One Main review

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

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.