fillings like mashed potato, ground meat or sauerkraut and mushrooms. &nbsp;The handmade dumplings are served in portions of four, eight or a dozen for $18.&nbsp;But there are so many fun things on the menu it feels&nbsp;wrong to ignore them. From the &quot;bites&quot; section:&nbsp;Deep fried croquettes stuffed with pork or sauerkraut,&nbsp;and stuffed cabbage rolls of ground pork&nbsp;and rice in a chunky but light tomato sauce. 
 Another&nbsp;standout is the Ukrainian borscht, which is more like a rich stew than its Polish counterpart, which is typically made with a clear beefy broth. Even through the plastic container, this creamy beet soup sings with flavor, sweetness and tartness from the medley of beets, beans and cabbage&nbsp;blended together until&nbsp;somewhere between chunky and velvet.&nbsp; 
 The easiest way to try different things is to order a Polish platter ($20), which comes with a stuffed cabbage roll as well as a&nbsp;kielbasa sausage split lengthwise and firmed up&nbsp;on the grill, as well as one type of each savory pierogi. There is also a sweet cheese pierogi and if it's anything like the cheese blintz, it's worth a try. 
 Pierogibites,100 Bedford Ave., Bellmore; open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday.&nbsp;516-907-2800,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pierogibites.com/">pierogibites.com</a>.

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Pierogibites opens in Bellmore

Pierogi spot opens in Bellmore

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With the opening of its third restaurant, in Hauppauge, <a href="https://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/restaurants/mogu-modern-chinese-kitchen-farmingdale-e54171">Mogu Modern Chinese is a little closer to its goal of changing the Chinese food landscape on Long Island</a>. A tight menu of Chinese American classics is prepared here without woks or fryolators, and if the greaseless egg rolls are stuffed with mushrooms and leeks and served with sriracha aioli, if the “popcorn” wontons are crisped and browned in an air fryer, if the “Kung Wow” chicken lacks any hint of glop — they are all recognizably&nbsp;good-old Chinese takeout. 
 The Hauppauge Mogu, which opened on Wednesday, is the first tenant in a new three-story office building on Motor Parkway just off the Long Island Expressway. At 2,000 square feet, it is larger than its predecessors in Farmingdale (2020) and Commack (2022) and it also has more seats (65 plus more outdoors in good weather), a dining bar and three kiosks to facilitate takeout orders. 
 Hauppauge’s d&eacute;cor is the same jaunty blend of warm wood and leafy greens, and all three menus are identical: Chinese American favorites such as wonton soup, dumplings (pork, vegetable and spicy “Impossible” beef), scallion pancakes, and&nbsp;chicken with broccoli, as well as cold sesame noodles, sauteed string beans with seared tofu, &quot;farm-fresh saut&eacute;&quot; (with big shrimp and crisp-tender vegetables), and the &quot;king &amp; steak&quot; — tender hunks of flank steak with meaty king oyster mushrooms and seared Brussels sprouts. 
 While authentic, regional Chinese cuisine is taking hold all over Nassau and Suffolk, Mogu founder Mike Wang noted that traditional mom-and-pop Chinese takeouts are under threat. Among the challenges they face are the physical difficulty&nbsp;of cooking everything in screaming-hot oil in a heavy wok and, most of all, a profound labor shortage. &quot;Cooking in a wok requires tremendous skill,&quot; he explained when the first Mogu opened. &quot;With fewer people coming here from China, and very few children of Chinese immigrants interested in doing this — it’s increasingly difficult to find people who know how to cook this way.&quot; 
 And so, working with his mother, Jen Li (of Jen’s Chinese Food in Massapequa) and MIT engineers, Wang came up with an &quot;automatic wok-cooking platform&quot; with a blade that mimics the flipping action of an expertly wielded wok and with a superheated surface that senses&nbsp;ingredients as they cook. Each dish has its own algorithm and &quot;cooks&quot; need only add the requisite ingredients. 
 Wang, Li and their partners are already working on their next locations: Woodbury (April), Mineola (September) and then Lake Success, Deer Park and Stony Brook. They also operate a Mogu with an abbreviated menu at UBS Arena in Elmont. 
 Mogu Modern Chinese Kitchen is at 410 Motor Pkwy., Hauppauge, 631-257-3834,&nbsp;<a href="https://moguchinese.com/">moguchinese.com</a>.

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Mogu Modern Chinese Kitchen opens in Hauppauge

Innovative Chinese spot opens new LI location

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The contraption emerging from the kitchen resembles nothing so much as a hangman game, the server ferrying&nbsp;it to the table so carefully that a pair of suspended kebabs swing only gently from side to side. The morsels of chicken — marshmallow-sized, faintly golden, singed black at the points — appear proud of their tandoor scars, and proud too of the marinade that got them there, a clever combination of cream, pulverized cashews, ginger and garlic. With creamy juiciness, they surrender willingly to the tongue, gifting a special sort of delight that no true lover of chicken malai boti can live without, a delight that Imran Moeen’s father first introduced him to on the streets of Lahore’s Old City. 
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 “When we were kids he would take us there and we would walk with him holding hands,” Moeen recalled. “He would tell us, this is the best pulao place, the best biryani place, the best karahi place. From childhood we knew what good food was and what was not.” 
 Being aware of what’s good and what’s not is a wonderful thing, but such knowledge comes at a price. For one thing, it ruins you for mediocre food forever, something Moeen discovered when he left Pakistan in 2009 and opened his own limo business here, a job that entailed constant eating out. “I got so sick and tired of it. I said, I’ve got to take matters into my own hands.” For another, it can make you do crazy things, like teach yourself to cook, plead with your mother and grandmother for recipes, study and refine them endlessly, practice your art at umpteen family barbecues, and save your money for years to open a restaurant.&nbsp; 
 Moeen opened&nbsp;Karahi Adda in Westbury in&nbsp;November. Rather unusually for a desi restaurant, the 44-seat establishment has a disciplined menu, a shortlist of dishes that never disappoint. And while matchless malai boti ($13.99) is a standout starter, the restaurant is properly named for the karahi, a wok-like pan used all over the Indian subcontinent. Moeen himself presides over a fleet of them in his kitchen, stirring up fine versions of chicken keema ($23.99) and biryani ($29.99), and an even finer baby goat karahi ($34.99), before setting each in a heat-tolerant basket for servers to deposit tableside with a large spoon. 
 The goat in particular, apparently unaware or unafraid of its competition from malai boti, arrives bubbling and fragrant of garlic, chiles, ginger and cilantro, its meat succulent, its broth begging shamelessly for naan (available in four flavors, $2 to $3.50). This is family-style dining at its finest, even as competition for the spoon may risk a family-style fight. 
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 Moeen gladly customizes heat levels, but don’t skimp on the fire. If anything, douse it with a glass of velvety mango lassi ($5) or, at meal’s end, a scoop of fried coconut ice cream ($7.99). The baseball-sized dessert, which spends three days in the freezer to get it cold enough, requires just seconds in the fryer to brown its coating of breadcrumbs and flaked coconut, seconds more to be plated&nbsp;with squiggles of chocolate syrup, and seconds more for a standard table to devour it without a trace.&nbsp; 
 Notwithstanding the street fair quality to that concoction, or the street food roots of his karahi dishes, Moeen’s dining room is refined bordering on elegant, and as refreshing as his cooking. “When I was doing my research, I realized that there was something lacking from my desi community,” he said. “The restaurants, they are small-type places and get really loud. I wanted a place with top-notch food where you want to take your family.”&nbsp; 
 It’s a one-two punch that’s made reservations hard to come by at Karahi Adda, particularly on Saturday nights, which often see a line of hopeful waitlisters. Still, Moeen tries to greet every table and poll every diner, soliciting opinions on what he can do better.&nbsp; 
 “I want to make Pakistani into a fine dining experience,” he said, “a place where people dress up nice. I’m starting at the bottom, but I’m trying really hard to do it.” 
 Karahi Adda, 467 Old Country Rd. in Westbury, 516-303-9399. Opening hours are Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday from noon to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from noon to 11 p.m. Closed Monday.

