Osteria Umbra opens in Smithtown

It’s been nearly two years since the public has been able to enjoy an Italian meal cooked by Marco Pellegrini. The Umbrian-born chef, who presided over the kitchen at the three-star Caci North Fork in Southold from 2014 until it closed for the winter in 2018 and never reopened, spent the time searching out a new location and partners. It’s all come together at Osteria Umbra in Smithtown.

Pellegrini and his co-owners, brothers Daniel and Stephen Bragoli, took over the old Smithtown Asian Buffet on Terry Road and transformed it beyond recognition — It helped that the Bragolis have decades of experience in construction and design. In contrast to Caci’s stark rusticity, Osteria Umbra is a bit more blinged out, with a monochromatic palette, modernist light fixtures and floor-to-ceiling lucite wine racks. The dominant design feature, however, is the massive wood-fired grill-rotisserie, where slowly revolving birds and beasts lend their drippings to waiting pans of vegetables directly below.

Hung all around the two dining rooms are vivid color photographs of Pellegrini’s home, Italy’s Valle Umbra. This may be my favorite region of Italy to visit and, in these travel-challenged times, I felt a lump in my throat as I gazed upon the hillside of Assisi, the ramparts of Spoleto, the cathedral of Orvieto, the main piazza of Bevagna. Pellegrini serves his homemade bread and focaccia in Umbrian olive-wood bowls, offers tastes of award-winning olive oil from Trevi and stocks a cellar of Umbrian wines that is probably unequaled on Long Island (plus plenty of Super Tuscans and selections from the Piedmont).

And, of course, Italy is right there on the plate. Most of Pellegrini’s greatest hits from Caci are back for an encore, from skewers of breadcrumb-crusted calamari and a Caprese salad topped with basil sorbetto to that bruiser of a wood-grilled veal chop and deep-dish tiramisu.

Each section of the menu is divided into "signature" and "traditional." The former is where you’ll find the chef’s more fanciful creations (maltagliati with white veal sauce and ricotta salata, taglierini with lobster and Sorrento lemon, whole roasted suckling pig, rotisserie duck leg with pork belly); the latter is devoted to old favorites such as trofie with basil pesto, spaghetti carbonara, wood-fired branzino, cod puttanesca. Most starters range from $13 to $19, pastas (all homemade) from $21 to $26, mains from $29 to $44.

For now there is one dinner menu, served every night starting at 5 p.m. and on weekends starting at noon for those customers (myself among them) who can think of nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon than gorge themselves on Italian food.

The two dining rooms and bar area are set up for socially distant seating and customers must have their temperature checked before getting past the host station. There are also four tables outside.

Osteria Umbra is at 197 Terry Rd., Smithtown, 631-780-6633, osteriaumbra.com.