Eastern Long Island Dining - 2003
Story by Roy Bradbrook
Photos by Christopher J. Davies, Publisher

Gone are the days when the best you could expect in this part of the world would be a simple Italian meal or something from a fast food place. Yes, these still do exist and have their place in everyday life but today eastern Long Island is not just home to some of the most exciting wines and wineries but also to some exceptional restaurants. If you desire exquisite French cuisine, Sushi, Seafood that could not be fresher unless you cooked it in the fishing boat, classic Italian cooking or crepes to die for, these and more are waiting for you. Everywhere you will find wider and wider selections of Long Island wines to complement your choice of food.

To help you decide, the following are some of the places where the food, the wine, and the welcome will make you want to return again.

Mary Jane's
128 North Main Street
East Hampton
Tel. 631 324 8008

Charming, idiosyncratic restaurant where the fireplaces may be burning merrily even on a midsummer day. Mary Jane, the charming owner runs a very professional restaurant offering excellent Italian based cuisine in relaxing surroundings. Pastas are exceptional in fact you can't go wrong with anything on their menu. The large number of regular customers confirms that this is one of the best restaurants in this town of good eating.

Miller's Table
90 North Country Road
Miller Place
Tel.631 331 4848

Owned by Wayne Wadington of La Plage in Wading River, this is very tasty American comfort cuisine. Great, robust soups come with each entrée or you can select the crisp house salad. Good selection of main courses the braised short ribs are superb. Desserts include a plate of freshly baked cookies (with a glass of milk) if you wish.

Stone Creek Inn
452 Montauk Highway
Quogue
Tel.631 653 6770

Christian Mir has created a restaurant which has won many plaudits over the last five years. Appetizers may includes warm lobster salad with asparagus and cherry tomato confit or a delicate tuna tartare. Fish is always very fresh and imaginatively cooked and presented. Desserts live up to the rest of the menu.

Red Door Restaurant & Bar
13560 Main Road
Mattituck
Tel.631 298 4800

Burst on the scene and was immediately very highly acclaimed. American regional cooking with strong overtones of the Mediterranean. Pan seared bass cooked with a tomato, caper and black olive sauce epitomized this style with great success. Owner, Stephan Mazzella was once pastry chef at L'Espinasse so indulge yourself

Tuscan House
673 Osborne Avenue
Riverhead
631 727 2330

Off the beaten track and unremarkable outside but inside is a well-appointed dining room, which complements the very high class Italian cooking. Recipes are authentic and well presented. Wide range of pasta dishes and all sauces are light and flavorful. Desserts continue the high standards, as does the interesting wine list. This is a great place for a special party as they have a separate dining room. Entrees range from $22 to a combination meat dish for two persons at $45.

Modern Snack Bar
Route 25
Aquebogue
631 722 3655

If you wonder why the car park here is always busy its because they have been serving good quality family style food for over 50 years and it is still run by the same family. Quirky 50's dècor is absolutely right. Apart from the old favorites, look for newer dishes such as duck breast salad and quiches as good as they get. Great for Sunday family lunch. Take home some of the famed mashed turnips or a home made pie (they sell over 1500 of these in the week prior to Thanksgiving.) Good wine list with fine selection of LI wines at very reasonable prices. Main courses from $9 to $17

Fauna
720MainRoad
Aquebogue

Welcome addition, close to Riverhead and offers wide range of eating options. Menu offers interesting fish, meat and pasta dishes, inventive salads such as smoked duck with dates, sugared walnuts served over baby spinach. Atmosphere is family friendly and country elegant. Highly rated for quality of their desserts. The wine list offers LI wines and suggests suitable food/wine pairings.

A Touch of Venice
Wick ham Avenue.
Mattituck.
Tel. 631298-5851
Currently open
Wed. to Sat. 5 - 9 and
Sun from 1 to 8.

Excellent Italian cooking in a restaurant with charming decor and with a beautiful view over Mattituck inlet. This is light Italian cooking bringing out the freshness and flavor of locally grown ingredients. A true family business with all members of the family actively involved. Try to avoid 7pm on a Saturday night in summer because that is when all the boaters seem to have the same idea of when to eat. Mozzarella with prosciutto and roasted red peppers accompanied by basil oil and balsamic vinegar dressing or a classic stuffed artichoke will start you off well. Eggplant Sorrentino is delightful being both subtle and intense. Steaks are a specialty and the Fillet Mignon will match and probably beat the offerings of the pricey city steak houses. Pasta is prepared with finesse and lobster meat served on a dish of spaghetti is one of the most popular dishes on the menu. Desserts are freshly made and offer something for most tastes.

North Fork vineyards are very well represented with offerings from nine wineries.

Salads & Starters - $6 to $9.
Main courses $12 to $21.
Look for daily specials.