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Pakistani restaurant Karahi Adda opens in Westbury

Pakistani restaurant opens in Westbury

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Burger or sushi? The question becomes muddled when you're at Inatome's HibachiBachi, a takeout Japanese restaurant from one of the grandfathers of New York Japanese food.&nbsp; 
 When you walk in, a&nbsp;chef stands behind the glass&nbsp;tossing&nbsp;his spatula and performing&nbsp;teppanyaki theatrics while he's grilling up your&nbsp;hamburger. Old school meat patties&nbsp;sizzle&nbsp;on the flat-top next to a pile of caramelized&nbsp;onions. Instead of buns, the chef takes out two specially molded cylinders of white rice, frying them up in hibachi butter until they're as crunchy&nbsp;as&nbsp;a Las Vegas&nbsp;roll. The rice&nbsp;sandwiches the ground beef, and whatever additional toppings you're into that day: avocado, butter lettuce, teriyaki sauce, a fried egg. Order the burger&nbsp;&quot;meltdown style&quot; and&nbsp;trained sushi chef Walter Hwang will&nbsp;throw some yellow cheese onto the flat-top until it crisps up like a quesabirria taco. 
 With all of today's gluten free diets,&nbsp;rice burgers seem&nbsp;like a novel idea.&nbsp;But they're actually&nbsp;not so new in Tokyo. The hybrid food&nbsp;is said to have been created in the late 1980s by&nbsp;MOS Burger, a Tokyo-based fast food chain that's nearly as prevalent&nbsp;as the golden&nbsp;arches. It was only a matter of time until McDonald's Japan introduced its&nbsp;Gohan burger, a beef or chicken patty with soy sauce rice that's been become a limited addition item on its&nbsp;late-night menu.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Even so, I still think Keiji Inatome is onto something. The Long Islander has a lot of experience with another style of&nbsp;hybrid cooking, teppanyaki. He grew up among the tables&nbsp;at his parents'&nbsp;Valley Stream restaurant <a href="http://www.inatomerestaurant.org/">Inatome</a>, which opened in&nbsp;1975 and has ties to the original Benihana in Manhattan, he said. This showmanlike style of Japanese steakhouse (commonly referred to as hibachi in the United States)&nbsp;was developed for American World War II soldiers abroad and&nbsp;popularized by Benihana in&nbsp;1960s New York. Many of the same Benihana employees worked at the sprawling sushi bar and grill&nbsp;Inatome, which has been modernized over the years and now touts a full omakase chef's table experience. 
 When Inatome noticed that&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lynbrook&nbsp;building along his drive to work was sitting empty, he jumped at the chance to open a restaurant there and pursue his own&nbsp;Japanese American invention. He opened Inatome's HibachiBachi&nbsp;in November, bringing in trained sushi chef Hwang to execute the menu of funky&nbsp;fast food items. 
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 In addition to the rice burgers, the touch screen menu has Asian chicken wings, hibachi rice bowls and waffle fries that you can get&nbsp;with an oversized medical syringe of spicy mayo, a &quot;spicy mayo shot.&quot; Serving sauces like mayo and soy in a syringe has been a mini trend of late, but Hwang said it's handy because the syringe technique allows you to use up every last centimeter of the mayo, rather than wasting it. (Nifty, I do the same with my cat's insulin every month.)&nbsp; 
 No doubt, the rice burger is still the highlight of the menu. You can order&nbsp;one with a fried chicken or a panko crusted shrimp katsu patty, but beef reigned supreme. This isn't your juicy smashburger or fat artisanal&nbsp;grass-fed blend though.&nbsp;The meat itself is 100% old school hamburger joint, sourced from the nearly 100-year old Janowski's in Rockville Centre. 
 From my experience, less is actually more. The burger has better flow when it's not bogged up with extra layers of avocado&nbsp;and a fried egg. You don't even need the cheese.&nbsp;When you get it with the ginger sauce and the spicy mayo, the whole thing tastes like a creamy fried shrimp tempura roll stuffed&nbsp;together with a Waffle House patty melt. There was no Cherry Coke, but instead, a green tea matcha milkshake with a squidge of whipped cream, and a cherry on top. 
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 Even without the bread, the burger itself was pretty sturdy. Much of that has to do with the unique wrapper, which Inatome spotted at a&nbsp;convention years back. A white piece of paper is folded over itself like a delicate origami fan. After placing your food on top, you unfurl the package and wrap it&nbsp;around the item like a delicate little diaper. There's a separate flap that you just pull out when you're ready to eat, almost like a packaged onigiri rice ball you'd buy at&nbsp;a train station. Food on the go.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Inatome's HibachiBachi, 350 Sunrise Highway, Lynbrook, open 4-8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 4-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday;&nbsp;516-612-4078,&nbsp;<a href="https://hibachibachi.com/">hibachibachi.com</a>.

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HibachiBachi opens in Lynbrook with Japanese rice burger

New Japanese takeout spot serves hibachi burgers

Rice burger&nbsp; at HibachiBachi in Lynbrook

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Newsday&#39;s restaurant reporter&nbsp;Andi Berlin&nbsp;stopped by Inatome&#39;s HibachiBachi in Lynbrook to try the Melt-Down Hibachi Rice Burger, which is served on a rice patty instead of a bun.&nbsp;

Food and Drink

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Newsday restaurants reporter Andi Berlin tries the Melt-Down Hibachi Rice Burger at Inatome's HibachiBachi in Lynbrook

Lynbrook

Newsday

Reporter tries LI's new hibachi burger

Cookoo what? 
 For a quarter-century, Zorn’s, with its blue-and-white awning and fried chicken, was a Bellmore staple. And then, seemingly overnight, red and black were the colors, a sign announced “Portuguese charcoal chicken” and Zorn’s was gone. But was it? There were new owners and a new name — Cookoo Rico — but fried chicken and a bevy of sides were still on the menu, albeit in a supporting role. 
 On New Year’s Eve, just weeks after the reboot, a steady stream of Bellmoreans lined up for Cookoo, many of them excited to sample the eatery’s juicy, well-charred chicken parts. 
 Prices were modest for the half-wings ($5 for 6, $8 for 10, $15 for 20) and other a la carte chicken offerings (e.g., $17 for 8 pieces of dark meat, $23 for white, a whole chicken for $20), a nice surprise in these inflationary times. Meanwhile, a refrigerator case carefully stocked with sauces of various flavors and hues — from garlic Parmesan to piri piri, 14 in all — stood ready to provide condiment support. And for any who thought that grilled chicken was a bridge too far, “southern fried” versions of the above were available at identical prices. 
 The menu’s look and prices were remarkably similar to those of Chimichurri Charcoal Chicken, a kosher eatery with locations in Cedarhurst, Oceanside and Carle Place, which made sense as the owners are the same, although Cookoo makes no claims to being a kosher establishment. 
 Otherwise, customers in search of meals ($10-17) could pick two from a selection of 22 hot and cold sides, everything from mashed sweet potatoes and goat cheese salad to mac ’n cheese and mangu. The usual bevy of wraps, soups, salads and quesadillas were proffered, as were a few rarer offerings, like embrulhos, or Portuguese burritos. The latter were large, a good value at $11 to $13, depending on the protein, and featured a satisfying m&eacute;lange of Spanish rice, black beans, various cheeses, sour cream and a cilantro-lime sauce. 
 Thus were things completely new and utterly the same on Merrick Road. 
 Cookoo Rico is at 2495 Merrick Rd. in Bellmore, 516-360-3060, <a href="https://cookoorico.com/">cookoorico.com</a>. Opening hours are daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

