One Main review

At the corner of Deer Park Avenue and West Main Street, a restaurant and bar has found the right angle.

One Main fits neatly into downtown Babylon, pouring some very good local brews and generally serving the type of food that goes with them. It's a fine gathering place, at bar and at table.

The setting for the show is a spacious spot, with a high embossed ceiling, exposed brick and ductwork, dark wood and easygoing style. Order carefully and you'll have a pretty good meal, too.

That means beginning with the crunchy-outside, risotto-within roasted butternut squash arancini, which elevate the rice ball. The rotund fritters arrive with a chipotle-pepper dipping sauce. One Main's "truffle-scented" polenta fries also are recommended. The cornmeal logs, crisply coated and soft inside, are appetizers, but also first-class bar snacks.

A special of shrimp and andouille set on scallion-flecked grits continues the flavorful starters. The soothing dish delivers some heat from the sliced sausage that's balanced by that tasty, ground hominy. Chef Luciano Di Rico sends out a rich shrimp bisque, with a bull's-eye drizzle of purple basil oil.

But skip the Main Street bar pies, square-shaped pizzas that have a texture somewhere between Sheetrock and cardboard. The toppings of Oscar's pie, which include smoked cheese, bacon and caramelized onion, can't rescue it. The triple J pie, capped with shredded Buffalo-style chicken and blue cheese, is mighty harsh.

Upside: Both make you reach for a brew. The local beers recently included Spider Bite, Rocky Point, Port Jeff, Great South Bay and Blue Point.

SEE PHOTOSOne Main

They all pair well with Lou's mean burger, a juicy half-pounder. The maple-brown sugar beef shank, flaky and moist, also is good, arriving in main-course form with sauteed spinach and a polenta cake.

Avoid the chewy country fried steak, a pan-fried cutlet beaten into submission before being smothered with white gravy. And just ignore the bullet-bite gnocchi, despite their braised pork and beef, red wine and herb sauce.

Instead, sample the rack of meaty, barbecued baby back ribs; or a fish of the day. Once, it was a firm, crisp-skinned snowy grouper, finished with a variation on tropical-fruit salsa.

Cheesecake and peach cobbler top the dessert list; waffle sundae sliders ruin three concepts in one shot. But limoncello or an amaro, Port or some Diplomatico Reserva rum can restore focus and sharpness.