Elbow East
Kenney's Road
Southold, NY 11971
631 765 1203
www.elboweast.com
Open 7 days a week from
Noon to 9 and
to 10 on Fridays and Saturdays.

Many will say that this is THE place to go for a steak on eastern Long Island. Porterhouse, New York shell or fillet mignon are available either plain or marinated with their jealously guarded marinade. Try the sweet potato fries, they are very addictive. This is a friendly restaurant with great sunset views and no pretensions Seafood can be relied on to be very fresh. Soups are home made and very tasty as are the desserts. If the apple crisp is on the menu try it. Portions are generous so come with a hearty appetite.

They feature an excellent and reasonably priced selection of Long Island wines from six or more wineries.

Soups and starters - $3 to $8.
Main courses - $13 to $29.

Tweed's Restaurant & Buffalo Bar
John J. Sullivan Hotel
17 East Main St.
Riverhead
631 208 3151
Open 7 days a week.
Lunch 11 - 3. Dinner 4 -10.

This is a place to relive the time when Riverhead was the seat of county politics and intrigue. Opened in 1896 by the cousin of the famous prizefighter and now lovingly restored to its early 1900's splendor. The decor includes the enormous head of a buffalo shot back in 1883 by Teddy Roosevelt. The menu offers something for most tastes from fish to meat but the specialty of the house is Bison, very tender, low fat and served with a delicate smoked mushroom cognac crème and crisp potato wedges. Rack of lamb, veal chops and fresh local fish are also highly recommended. Dessert selection are a mixture of Briermere fruit pies, Famous Amos cheesecakes and home made delicacies.

The wine list changes with the seasons but you can usually rely on six or more of the Long Island wineries to be featured and prices are extremely fair.

Soups and starters - $4 to $7.
Main courses - $15 to 24.

Coeur des Vignes
57225 Main Road
Southold, NY 11971
631 765 2656
www.coeurdesvignes.com

There can be no better place for a romantic lunch or dinner than in this 1765 house where the welcome and the decor are outstanding and the food is truly excellent. This is high quality classic French cuisine prepared by a chef who graduated from the Cordon Bleu school in Paris. Start with the special onion soup; linger over appetizers such as escargots, frog's legs, foie gras or inventive salads. Main courses include baby lamb chops, sweetbreads, duck veal and lobster all very distinctively prepared. Desserts continue to make you believe that you are truly in Paris.

This restaurant has once of the most extensive wine lists on Long Island and many of the local wineries are well represented.

Look for special prix fixe dinners and special holiday and wine tasting dinners.

Soups and starters - $4 to $15.
Main courses - $17 to $33.

The Seafood Barge
Main Road
Southold, at (Port of Egypt Marina)
631 765 3010
www.seafoodbarge.com

Regarded as one of the best fish restaurants on Long island and with good reason. Here you can indulge your taste for some of the freshest sushi you could hope for and the best of locally caught fish imaginatively cooked and served. If you are a meat lover you will enjoy the steak or lamb dishes. Desserts change from day to day but New York style cheesecake is a staple. Open all year round, this restaurant serves as many as 500 meals a day at the height of the summer season and they are proud of how they can cope with this and still deliver a first class dining experience with a spectacular water view.

They have just appointed Michael Meehan as Executive Chef; this change only further enhances the already stellar reputation this restaurant has earned. Chef Meehan has re-mastered the kitchen with vivid, surprising new dishes and gives patrons another reason to enjoy the season ahead.

One of the largest selections of Long Island wines with more than 60 on their extensive wine list together with many rare vintages and there are always have 10 available by the glass.

Soups and starters - $5 to $12.
Main courses - $17 to $27.

Ile de Beaute
314 Main Street
Greenport
631 477 2822

A genuine French Provencal experience in Greenport where you can either eat from a delicious menu including warm chevre (goat cheese) with honey, walnuts & mesclun, escargots delicately flavored with garlic and parsley or frogs legs for appetizers together with soups both hot and cold which are very intense in taste. Fish is always featured and from the meat dishes the rack of lamb is highly recommended. Provencal cooking uses garlic in most dishes so be prepared. Desserts are all that you would expect from a good French restaurant. One of the intriguing things about this charming restaurant is that they also are a creperie and they offer 110 different varieties of both savory and sweet crepes on their menu.

James Lane Cafè at The Hedges Inn
74 James Lane
Easthampton
631 324 7100

An elegant restaurant in a beautiful old house and part of the Palm group. The service is very professional and warm and the food quality is uniformly high. Diners often claim the crab cakes to be the best ever and pine nut crusted sea scallops are also exceptional. This is a good place to enjoy lamb and veal chops. Desserts are varied and excellent and truly complement the meal. There are very few places where the blend of visual beauty, externally and internally merge with such excellent service and food but the James Lane Cafè is one, which does.