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Cookoo Rico replaces Zorn's in Bellmore

New chicken spot replaces Zorn's in Bellmore

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The tri-level structure at 7 Gerard St. in Huntington has a history of attracting ambitious culinary concepts (Porto Vivo, Jema and, most recently, 7 Gerard) and the latest one does not disappoint. Noema is, at its core, a Greek restaurant but one whose food and d&eacute;cor aim to transcend the expected. 
 Owner Lisa DiPinto has worked in the hospitality industry her whole life, from learning arithmetic behind the cash register at her grandparents' coffee shop in Cedarhurst to running the Manhattan nightclub Crowbar to doing operations consulting and public relations for restaurants. Now &nbsp;comes her own project whose name means “meaning” in Greek. 
 “Everything you do in your life has meaning,” she said. “Every person that crosses your path, every experience, good or bad. The task is to find its meaning.” 
 Chef Nicholas Poulmentis crossed her path a few years ago and the two had an instant connection. Poulmentis, a Food Network &quot;Chopped&quot; champion, has cut a swath through metropolitan area Greek restaurants as well as serving as executive corporate chef of the Long Island’s Limani Group. 
 Poulmentis’s menu is a luxurious take on Greek standards: Swordfish is skewered and accompanied by green salsa, baby spinach and grape tomatoes; taramasalata (herring roe) gets an assist from salmon caviar and black truffle powder; grilled octopus is served with black-eyed peas; crabcakes, with seaweed salad and orange-yogurt r&eacute;moulade. In addition to whole grilled branzino, black sea bass, red snapper, Dover sole and&nbsp;Mediterranean fagri, there is orzo “paella” with tiger shrimp, scallops, mussels and clams; pan-seared scallops with saffron emulsion and squid-ink pasta plus steak, lamb chops and chicken. The chef deconstructs Key lime pie and serves his baklava with pistachio puree. Starters range from $15 to $35; mains, $28 to $70. 
 Since Porto Vivo, the first one, every restaurant at 7 Gerard has been a stunner. Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano, who owned Porto Vivo (2009 to 2016), scrapped its design when she opened its even-more-stunning successor, the short-lived Jema (2016 to 2018). That design was scrapped by the owners of 7 Gerard who opened in Jan. 2020 and closed last year. Now DiPinto has transformed the space with marble panels, wicker wall coverings and decorative accents that have all been imported from Greece. The stairway from the bar to the upper dining room hosts two life-size sheep sculptures and the restaurant’s foyer is the purview of a life-size donkey sculpture that has its&nbsp;own Instagram account (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/guy_douris/?hl=en">@guy_douris</a>, a play on the Greek word for “donkey”). 
 DiPinto and Poulmentis are also collaborating on a second Noema that will open in Garden City in the old Gross Jewelers building at the corner of Franklin and Stewart avenues. They hope to be open before summer. 
 Noema, 7 Gerard St., Huntington; opening hours are 4 to 10&nbsp;p.m. Mon.-Thurs, until 11 p.m. Fri.-Sat. and 9 p.m. Sun.;&nbsp;631-629-7777, <a href="https://www.noemany.com/">noemany.com</a>.

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Upscale Greek restaurant Noema opens in Huntington

Upscale Greek restaurant opens in tri-level space

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Shortly after I announced&nbsp;I was moving to New York, recommendations for green sauce started pouring in. &quot;Buy it by the gallon!&quot; a woman wrote referring to a mysterious aji pepper&nbsp;blend served at the Manhattan Peruvian restaurant Pio Pio alongside its famous pollo a la brasa. Little did I know the green sauce is famous. Several recipe writers have attempted to recreate its spicy creamy majesty using&nbsp;everything from cilantro and lettuce to jalape&ntilde;os and mayonnaise.&nbsp; 
 But now that I've tasted the aji verde&nbsp;at the&nbsp;new Colombian cafe Las Calenas in Hempstead, I understand what the green sauce fuss is all about.&nbsp;By the end of my meal I was asking for extra to-go tubs&nbsp;so I could slather it&nbsp;on&nbsp;my griddled corn cake arepas and mix it into beans&nbsp;for an extra herbaceous oomph. It's hard to tell what exactly is in the punchy South American sauce, but that's just part of the allure.&nbsp; 
 Of course, sauce is not what people are coming to Las Calenas for. It's more likely the hearty South American country meals at budget prices. Like&nbsp;the steaming bowl of&nbsp;sopa de pollo&nbsp;in a rustic black mug, its flavorful chicken broth a miracle drug on a windy winter day. Or the Colombian grilled meats such as&nbsp;bistec and beef churrasco, often served on banana leaves with pyramids of white rice and freshly sliced tomatoes.&nbsp; 
 I would cross multiple states&nbsp;for their bandeja paisa, a combo platter that's considered the national dish of Colombia. This is a standout bandeja, with a snappy log of Spanish chorizo&nbsp;along with a stunning variety of&nbsp;pork and beef cuts, all pulled together with another steaming bowl of juicy beans.&nbsp; 
 This corner of Hempstead Turnpike actually gained two restaurants in the past several weeks:&nbsp;Las Calenas Bakery Restaurant and Reyna's Kitchen, a Central American deli next door that looks like it serves a mean Honduran&nbsp;baleada. I can already tell I'll be back to try more dishes and sauces&nbsp;from both restaurants. Because next time I know someone who moves here, I want to make a really good recommendation.&nbsp; 
 Las Calenas Bakery Restaurant, 719 Fulton Ave., Hempstead. Open Sunday through Wednesday 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., Thursday through Saturday 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.;&nbsp;516-246-9657.

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Las Calenas Colombian restaurant opens in Hempstead

Colombian restaurant opens with standout sauce

Las Calenas in Hempstead

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Noah Levy, a Woodbury resident who was born and raised in Huntington, tasted Chick-fil-A for the first time during his college years at the University of Maryland, nearly 20 years ago. As he explains it, he “fell in love with the food&nbsp;and ate it near-constantly as a student.” It was then that the seed was planted to open a Chick-fil-A store of his own. When? Where? Who knew. &nbsp; 
 In December, Levy’s dream came true. He is now the independent franchised owner/operator&nbsp;at the shiny, new Chick-fil-A on East Jericho Turnpike in Huntington, just east of Route 110. 
 Admittedly, it’s hard to resist the beloved brand&nbsp;that beckons weary shoppers in need of some poultry sustenance, especially after a hearty Target run next door. With no less than 40 cars waiting at the drive-thru and another 50 people waiting inside the restaurant at lunchtime on a recent visit, Levy’s Chick-fil-A seems to be following in the same footsteps of previous franchise openings around the country — with enormous enthusiasm.&nbsp; 
 The Huntington restaurant joins seven other Chick-fil-A locations on Long Island including Farmingdale, Hicksville&nbsp;and Smithtown. Favorites include chicken sandwiches, tenders, nuggets,&nbsp; salad, fries, shakes and, of course, a healthy slug (or seven) of Chick-fil-A’s tangy signature sauce — which is really just a mixture of honey mustard, barbecue&nbsp;and ranch.&nbsp; 
 Once on a vastly different career path&nbsp;working as a store planner for Under Armour, Levy asserts that when his boss left the company for Chick-fil-A, he took it as a sign from the universe. When he and his now-wife, Abby, went on their first vacation as a couple, they overheard two owner/operators talking about the brand in the hotel pool. Levy introduced himself, staying in touch after the trip. On Noah and Abby’s honeymoon in Hawaii, they met another set of owner/operators. Three signs in Chick-fil-A’s favor prompted Levy to immerse himself in all things chicken. 
 Chick-fil-A, 200 East Jericho Tpke., Huntington. Open 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday;&nbsp;631-944-8331,&nbsp;<a href="http://chick-fil-a.com">chick-fil-a.com</a>

