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Erica Marcus

The word "tapas" is perilously close to losing its meaning on Long Island, where any small plate — coconut shrimp, corned-beef-and-cabbage egg rolls, nachos, clams casino — can qualify. At Iberico Tapas y Vino, Jake Perdie and Cynthia Alfonso aim to be standard bearers for the centuries-old Spanish tradition. Their St. James restaurant opened in December in the spot that used to be Barbera Pasta e Vino. 
The menu lists about 20 tapas, among them the essential tortilla Española (a plump omelet larded with potatoes), chorizo a la parilla (a grill platter of chorizo, morcilla and chistorra sausages), pulpo Gallego (coins of octopus and potatoes tossed with smoked paprika), gambas al ajillo (Gulf shrimp in garlic sauce) and albondigas (meatballs in a romesco sauce of roasted peppers and ground almonds). You can also create your own board of Spanish cheeses (Mahon, Idiazabal, Cabrales and Manchego are among the world’s greatest) and cured meats.
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And speaking of cured meats, pride of place in the small, elegant dining room is given to two Spanish hams: There’s jamon serrano, cured only with air and salt like Italian prosciutto. Then there’s the Jamón Ibérico, cured the same way (though for 36 months) but made only from free-ranging black-footed (pata negra) pigs raised on a diet of acorns. (The "Iberico" in the restaurant’s name refers both to this culinary treasure and to the Iberian Peninsula, where Spain is located.) 
Most of Iberico’s tapas are in the $12 to $16 range; jamon Iberico — dense, rich and the color of port streaked with cream — will run you $45 for 1.7 ounces. 
Meat- and cheese-heavy Spanish cuisine is notably tough on vegans, but Iberico makes a fine pisto, vegetable stew, and pan tumaca (toasted bread smeared with tomato). There are also a handful of larger dishes: piquillo peppers stuffed with oxtail, cod with chickpeas and a 16-ounce prime rib-eye Basque-style steak served with potatoes ($45). Grander still is a cooked-to-order seafood-and-chicken paella for two ($60). 
Iberico's wine list is almost all Spanish and, with many of the 30-odd bottles priced under $40 (and about a dozen of them available by the glass), it provides a great opportunity to go beyond sangria, Rioja and Cava into Priorat, Xarello, Txacolina and more, as well as sherries and vermouths little seen on Long Island. 
Perdie knows his wine. The former manager of Jamesport Vineyards owns Beach &amp; Vine Wines &amp; Spirits and a wine bar, Fire Island Tap, in Kismet on Fire Island. Kismet has been his summer base of operations for close to a decade but, until this year, he’s spent his winters in Florida and that’s where he met Alfonso, born in Cuba but a longtime resident of Madrid, Spain. It’s Alfonso who insists that the kitchen only use Spanish extra-virgin olive oil (Oleo for cooking, Ego Sum for finishing) and Calasparra rice for paella. And it’s her palate that the restaurant’s two chefs, Josue Trejos and Celio Perdomo, formerly of Pentimento in Stony Brook, must satisfy. 
Iberico Tapas y Vino is at 412 Route 25A, St James; 631-307-5620, <a href="https://www.ibericony.com/">ibericony.com</a>.

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Authentic Spanish restaurant Iberico Tapas y Vino opens in St. James

Authentic Spanish tapas bar opens on LI 

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The LIRR has suspended three foremen accused by the MTA's watchdog of stealing thousands of dollars from the railroad by claiming they were working overtime, even when they were caught on surveillance spending time at home. 
The latest allegations of wage abuse among LIRR workers were uncovered by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny, who, in two reports, detailed how the three supervisors all more than doubled their regular pay with overtime, including some they didn’t earn.<a data-onecms-id="contentid/storywidget.1.50412698" data-onecms-type="storywidget" href="#/content/contentid/storywidget.1.50412698">Story Widget Link</a>
 
The three employees, identified by the Long Island Rail Road as surfacing foreman Dallas Bazemore, 47, of Laurelton, surfacing foreman Mark Speruta, 44, of West Babylon, and track foremen Claude Birong, 46, of Carle Place, all have been suspended without pay for 30 days and forced to pay back a total of $11,625 in earnings. 
"Fraud or abuse of timekeeping is unacceptable," MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan said in a statement. 
Birong and Bazemore could not be reached for comment. Speruta declined to comment. 
Investigators surveilled the three foremen for several months in 2019. Speruta was caught at home on four days he was supposed to be working. Birong was seen at home, or other "nonwork locations" on eight days, according to the reports. 
In nine out of 10 days when Bazemore was watched, he was spotted somewhere other than his workplace. A review of his Macy’s credit card uncovered another nine days when Bazemore "was likely shopping during work hours," Pokorny's reports said. 
The foremen defended their actions in interviews with investigators, according to the reports. Birong referenced an "unspoken rule" that employees could leave a work site and be on standby at a nearby location if there was no work to do. He said he sometimes went home because his wife was ill. 
Speruta told investigators that he sometimes did paperwork at home but is "not the type of guy that hangs out at home when scheduled to work." He later acknowledged using "bad judgment." 
Bazemore "stated some jobs ended early, and he sometimes left early on those dates because there would be nothing for him to do," according to the reports. He said trips to Macy’s were likely made during lunch breaks. 
Investigators also found that Bazemore took two paid sick days "when casino records showed he was gambling in Atlantic City." Bazemore told investigators that "it was possible he ate something while he was in Atlantic City and got sick enough to not be able to work." Investigators found that claim "not credible." 
In addition to the suspension and restitution, Bazemore was given a "last-chance agreement" by the LIRR, which said it will fire him for any future wage violations. 
The reports also chided Birong and Speruta for leaving their crews unsupervised while they were absent from work — disregarding "their duty to oversee the employees’ safety and work performance, including ensuring proper time and attendance." 
The men each worked for the LIRR for more than 20 years and were known as "high overtime earners," according to the report. Despite having base salaries that ranged from $73,743 and $88,508, the three each brought home more than $220,000 per year from 2018 to 2020. 
Bazemore made $362,799 in total pay in 2018. That year was the focus of a payroll report by the Empire Center for Public Policy that led to several investigations into potential overtime fraud at the MTA. Federal prosecutors have brought criminal charges against several current and former MTA employees, including five from the LIRR. 
Last week, one former LIRR supervisor, John Nugent, was sentenced to 5 months in jail, and another 5 months' home confinement, after admitting to collecting more than $34,000 in bogus overtime. 
Because the foremen’s actions appear to have violated state public officers law, Pokorny’s office said it was referring the cases to the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which can impose civil penalties. A commission spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. 
Donovan said the MTA has taken several measures since 2019 to reduce overtime expenses and curb wage abuse — resulting in overtime costs falling by nearly $250 million from 2018 to 2020. He also noted that all LIRR track foremen are now required to punch in using a new time clock system. 
"The new leadership at the MTA is working with our labor partners to build off of recently implemented measures that have resulted in annual overtime expenditures dropping by hundreds of millions of dollars despite the historic amount of work being completed," Donovan said.

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