Italian restaurant Tutti Noi opens in Oceanside
Cacio e pepe is made with spaghetti alla chitarra at Tutti Noi in Oceanside. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
Italian chef Artie Sabella has come full circle. More than 30 years ago he presided over a small Oceanside restaurant called Terracina. The ensuing years brought changes to both the man and the location, but Sabella is back at 2757 Long Beach Rd. On Wednesday evening, he and his wife, Tracey, opened a chic, new Italian restaurant called Tutti Noi, Italian for “all of us.”
The narrow space accommodates about 50 people at intimate, cloth-draped tables and an L-shaped bar with particularly comfortable seats. The décor is neutral and low-key, except for the modernist crystal chandeliers suspended from the ceiling.
The menu includes Italian-American classics such as Caesar salad, clams oreganata and veal Parmesan, but many of the selections are either more Italian — a Sicilian salad of fennel, oranges, arugula and olives; cacio e pepe (cheese and cracked black pepper) with spaghetti alla chitarra; osso buco of veal with risotto Milanese — or more creative — roasted clams and sausages in Sambuca-infused broth; burrata with nectarines, Fresno chilies and honey. Starters range from $11 to $18, pastas from $18 to $26, mains from $26 to $40.
Sabella’s culinary roots are in Little Italy where, in the 1970s, his family opened Café Arturo and CaSa Bella. Heading east the following decade, he opened Villa Verde in Island Park (now Jimmy Hays) and Terracina. Together, he and Tracey collaborated on restaurants in Staten Island and Pawleys Island, South Carolina, before coming back to Long Island.
After Terracina, new tenants at 2757 Long Beach Rd. broke through to the adjoining storefront and opened the family-style Italian restaurant, Mio Posto. When it (and its Hicksville sibling) closed in 2017 and decamped to Long Beach, the building was divided once again into two units. Wayne French Kitchen opened in early 2018 in the larger, southern space. That restaurant closed a few weeks ago; a sign in the window promises a renovation and a reopening.
Tutti Noi is open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday to 11 p.m., Sunday from 4 to 9 p.m., closed Tuesday.
2757 Long Beach Rd., Oceanside, 516-665-3999, tuttinoiitalian.com.