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Chick-fil-A opens in Huntington

LI native opens new Chick-fil-A in Huntington

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All eyes were on the massive tomahawk steak swinging around the&nbsp;dining room.&nbsp;A server pushed it on a roaming&nbsp;cart decorated with a white tablecloth, its long&nbsp;bone attached to a string on a rack. When the server arrived at the banquet booth, he took the ribeye down and started carving it up&nbsp;for everyone at the table. 
 At the&nbsp;Art Deco dining hall&nbsp;Arlo Kitchen &amp; Bar, every meal comes with a&nbsp;little&nbsp;dinner theater. This December, restaurateurs&nbsp;Steven Squitiro and Andrew Affa re-imagined the former Crestwood Manor event space&nbsp;as a&nbsp;two-story supper club.&nbsp;Built onto the side of a hill above the winding streets of Northport, the building&nbsp;is stunning, like a glimpse of old New York seen through the eyes of an Instagram savvy millennial. Retro dining carts&nbsp;move past the open kitchen carrying throwback&nbsp;desserts like a baked Alaska, flamb&eacute;ed with a blowtorch and covered with a glass bowl so that the&nbsp;smoke permeates the marshmallowy merengue. A golden-tinged bar area in the back fills up with special occasion revelers drinking from the 200-plus&nbsp;bottle wine list. And a hidden staircase leads up to a jazzy lounge&nbsp;with a grand piano and dramatic&nbsp;views of the forest trees that command the two-acre property.&nbsp; 
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 &quot;The plan of attack was to create a restaurant where you had a sprawling amount of seats, but every room felt intimate,&quot; Affa said. &quot;We wanted to bring back a classical vibe to dining, a little bit of the retro 1920s era.&quot;&nbsp; 
 The Standard Hospitality Group, which also operates Mission Taco in Huntington, brought in chef&nbsp;Walter Huezos&nbsp;to create the menu, which dances between steakhouse staples like wedge salads and a raw bar to trendier mashups like a fried chicken sandwich with smashed burrata cheese. The appetizers lean toward&nbsp;eclectic, with&nbsp;assertively grilled octopus ($24) placed on a bright&nbsp;romesco sauce with garlic chips and hasselback potatoes.&nbsp;The portion could have been more generous but the octopus itself was flawlessly cooked, with crunchy crust leading to a juicy interior.&nbsp; 
 The dish I'd go back for was the duck breast ($38),&nbsp;brimming with a blackberry gastrique and notes of sweet bitterness from a cacao crumble. The creative flavor combo&nbsp;showcased the talent of the chef, but I was blown away by the fantastic&nbsp;flavor of that local duck&nbsp;breast, robust yet subtle.&nbsp; 
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 Make sure you save room for that baked Alaska ($16), a blast from&nbsp;New York's&nbsp;past that's said to be invented at Delmonico's Steakhouse in the financial district. The almost 200-year-old restaurant&nbsp;has remained closed since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, but Arlo brings the storied dessert back in a contemporary way.&nbsp; 
 Pastry chef Claudia Ocho layers together chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream that's infused with bourbon soaked cherries, and then covers it all&nbsp;in a puffy white cloud&nbsp;of bourbon meringue. A server wheels over the mound along with a gravy boat of high-proof spirits, which are lit&nbsp;on fire and poured&nbsp;over the top of the cake before covering it with a glass dome. Boom, your spoon dips into the seared edges and in one bite you've got&nbsp;something hot, something cold, something new and&nbsp;something very&nbsp;old. 
 Arlo Kitchen &amp; Bar&nbsp;is at&nbsp;1036 Fort Salonga Road, Northport. Open 4-9:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, 4-10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, closed Tuesdays. Saturday lunch and Sunday brunch service coming in mid-January; 631-491-2756,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.arlokitchenandbar.com/">arlokitchenandbar.com</a>.

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Arlo Kitchen & Bar opens in Northport

New LI supper club opens with retro flair

Baked Alaska at Arlo in Northport.

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You can’t possibly get your head around Nice Place Coffee&nbsp;without the help of Evan Church. But that’s not going to be a problem because he is almost always there, a combination of curator, connoisseur and cheerleader for the astonishing collection of hot beverages, chocolates and baked goods that fill this sunny shop next to the Speonk LIRR station. 
 “This place can be overwhelming when you come in,” he concedes. “And if you are just about to catch a train, it’s probably not for you.” 
 But if you have an hour to spare and would like a world tour of cult chocolatiers — along with free samples — you are in for a treat. 
 Evan and Kate, his wife and partner, have lived in Speonk for a decade and they spent most of that time “looking for a good cup of coffee. We kept waiting for someone to open a place like this,” he said, “finally we just did it ourselves.” Nice Place opened in August. 
 In her time Kate has worked as a&nbsp;real estate agent and preschool teacher, but it's her skill as an interior designer that allowed her to create an eclectic vibe that manages to be modern, rustic and chic. (The reclaimed wood here is really reclaimed — the family took apart wooden pallets for the tables and wainscoting.)&nbsp; 
 Nice Place displays paintings from local artists, but the dominant visual motif is Chocolate Bar. Evan has sourced more than 300 products from scores of small producers all over the world, each one more frame-worthy than the last. But, he insists, “they taste even better than the packaging looks.” 
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 There’s Fossa Chocolate, from Singapore, whose chili-peanut-praline chocolate Evan is currently recommending to customers. He is loving Standout from Sweden, which doesn’t do any flavors but whose 70% single-origin from India&nbsp;may be his favorite in the shop right now. Or that distinction might be reserved for the LetterPress (Los Angeles) bar made from cacao grown on the Bachelor’s Hall estate in Jamaica. Or the chocolate-covered honeycomb from Mirzam Emirati in the United Arab Emirates. 
 If you talk to Evan long enough, he will eventually name every chocolate as his favorite, so it comes as a relief to learn that Nice Place only serves three brands of coffee: An organic dark roast from Yemen, Filicori Zecchini from Bologna and DEK decaf from Lavazza of Turin. Kate once worked as a barista and she’s in charge of pulling espressos from the big, black San Remo&nbsp;machine. Kate enjoys tea as much as coffee and she’s created a range of signature matcha drinks that might be flavored with coconut, lavender and / or cocoa.&nbsp; 
 Kate’s muffins, oat squares and frittatas are supplemented by sfogliatelle and cartocci from Frank &amp; Son in Mastic and Old World cookies and cakes from IndiePeasant Pastries in Center Moriches. Evan’s work in real estate takes him into New York City a few times a week and when he comes home, he brings Italian pastries from Veniero’s in the East Village as well as Yemeni honeycomb bread from a cafe in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 
 About that honeycomb bread, it’s called khaliat al nah in Arabic and it’s filled with tiny orbs of fresh cheese and topped with sesame seeds. Kate warms it up until the edges get crisp and then she strews it with Yemeni honey. Even if you don’t like coffee, chocolate, tea or Italian pastries, it’s worth a trip to Nice Place just for that.&nbsp; 
 Nice Place Coffee is open Tuesday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 41 N. Philips Ave.,&nbsp;Speonk, 646-232-4633

