Open: Besi Pizzeria, Bethpage
A Margherita pizza at Besi Pizzeria Credit: Joan Reminick
Let it not be said that restaurateur Harendra Singh, president of Singh Hospitality Group, is a man who gives up. Or takes the easy way out.
Last month, Singh opened Besi Pizzeria behind his flagship Bethpage restaurant H.R. Singleton’s. Why use the near-identical name of the former Ristorante BeSi in East Meadow, which lasted only a few months? Singh explained that Besi actually means “behind Singleton’s,” and that the present pizzeria was in mid-construction when he opened the East Meadow place. Confusing, no?
It may be a bit of a challenge to find this place; the entrance is off a rear parking lot, the signage on Hicksville Road far from obvious. Even so, there were customers in the spacious and spiffy red and white dining room when I stopped by for an individual-sized Margherita pie ($8).
It was a good one, a bright, fresh tomato-basil-mozzarella topping on a puffy-edged crust with the flavor of freshly baked bread. In fact, it was virtually the same pie I’d liked at the East Meadow BeSi.
The menu also lists such items as meatball Parmesan sliders ($8) thin spaghetti with baby shrimp ($16) and a bacon cheeseburger pizza ($10).
“Our whole goal was to attract a younger crowd,” Singh said.
Besi Pizzeria is at 150 Hicksville Rd., Bethpage, 516-644-2374.
Pictured above: A Margherita pizza at Besi Pizzeria
