Smithtown Pasta House replaces Alexandros Kitchen & Bar

“Thank God I have a great wife,” is how Sam Constantis sums up the process of abandoning his high-end Mediterranean concept, Alexandros Kitchen & Bar, and turning it into Smithtown Pasta House.

When AKB debuted in 2019, it looked like a winner.

Those first few months, he said, were “ like gangbusters.” But we all know the ensuing chapters of that story: Pandemic. Lockdown. Spooked staff. Outdoor dining (which the location lacked). Takeout (to which the menu was not particularly suited).

Even after the pandemic receded, AKB never achieved its early popularity. “We hung in there,” Constantis recalled, “but it was like feeding money into a slot machine that you think is going to hit." He had already spent close to $1 million in renovations and was feeling "both helpless and hopeless."

Early this summer, Constantis conceded, “I was sulking. Andrea looked at me and said, ‘Snap out of it! This is what we do — we figure it out. Why don’t you go back to the roots of the place?’”

Indeed the building’s roots went way back. Before Butera’s family-style Italian opened there in 2007, it was Smithtown Haus, a German-owned gathering place that debuted in the 1920s. Although his family is Greek, Constantis’s restaurant roots are not: his parents owned and operated Italian eateries.

And, so, he went backward, reconceiving ABK as a family-friendly, reasonably priced, community-minded gathering place whose core menu was Long Island’s favorite food: Pasta. He hired a local, Christina Costello, to be the general manager and Adalid Guillen, a veteran of the Bohlsen and Anthony Scotto restaurant groups, to be executive chef. “I told him, do your thing, make a menu that people are going to love.”

Aided by his sous chef, Alfredo Cruz, that’s exactly what Guillen did. The menu is full of easygoing crowd pleasers from rigatoni Bolognese and linguine with clam sauce to gnocchi Florentine and orecchiette with broccoli rabe, sausage and pesto cream. Most of the dishes are not strictly, authentically Italian — there’s a lot of vodka sauce and sauteed chicken to be found, along with Italo-American classics such as Caesar salad, baked clams, chicken Francese / Marsala / Parm (with vodka sauce) and local favorites like grilled salmon, a fully loaded burger and a pear-and-Gorgonzola salad with candied walnuts and raspberry vinaigrette. Starters are almost all under $20; most pastas hover around $30; most mains are well under $40. Portions are large.

The restaurant consists of a bustling bar and two more sedate dining rooms. Service is friendly and efficient.

Smithtown Pasta House will be participating in the upcoming Fall Restaurant Week, Nov. 6 to 13.

Smithtown Pasta House is at 65 E. Main St., Smithtown, 631-979-9700, smithtownpastahouse.com