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Nice Place Coffee opens in Speonk

New coffee shop opens next to Speonk LIRR station

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The question of whether a chicken may be cooked by slapping it is one that humanity has wrestled with for thousands of years. Vexation having reached the boiling point by 2021, science weighed in with the news, via a physicist’s calculations, that the hand in question would need to strike the bird while traveling at a rate of 3,295 mph.&nbsp; 
 Now science was at last free to consider a question equally old, namely why anyone would want to cook a chicken by slapping it. 
 In hopes of acquiring further insight, I met up with brothers Aziz and Zafar Ahmad at their new halal restaurant Slappin Chick, which showcases the bird in tenders and sliders. The Ahmads produce very good chicken, although they do not employ the slapping method, and their restaurant is in Hicksville, although they are Flushing natives of Afghani heritage, and their specialty is Nashville hot chicken, although they have never been to Nashville. 
 “I went to California and had it at Howlin’ Rays,” said Zafar Ahmad, 27. Aziz, meanwhile, knew southern hot chicken only from Instagram, but that was enough to set the 20-year-old off on a six-month quest for a perfect chicken recipe. 
 While Slappin Chick is the brothers’ first restaurant, they have long been friends to fowl, having worked in Kennedy Fried Chicken outlets that the family runs in the Bronx. “But we wanted something different from our father.” 
 There is a bare bones quality to both Slappin Chick’s 24-seat dining room and its menu, which features just four plates, all of them some combination of tenders, sliders, fries and slaw. But there’s nothing skimpy about any of them. Ordering a tender plate ($13) nets you two whole-breast portions, along with fries and pickle chips, while a two-slider plate, which also comes with slaw ($15), portends buns struggling to contain the large meat. Tenders and sliders may also be purchased separately, for $5.50 and $7.50 respectively. 
 Despite its Nashville by proxy provenance, the Ahmads are committed to satisfying chicken lovers regardless of heat tolerance, offering six spice levels: Country (no spice), mild (country plus salt), medium, hot, slappin and slappin+. I tried all of them and stopped having fun around medium, although another in my circle couldn’t get enough of the hottest tender and actually wished I’d brought more home. To me, though, nobody could love that last one unless he was a pro, a masochist or Zafar Ahmad’s wife. 
 “She has freaky taste buds,” he said. “I have to tell her to stop.&quot;&nbsp;Ahmad himself doesn’t even make it to slappin, much less plus, admitting only to being a “hot” guy. And Aziz? 
 “Medium.” 
 Medium?! I felt like I’d been slapped. Why would two guys open a place called Slappin Chick if one was a hot chick and the other a medium? Yet another question for science.&nbsp; 
 Slappin Chick is at 19 N. Broadway in Hicksville, 718-569-5580. Opening hours are every day from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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Nashville hot chicken spot Slappin Chick opens in Hicksville

Nashville hot chicken spot opens in Hicksville

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If you needed more proof that Chinese cuisine is taking a great leap forward on Long island, look no further than JIA, which has just opened in Port Washington. The kitchen’s artistry, the dining room’s d&eacute;cor and the menu’s prices are more in line with fine dining than combination platters or takeout. 
 JIA is the latest venture from Rivers and Hills, a hospitality group run by Doron Wong and Erika Chou that operates six New York City restaurants whose cuisines range from Japanese-Italian (Kimika) and Thai (Wayla) to burgers (Bronson’s Burgers). 
 In the case of JIA, much of the inspiration came from chef Kand Hu, formerly in the kitchen at RedFarm, Manhattan’s modern Cantonese restaurant. Wong, who was raised and trained in Boston, also grew up with Cantonese food — his mother was from Hong Kong, his father from Guangzhou (formerly Canton). 
 Most of Long Island’s new authentic Chinese restaurants focus on the cuisines of Sichuan or the country’s northern regions. JIA’s mostly Cantonese menu will seem much more familiar to Americans since it is&nbsp;Cantonese cuisine that forms the basis of so much Chinese-American food: Here are the dumplings that won our hearts, the stir-fried lobster, the steamed whole fish, the sweet and sour pork. 
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 Cantonese food is prepared with skill: Crystal shrimp dumplings, packed with shrimp and fresh bamboo shoots, are tinted pink and brushed with gold; soup dumplings (a specialty of Shanghai) are handmade to order — evident in their gossamer but supple skins — and crowned with sweet-tart goji berries; tea-smoked chicken is made with Bo Bo Farms heritage poultry; the fish of the day might be local black sea bass; seafood fried rice is made with lump crabmeat, jumbo shrimp, bay scallops and squid. 
 You can start your meal with Kumamoto oysters with uni, caviar and yuzu or yellowfin tuna sashimi. Tea is made with whole leaves and, until the liquor license arrives,&nbsp;, there are five “spirit-free” cocktails to whet your whistle. 
 The stout little building on Old Shore Road had most recently been Harbor Q Barbeque &amp; Smokehouse. The interior is all blond wood, windows, skylights and contemporary light fixtures. Most starters are less than $15, most mains around $30 — less for noodles and rice dishes, more for Peking duck or lobster. 
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 “My entire career I’ve faced the problem of price resistance to Asian food,” Wong said. “But we use great products, we prepare them with great skill. And we’ve tried to create an environment where people will want to really dine.” 
 Wong himself lives in Nassau County. (He is a great fan of <a href="https://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/restaurants/o-mandarin-hicksville-chinese-w85964">Hicksville’s elegant, new O Mandarin</a>.) He knows that during the pandemic, a lot of young families moved from the city to Port Washington and, he believes, “they are looking for something like JIA.” 
 JIA is at 84 Old Shore Rd., Port Washington, 516-488-4801, <a href="https://jia-dimsum.com/">jia-dimsum.com</a>.

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Upscale Chinese restaurant JIA opens in Port Washington