They have a reasonable selection of Long Island wines on their extensive wine list.

Soups and starters - $7 to $13.
Main courses - $16 to $30.

The Laundry
31 Race Lane
Easthampton
631 324 3199

If you want a very good meal in a charming restaurant with a relaxed but sophisticated atmosphere, this is a very good choice. The emphasis is on the use of the freshest ingredients and the chef brings out their inherent qualities to the full. The Laundry chowder is a superb example of what a clam chowder should be. Salads are inventive, especially the marriage of beets, warm goat cheese flan and black walnut vinaigrette. The wild Belon oysters are succulent and the crab cakes are exceptional. Fish lovers will be amply rewarded and may have difficulty in deciding which of the offerings to try. For those who enjoy calf's liver, this is the place to come to because it is cooked to perfection. Desserts are masterpieces of exquisitely light tastes, full of flavor without being overpowering.

The wine list is very reasonably priced and includes wines from four or five of the Long Island vineyards.

Soups and starters - $6 to $13.
Main courses - $15 to $32.
Desserts - $6 to $8.
They offer an extremely good value,
three course, prix-fixe menu including
coffee with a commendable range of choices for $27.

La Plage
Creek Road
Wading River
631 744 9200

If your tastes run to stylish American cooking blended with French techniques, then this is the place for you. Situated just across from the beach in the sleepy hamlet of Wading River, you will soon find out why so many regulars beat the path to this out of the way restaurant and why directions and bookings are very much recommended. The emphasis is on super fresh ingredients and depending on the season you may find such delicacies as fresh abalone air freighted in from California appearing on the very interesting menu. Simple dishes such as roast chicken are raised to new heights when served with feta polenta, asparagus, Tasso ham and a chicken stock and truffle oil emulsion. Fish and shellfish dishes are specialties and desserts range from the classic dishes to more fanciful offerings such as a spiced peach soup served with a peach sorbet in a frozen peach.

The restaurant has an extensive wine list featuring a good range of Long Island wines.

Starters and salads - $6 to $12.
Main courses - $17 to 28.

95 School Street
Bridgehampton
631 537 5555

This is the sister restaurant of The Laundry and has many of the same attributes and specialties. You are unlikely to be disappointed with any of your choices for the food is made with care from very fresh ingredients and meat, fish and the special liver are all served just as you ordered. Their Prince Edward Island mussels are exceptional as is the seafood puttanesca. Fish lovers will revel in the simple elegance of the striped bass. Desserts cater to most tastes and chocoholics will relish the chocolate espresso pot-de-crème.

Long Island wines are well represented and they have some excellent dessert wines. The wine prices are very realistic.

Starters and soups - $6 to $12.
Main courses - $16 to $29.
Desserts - $6 to $7.

They offer an excellent value three course plus coffee prix-fixe at $23 which has a good selection of choices.

The Sayville Inn
199 Middle Road
Sayville, NY 11782
631 567 0033
Open for dinner 7 days a week at 5 p.m.

This may be somewhat off the beaten track to the Hamptons but a visit is highly recommended. The inn is charming and the old Tavern building at the back dates back to 1888 and still looks as it must have done when Teddy Roosevelt was a regular during his visits to the Meadowcroft Estate nearby where the grapes for Loughlin Wines are now produced. The Sayville Inn is one of the few restaurants where you can taste these wines while enjoying an excellent meal. The menu ranges from standard offering ranging from burgers to duck, chicken and steaks to the daily specials. The latter are excellent and the Striped Bass and Veal Chop are highly recommended. The decor of the restaurant is changed every year and this year's theme is America before TV and has a strong Norman Rockwell emphasis. The combination of good, well cooked food, charming unusual decor, one of Long Island's best kept wine secrets and gracious and friendly service makes this a place to visit and revisit.

Antares Cafè
Brewer Yacht Yard
Greenport
631 477 8839

The star Antares is a good name for a restaurant which burst on the Long Island dining scene last year and immediately built a great reputation as somewhere to find good food very imaginatively prepared and presented. Soups are not your usual selections,. Look for the Tomato and Sorrel where the two constituents are separated in a swirling pattern or the Butternut Squash soup when in season. Appetizers may include a trio of delicate mousses or a superb foie gras served with mango and crystallized ginger. Fish dishes reflect the best and freshest available and if Gnocchi made from chestnut flour and cooked with grappa, roast tomatoes and a veal ragout is on the menu when you visit, this should be a must. The duck and lamb dishes are also exceptional. Desserts can range from an unmolded chocolate soufflè served with white chocolate sauce and mint ice cream to a caramelized pineapple served with raspberries and crème anglaise.

This is also a good spot for cheese lovers. Wines are reasonably priced and they have a good selection of Long Island wines.

Have a comment or question? Write to our columnist Roy Bradbrook at