The third Long
Island Restaurant Week celebration – an extension of what was an autumn harvest,
November event, has since grown and expanded into a semi-annual event.
Not surprising.
There is so much good Long Island food and drink dining -- and
a renaissance in local, artisanal food makers and growers -- that it takes more
than a once a year celebration to mark Long Island’s food culture!
From April 28th to May 5th, participating restaurants
will offer a three-course, prixe-fixe menu for $27.95.
Here is the come-hither opportunity to explore all the
restaurants on the culinary bucket list.
At the same time, you can frequent your favorite spots all the
more.
As the Beatles sang, “Eight Days a week is not enough to
show how much I care.”
That’s right – Long Island Restaurant Week runs for just
eight days.
Best to make a dining plan and mark the calendar.
Here are my recommendations for the best of Long Island’s restaurants
in this season’s Long Island Restaurants
Week because they are featured in The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook - and have proven their locavore, sustainable, delicious market-driven menus.
As noted in my book, The Hamptons & Long Island
Homegrown Cookbook, the Island has a heritage of Long Island’s farming
and fishing and food community:
Long
before the island became the wealthy vacation mecca it is now, the native
Shinnecock Indian tribe hunted, fished, and farmed on Long Island and taught
the first European settlers how to do so—growing beans, foraging for wild
plants, and using fish for fertilizer.
Farming
became the island’s first industry.
Today,
potato fields may have given way to orchards and vineyards, and dairy and goat
farms may have replaced the heritage duck’s grass fields, but Long Island is
still recognized as the most productive farming area in New York State.
The
Island’s tableau and its cultural heritage of homegrown agriculture have
inspired a cadre of ingredients-minded master chefs who possess a reverence for
their local food source.
The Hamptons and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook pays tribute to the remarkable, authentic farms,
gardens, vineyards, and waterways that are Long Island. It also honors those
chefs who are bringing Long Island’s unique homegrown harvest to food-obsessed
plates and palates and, in the process, helping the island’s growers and food
artisans preserve a precious way of life.
Through
their ardent beliefs, tenacity, and commitment to their craft and distinctive
local cuisine, the chefs featured here have demonstrated a fidelity to the
amazingly good, farm-forward Long Island
cuisine.
It wasn’t enough that the chef’s featured in the
Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook were good cooks – that had to be
a given.
What set then apart was that devotion to
using local growers, working harder to produce a seasonal, market-driven menu,
and embracing local, homegrown artisanal food makers from brewers to vintners
to cheese makers and honey growers….
The Homegrown Cookbook featured restaurants
participating in this week’s Long Island Restaurant Week Restaurants work extra
hard to showcase local farm ingredients and Long Island wines.
You can bet on this Best of the Best list: Let us know your restaurant reviews...
Suffolk:
Chef Eric Lomando’s Kitchen a Bistro: 631-862-0151
http://kitchenabistro.com
and his Kitchen Trattoria: 631-584-3518
http://kitchenatrattoria.com
both feature American cuisine and edibles from the restaurant’s on-site
gardens.
 |
| Kitchen Trattoria & Kitchen A Bistro Chef Eric Lomando in the restaurant's garden with his "inspired grower" & father in law, Bill Pisano |
Chef Guy Reuge’s Mirabelle Restaurant: 631-751-0555 offers exquisite French cuisine
with his local, homegrown American specialties tells a story of why this James
Beard award winner is a perennial favorite and an inspiration to decades of
foodieshttp://www.lessings.com/restaurant_menus.aspx?uniid=24
 |
| Chef Guy Reuge in his Restaurant Mirabelle's pottage |
 |
| Mirabelle Restaurant - Chef Guy Reuge |
East End:
The
North Fork Table & Inn: 631-765-0177
The husband and wife chefs at this quintessential homegrown restaurant
in Southold is not to be missed.
 |
| Chefs Claudia Fleming & Gerry Hayden (husband & wife), North Fork Table & Inn |
Be sure to take advantage of their Restaurant
Week offering – because Chef Gerry Hayden is sure to win this year’s James
Beard Award and reservations will be hard to come by after the confetti is
throw and the champagne is popped. http://www.nofoti.com
 |
| North Fork Table & Inn's award-winning pastry chef, Claudia Fleming tasting the berries at her "inspired grower, Oysterponds Farm |
Chef Tom Schaudel – who recently was honored at
a surprise birthday party at the Jedediah Hawkins Inn by that restaurant’s
latest talent, Chef Lia Fallon, has some of his star restaurants – from the
many in his portfolio – included in Long Island Restaurant Week.
 |
| Chef Tom Schaudel |
Some might argue that Chef Tom is the poster
child (or is that the “Most-Wanted?!”) for the world of Long Island
Restaurants. From Jewel to CoolFish to
Alure to Ross Schaudel catering, he’s been getting it all right in the food
world for a long time – a testament to his culinary talent and homegrown roots.
Alure
Chowder House & Oysteria: 631-876-5300 Seafood
restaurant
A
Mano Osteria and Wine Bar: 631-298-4800 Italian/Tuscan
and lots of Long Island wine pairings.
 |
| Chef Tom Schaudel & his "inspired grower," Paumanok Vineyards' Kareem Moussoud |
The good-food news hits keep growing.
Stay up to date with Long Island Food worlds with the
newly-launched Edible Long Island magazine: on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EdibleLongIsland
and the Edible Long Island Blog: http://www.ediblelongisland.com
And the Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook http://www.longislandrestaurantweek.com
Enjoy the special food celebration that is Long Island
Restaurant Week.
For more information:
Life is filled with precious moments worth celebrating. The east hampton hotels offer the perfect backdrop for special occasions, turning every event into an unforgettable memory.
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