NYC restaurateurs open upscale Chinese eatery on LI

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Corin Hirsch

It’s not every day that a maki roll arrives to the table on fire, wrapped in foil and enveloped in blue flames. The hissing noise, explains Nomiya co-owner Ajay Chawla, is sesame oil smoldering on the bottom of the foil and into the bluefin tuna, asparagus, rice and lobster within. 
 Slowly, the sizzling dies down. When the roll is finally unwrapped, each slice is smoky and lightly charred, as if fire was its own ingredient. 
 It’s an experience ready-built for social media, perhaps, but one that also engages at least four of your senses and doesn’t skimp on flavor. It’s also the signature specialty roll at Nomiya, a placid, petite sushi and izakaya restaurant that’s opened on the west side of Roosevelt Field mall, steps from Havana Central and Small Batch. 
 With muted tones, an elegant hickory-and-granite bar and spare Japanese aesthetic, the 75-seat Nomiya is a distinct counterpoint to almost everything else offered at Roosevelt Field, which is owned and operated by Simon Property Group. 
 Chawla said he and his partners Lawrence Wai and Moul Kim began plotting Nomiya, which means “saloon” in Japanese , last year. They are not strangers to optics: Wai and Moul are the founders of NYC's Keki Modern Cakes, specializing in&nbsp;“bouncy” Osaka-style cheesecake that went viral in 2018 for its particular jiggle-jiggle. (With Chawla, they also own Shaku Ramen in Flushing, which is also Chawla’s hometown). 
 While the Nomiya Roll is an attention-grabber, so too is the “avocado bomb,” ($20) a sort of dramatic tartare-meets-guacamole construction in which wisps of avocado are sculpted into an armor around an inner sanctum of bluefin tuna, then served atop crispy ube and lotus chips. 
 It was the brainchild of chef James Choi, 36, who worked in sushi and robota restaurants in New Orleans, Florida, the Carolinas and New York City&nbsp;, before joining Nomiya. 
 “The chef flipped the table and did everything on his own,” said Chawla. “We were floored. He took our idea and concept and came up with some really great dishes.” 
 Originally from Seoul, Choi has peppered Korean touches across Nomiya’s menu, such as galbi ($36), beef short ribs sliced thin and marinated for “at least two days,” said Choi, in a complex blend of seasoning and fruit, then grilled and served with rice. 
 Sushi is the bedrock of the menu, though, with nigiri sushi ($7 to $9 per piece) standards such as tuna, salmon and shrimp joined by kanpachi (amberjack), shima aji (striped jack) and local fluke. (Chawla said the fish served at Nomiya comes from both Japan and the East End). Maki and specialty rolls run between $12 and $30, mostly, and the kitchen has three levels of omakase, starting at $45. 
 The sake list runs to 11 bottles, and in lieu of a full liquor license, beverage director Julie Basem got creative with the cocktail list, using soju, the Korean potato liquor, as a base for a handful of mixed drinks.&nbsp;There are also housemade yuzu, mandarin and lychee sodas on hand. 
 Nomiya is open from noon to 10 p.m. daily on the west side of Roosevelt Field Mall, 630 Old Country Rd., Garden City;&nbsp;516-605-5097,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.simon.com/mall/roosevelt-field/stores/nomiya">simon.com</a>

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Nomiya Sushi & Izakaya opens at Roosevelt Field

New sushi spot opens at Roosevelt Field

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That I should find myself falling in love with matcha tiramisu is one of the greatest surprises of this or any year. For me, matcha is too often an exercise in bitterness, tiramisu a textural mess. 
 But there is a pot of matcha tiramisu on offer at the end of certain meals in East Hampton — namely those at the new O by Kissaki — that minimizes the excesses of its headliners, allowing something sublime to emerge. No small achievement, that, and all praise to chef Chris Jaeckle for bringing it to my attention, and further, for introducing me to itameshi, a blend of Japanese and Italian cooking on Kissaki’s current menu. 
 Anyone skeptical of such bicontinental marriages will discover that the proof is in the aforementioned pudding, and in several other dishes besides. There is a reason that Tokyo has been in love with itameshi — literally “Italian food” in Japanese — for years, and that restaurants stateside have begun to discover its charms too, however belatedly. 
 “They happen to be my two favorite cuisines, and the more research I did, the more connections I continued to see,” Jaeckle told me during a brief break in the action on a recent Saturday evening. Kissaki owner Gary Kanfer coaxed Jaeckle to the Hamptons earlier this summer, and it would be hard to imagine anyone better suited to broaden itameshi’s appeal than a guy who worked with Mike Morimoto in Tribeca and later chef Michael White, with whom he opened Midtown’s Michelin-starred Ai Fiori as the chef de cuisine in 2010. 
 “People call both these cuisines simple, although there’s nothing about them that’s simple,” said Jaeckle. “They’re simple to cook, but are rooted in things that take two years, three years to establish the flavors.” Both are seafood-loving as well, a predilection that Jaeckle marvelously exploits in his squid pasta, or “pasta,” as the Kissaki menu properly puts it, the sea creature having cleverly disguised itself as cavatelli. 
 “It’s actually sepia” — cuttlefish — “which is a little more tender than squid. You take it, you score it and you freeze it, which causes the scoring to tenderize the fish. It also causes it to curl up, so it gets that sort of cavatelli curl to it.” 
 Jaeckle throws in pieces of asparagus and mushrooms with the morsels, but exercises restraint otherwise, tossing them all with a bit of butter enhanced by capers and soy sauce, thereby ensuring that the subtle fishiness of the squid, and the dish as a whole, aren’t lost. Even simpler is Jaeckle’s lovely take on spaghetti dusted with sesame-flecked breadcrumbs, its umami flavor amped up by a hit of creamy dashi. 
 Lardo &amp; Uni, meanwhile, is a first-rate appetizer in which a sea urchin’s orange, custardy innards kibitz with a thin layer of creamy fatback atop a sturdy nigiri-type foundation of crispy rice. 
 I should have listened when my server recommended the king crab with Calabrian chilies, which left a couple at the next table rhapsodic. And I need to see what fishy tosazu sauce can do for an heirloom tomato and burrata salad, ditto bonito flakes and lobster zeppole. I’ve no idea what any of these will taste like, but given Jaeckle’s knack for unusual pairings, I really can’t wait to find out. 
 O by Kissaki is at 47 Montauk Hwy. in East Hampton, 631-604-5585, <a href="https://www.exploreobykissaki.com/">exploreobykissaki.com</a>. Opening hours are Sunday through Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

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O by Kissaki, a Japanese-Italian restaurant, comes to East Hampton

Japanese-Italian restaurant arrives on LI

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Sure, the menu at Waffles &amp; Soul offers soul food standards like fried chicken, collard greens, candied yams and mac-and-cheese. But that’s not the only kind of soul Ralph Mann was going for when he and his partner created this Bellport eatery. 
 “It’s the feeling you get at family reunions,” he said, “at barbecues and picnics — any time the family gets together.” And it’s a musical vibe too. Waffles &amp; Soul’s soundtrack is 100% ‘70s soul: Smokey Robinson, Otis Redding, Harold Melvin &amp; the Blue Notes, Al Green, Stevie Wonder. 
 Mann, a self-described jack-of-all trades, is a trained barber who has also owned retail shops and, before Waffles &amp; Soul, co-owned a wing pop-up. In March 2020, he decided to sign&nbsp;the lease on this shop at the intersection of Station Road and Montauk Highway. 
 Wings and tenders are the main meat event here. As for the waffles, they came about in a roundabout way: “I love bread,” he said, “but it seemed like no one was eating it anymore. It doesn’t completely make sense — maybe it’s because they are sweet — but people are happier to eat a waffle.” 
 Wings and fries are $12; waffles are $4. The “Classic” — four wings on a waffle with two sides — is $14. Mann combined a red-velvet waffle with a deep-fried lobster tail in a dish he calls “the Red Sea” ($22). The “soul tower” ($16) is a pileup whose base is a mac-and-cheese waffle topped with a fried chicken breast, candied yams and the house sweet-spicy syrup. There’s also a fried-whiting sandwich on Texas toast, pan-seared salmon and more. 
 The two-plus years between signing the lease and opening Waffles &amp; Soul in June were stressful, to say the least. “COVID was just the first thing that got in the way,” Mann said, “then permitting, construction, inflation, staffing.” Actually, his staffing problem has been largely solved by recruiting family members. The family connection runs through the recipes, too. The fried chicken recipe is his grandmother’s, the iced tea is his mother’s, the lemonade is his father’s. 
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 Waffles &amp; Soul is open Tuesday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday to 10 p.m. and Sunday to 5 p.m.&nbsp;461 Station Rd, Bellport;&nbsp;631-803-2658, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wafflesandsoul">instagram.com/wafflesandsoul</a>

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Waffles & Soul opens in Bellport

Wings and waffles star at soulful new LI eatery 

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With Vico, chef Eric LeVine is taking regional Italian cuisine to a new level of specificity. Not just Southern Italian, not just from the region of Campania, Vico’s fare draws inspiration from the town of Vico Equense, just across the Sorrento Peninsula from the Amalfi Coast. Vico Equense is the hometown of the Fortuna family: Perry, who owns the restaurant, and Joe, Perry’s father, a partner at 317 Main, LeVine’s neighboring restaurant-market-event space. 
 Inside the restaurant, the d&eacute;cor, artwork and ceramics all reflect the sunny Bay of Naples. For actual sun, there are a few tables out front and a patio out back with seating for 50. 
 The menu features very little of what you see at most <a href="https://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/restaurants/best-italian-food-restaurants-long-island-epop5vgv">Long Island Italian and Italian American restaurants</a>, and is especially committed to vegetables: There are starters of whole roasted baby eggplant with Calabrian chilies, roasted sunchokes with pickled onion and a tuna crudo garnished with red and white endive. Vegetables also star in a number of the pasta dishes: Ricci (ruffled ribbons) with fioretto (sprouted broccoli) and sausage, mushroom agnolotti with fava beans and pancetta, or&nbsp;ricotta gnocchi with broccoli pesto and pistachios. All pasta is made in house. 
 Among mains you’ll find skirt steak with broccoli rabe and charred radicchio, pan-seared prawns with fennel pollen and lemon risotto, roasted black bass with braised escarole and garlic potatoes, and roasted chicken (dark meat!) with escarole, eggplant and fennel. 
 LeVine would be remiss if he didn’t serve Campania’s greatest contribution to world gastronomy: Pizza. His pies range from traditional — Margherita, prosciutto and arugula, mortadella and pistachio — to more fanciful creations such as artichoke with bacon and mozzarella, roasted mushrooms with tomatoes and whipped goat cheese, and figs with caramelized onions and arugula. Pies are available in 10-inch rounds ($13 to $15), rectangular meter-long “metro” pies that serve 6 to 8 people ($32 to $38) and “half metros” ($20 to $25). 
 Prices are gentle across the board: All but two starters are under $13; most pastas are under $20; no main tops $30. There’s a short wine list with some interesting bottles, four Italian beers, one Italian cider and a slate of craft cocktails. 
 Vico is at 313 Main St., Farmingdale, 516-875-8426, <a href="https://www.viconewyork.com/">viconewyork.com</a>

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Italian restaurant Vico opens in Farmingdale

New Italian eatery opens in Farmingdale

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You can be somewhat assured of what&nbsp;you'll&nbsp;find at a Jamaican restaurant: Jerk chicken and oxtail. Maybe escovitched fish and&nbsp;flaky beef patties. 
 It would be hard for a grab-and-go&nbsp;spot to vary from that template — and yet it leaves room for&nbsp;a personal signature.&nbsp;Kirk Pusey, who grew up&nbsp;learning&nbsp;to cook&nbsp;in Kingston, Jamaica, spent much of his adult life developing his own style. &quot;I always wanted to open a Jamaican restaurant, so I saved money and decided to open this venture.&quot; 
 That's Nyam Sum in Central Islip, which Pusey and his wife, Charmaine, opened this spring. The inside is painted bright yellow and kelly green, and&nbsp;there is a counter with a hot bar, a few tables, and floor-to-ceiling windows.&nbsp;The place is filled with&nbsp;aromas of cinnamon, garlic and pimento. There is oxtail, which braises for hours, and jerk chicken, plus&nbsp;sour sop and moringa tea. All of it, from d&eacute;cor to menu, springs from a long-held vision. 
 Although he always imagined&nbsp;having his own place, a different chapter awaited.&nbsp;After Pusey came with his family to the United States in 1998, he met&nbsp;a U.S Marine recruiter in a shopping mall&nbsp;and&nbsp;decided to enlist. &quot;I thought, this was it. I like challenges, so I thought, 'let me go in, and join.&quot; 
 Pusey served in the Marines for 10 years, with&nbsp;deployments in&nbsp;Afghanistan and elsewhere. After he left the military, he socked away money for over a decade. 
 The couple adopted the Nyam Sum restaurant name from the Patois&nbsp;term that loosely translates as &quot;eat some.&quot; 
 A plate of aromatic jerk chicken and sides costs $10.50, as does a brighter, more piquant&nbsp; sweet-and-spicy chicken, which can come with&nbsp;steamed cabbage, caramelized plantains and rice and peas. Other dishes: Rasta pasta ($9.75), curried shrimp and curried goat ($14 to $15), beef and chicken patties ($2.80 each), and slow-cooked cow foot and beans ($10.75). Ting, ginger beer and carrot juice, as well as&nbsp;sorrel, moringa and sour sop teas are all found on the beverage front. 
 While Pusey helps oversee the&nbsp;food, he is also sometimes found out front, greeting visitors with a smile. He has a lot to give thanks for, he said, especially after serving in war zones.&nbsp;&quot;I'm grateful to be alive and grateful for this country,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;It has given me everything.&quot;&nbsp; 
 Nyam Sum is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner at 70 W. Suffolk Ave., Central Islip. 631-439-1639.

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Jamaican restaurant Nyam Sum opens in Central Islip

Retired Marine opens Jamaican restaurant on LI

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Most of the time, going to a restaurant is a conscious choice, but there are times when the decision is made for you — someone needs a bathroom break, you’re running low on gas, it’s Monday and every other place is closed. The other day, I was firmly on the road to Jerusalem, or at least Jerusalem Ave., when unforeseen circumstances in N. Bellmore forced me into the arms of an unfamiliar strip center and a tiny, two-month-old eatery known as Aja Sushi Asian Fusion. 
 What with another new sushi place rainbow rolling our way every five minutes or so, keeping up with the explosion of LI’s raw fish opportunities is no easy task--for the restaurants themselves, neither is standing out from the crowd. 
 One standout: crispy taquitos, which are wontons shaped into taco shells and fried, then stuffed with a mayo slurry of tuna, yellowtail, or in my case salmon. Despite being packed with meat and avocado, $12.95 seems a bit pricey for a pair of two-bite taquitos, but they sing every note in the snack repertory — they’re crunchy, salty and leave you wanting more, more, more. 
 Otherwise, Aja offers dozens of classic and hand rolls ($5.50-$10), a few dozen more special rolls ($12-$18), poke burritos ($19.95), and hot entrees like chicken teriyaki ($18) shrimp pad thai ($14) and shoyu ramen ($14.95), along with all your favorite appetizers — a menu as more, more, more as its taquitos. 
 Aja Sushi Asian Fusion is at 2464 Jerusalem Ave. in N. Bellmore, 516-804-5047, <a href="https://ajasushiasianfusion.com/">ajasushiasianfusion.com</a>. Opening hours are Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 10 p.m.

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Aja Sushi Asian Fusion opens in North Bellmore

New sushi spot opens in North Bellmore

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North Bellmore has gotten a&nbsp;bit of Caribbean flair with the opening of Purple Flamingo, a small storefront turning out&nbsp;raw juices, smoothies and health-conscious sorbet bowls. 
 Self-proclaimed “aggressive raw juicer&quot; and former food truck owner Vanessa Laguerre,&nbsp;who came here from Haiti at age 9 with nothing but a backpack, opened the spot&nbsp;with her husband, Ryan McKenna, last month.&nbsp; 
 The centerpiece of Purple Flamingo’s menu combines fruits and vegetables with spices to make raw juices&nbsp;such as the&nbsp;“Happy Heart,” with red bell peppers, beets, cucumbers, parsley, carrots, celery and lemon, and the “Toxin Flush” that blends celery, pineapple, cucumber and lemon. 
 For the shop's&nbsp;bowls, customers can choose from&nbsp;gluten free, organic sorbets — acai, pitaya (also known as&nbsp;dragonfruit) or coconut — to be loaded&nbsp;up with fresh fruit like bananas, strawberries, kiwi, mangoes, pineapples, grapes, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. Coconut flakes, chia seeds and a honey drizzle&nbsp;can be added, plus peanut butter or Nutella. 
 The rest of the menu is devoted to smoothies, fresh-squeezed lemonade and wellness shots (ginger, wheatgrass, “beet it,” “cold killer” and “fat burner”), all of which can be ordered as flights. 
 Drinks start at $5.50, shots at $4.75 and bowls at $7.50. 
 The eatery's Island vibes extend to the d&eacute;cor, which features a floor-to-ceiling mural of a purple flamingo, a couple of faux-shrubbery walls&nbsp; and Caribbean&nbsp;music floating through the speakers.&nbsp; 
 There are a couple of tables — one inside, one outside — and a standing counter, but your best bet is to grab and go. 
 Purple Flamingo is open Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the rest of the week, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., 1512 Bellmore Ave. in North Bellmore. More info: 516-804-0383, <a href="https://www.purpleflamingony.com/">purpleflamingony.com</a>

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Purple Flamingo juice bar opens in North Bellmore

New juice bar opens in North Bellmore

Bubble tea spots, from mom-and-pops to worldwide chains, are on the fast track on Long Island, with Mineola and Jericho being the latest to welcome&nbsp;international franchise Gong Cha Tea. 
 Mineola, opened in May in the space that was last&nbsp;Urban Brew Co. espresso bar, is&nbsp;the third local location of the fast-growing chain that began in Taiwan in 2006 (it launched at Roosevelt Field in 2017; Smith Haven Mall&nbsp;followed last year).&nbsp;A fourth location opened this month in&nbsp;Jericho (311 N. Broadway), with&nbsp;a Plainview location&nbsp;(393 S. Oyster Bay Rd.) scheduled to open this fall. 
 Gong Cha's menu focuses on milk and fruit teas, with its specialty being a milk foam topping made from a proprietary recipe that balances both sweet and savory. The creamy, whipped foam — inspired by cappuccino&nbsp;milk foam — also comes in strawberry, matcha and Oreo flavors. 
 As for other toppings, customers can choose from tapioca pearls (boba), white pearls (different from traditional pearls as they are not made from tapioca and have a crunchy consistency), ai-yu jelly (sweet jelly with caramel notes), pudding (with a hint of caramel),&nbsp;basil seeds and coconut jelly.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 There's&nbsp;a lineup of eight “slush” drinks, which have a consistency similar to smoothies, available in mango milk, lychee, passion fruit yogurt and caramel chocolate. Most of these are caffeine-free, as is a wintermelon drink — a naturally sweet fruit more common&nbsp;in Asia (think cantaloupe). 
 Yogurt-based beverages, blended with either tea or fruit purees, come in flavors such as passion fruit, lemon, grapefruit and peach. Coffee-meets-milk&nbsp;tea drinks&nbsp;round out the menu. 
 Through mid-September, all locations are featuring a series of pineapple beverages including pineapple mango green tea, milk foam pineapple green tea with coconut jelly, and pi&ntilde;a colada crush. 
 Drinks are available in medium (starting at $4.50) and large ($5.25). 
 All products used at Gong Cha are sourced from Taiwan, said president&nbsp; Anchal Lamba. 
 The chain has more than 150 U.S. shops and nearly 1,800 worldwide. 
 Gong Cha Tea is open daily, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 196 2nd St. in Mineola. More info: 516-877-2188,&nbsp;<a href="https://gongchausa.com/">gongchausa.com</a>

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Gong Cha Tea opens in Mineola and Jericho

Bubble tea spot opens 2 more LI locations

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Burritos, as we know them, come stuffed with rice, chicken, cheese and beans. At Manorville's new The Rainbow Scoops, though, husband-and-wife duo Evelyn and Richard Morales turn the savory burrito into something&nbsp;sweet, using cotton candy stuffed&nbsp;with ice cream and toppings. 
 “We thought it was a cool idea so we decided to experiment with it,” Evelyn said.&nbsp; 
 Much like a traditional burrito, these too, are to be eaten with your hands. Pink and blue cotton candy &nbsp;is&nbsp;stuffed with your choice of three scoops of housemade ice cream (think&nbsp;Nutella, birthday cake, vegan Oreo, peanut butter) and three&nbsp;toppings like&nbsp;cereal, candy or&nbsp;fruit. Before being served, it’s cut down the middle. 
 “It looks very sweet, but when you dig into it, the way the ice cream complements the cotton candy, it’s just like a perfect match,” Evelyn said. 
 Other indulgences include ice cream, milkshakes and baked goods like cake pops, brownies and cookies from Secret Stuffed Cookies. For Fido, the Moraleses&nbsp;launched Pluto’s ice cream, a line of peanut butter ice cream topped with a dog treat,&nbsp;in honor of their pooch. 
 This is the second sweet shop for the couple, who also own The Rainbow Rolls in Center Moriches, where the menu is based on handrolled ice cream. 
 While Scoops doesn't compare in size to Rolls, there are a few tables&nbsp;set up inside and out. 
 The Rainbow Scoops is open daily; Mondays to Thursdays from 2 to 10 p.m. and Fridays to Sundays from noon to 10 p.m. It’s at 460 County Road 111.. More info: 631-909-3885

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The Rainbow Scoops ice cream shop opens in Manorville

New LI ice cream shop offers cotton candy burritos

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Hannah Palmer Egan

Soup’s on in Port Washington: In May, MB Ramen opened just across from the Long Island Railroad station. 
 The new spot joins several other Japanese restaurants in the village, and is a carbon copy of the original MB Ramen noodle shop, which brothers Eric and Jason Machado opened on New York Avenue in Huntington in 2018. 
 At just 15 seats, the counter-service restaurant features graphic d&eacute;cor — “MB Ramen” is emblazoned on an interior wall, graffiti style, by&nbsp;a local artist who goes by “Poor Rupert.”&nbsp;And chef Jason Machado’s menu offers a spartan but appealing selection of that will be familiar to patrons of the original location. 
 Starters include blistery, thin-skinned dumplings stuffed with edamame or pork; crisp wings dressed in “sticky icky” sesame ginger sauce; and Japanese-style karaage fried chicken, served with spicy mayo and pickled veggies. 
 The shop’s namesake noodle bowl is a traditional take on tonkatsu ramen, with long-simmered pork broth, singed pork belly, shiitake mushrooms and a soy-marinated egg. Other options feature miso- and soy-based broths, and chile fans will appreciate the Chinese-ish dan dan noodles —&nbsp;no-broth sesame noodles topped with spicy ground pork, and their Japanese copycat, tan tan ramen, here presented with fried chicken and pickled veg. 
 Drinks include sake, beer and wine, and a few whiskies (“good, better, best,” Eric Machado said) for sipping. Soon, Machado added, visitors will be able to tip back fruity bottled cocktails styled after the “nutcrackers” sold on City boardwalks and beaches. 
 “We’re playing around with that now,” he said, explaining that the drinks fit with the shop’s overall mission of providing patrons a laid-back good time. 
 MB Ramen is at 57 Main St., Port Washington. Opening hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 516-690-8166,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mbramenshop.com/">mbramenshop.com</a>.

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MB Ramen opens in Port Washington

Ramen shop opens new location in Port Washington

Long Island restaurant openings

Long Island restaurant openings

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