Where to Dine for Long Island Restaurant Week & Edible Long Island Magazine Launch

Fans and readers of The Hamptons & Long Island Restaurant Homegrown Cookbook – described by Long Island Newsday as my “love letter” to the best Long Island Restaurants and the growers and artisanal food makers that inspire them, know that the bi-annual Long Island Restaurant week is akin to gilding the lily.

This fall’s campaign is slated to offer more than 250 restaurants that will participate in the week-long food fantasy, scheduled from Sunday, November 3 through Sunday, November 11. 

The participating restaurants offer a three-course prix fixe for $27.95 every night except Saturday when the special menu if offered until 7pm.

The menus off a minimum of three appetizers, entrees, and desserts.  Many offer more variety and choice to showcase their culinary talent and the bounty of Long Island, which is New York State’s most productive farming region.

Plus, the award-winning, incomparable vineyards that dot the East End of Long Island, offer wines and spirits that celebrate the terroir and complement the sweet and savory flavors teased from the homegrown ingredients by the magic of the Island’s culinary artists.  Dare you to resist the elixir of Long Island oysters and Paumanok Vineyard’s Chenin Blanc….

The waters of Long Island too offer their seasonal gifts of stripers, bass and blues not to mention, Peconic Bay’s own oysters: Peconic Pearls – as featured in The Homegrown Cookbook and raised by Karen Rivera and her Noank Aquaculture Cooperative team.   

Oyster farmer, Karen Rivera, & her Peconic Pearls

With only eight days and more than 250 restaurants to choose from, Long Island foodie fans need to get eating and drinking!

Here are my recommendations – a roadmap  -- to the best places to dine during Long Island Restaurant Week:

Jewel Restaurant – Chef Tom Schaudel’s menus are exciting and delicious.  Jewel offers new American cuisine. 631-755-5777

Double your pleasure: Jewel, in Melville, is also the site for this week’s Edible Long Island magazine launch on November 6^th  No surprise, Chef Tom Jewel was a sterling showcase for last evening's salute to Edible Long Island Magazine and the food and drink professionals who grace the pages -- and the landscape that marks the Island's devotion to food. 

Chef Tom served up pure and elegant local oysters -- with a mango-as-cavier and coconut and cilantro topping.  It was crisp, cold and a refreshing, reverential salute to bi-valves that I -- oyster lover supreme - had never tasted before.  Smashing success! 

Here’s the link to the event last evening: http://www.ediblelongisland.com/events/

Jewel Restaurant's Chef Tom Schaudel

Rock Star Chef Tom Schaudel, serving oyster magic @EdibleLongIsland 

Master Chef Guy Reuge, Mirabelle and his wife/partner, Maria, served delicious, delicate Long Island duck @EdibleLI  launch party

Everything goes better with bacon! Dickens Cider

Not to be left out, the other restaurants in Chef Tom’s portfolio of spectacular eateries will participate in Long Island Restaurant Week, too: A Mano in Mattituck, and CoolFish in Syosset.  

And pssst, I heard it from the master chef himself, he will soon be opening a sushi-inspired restaurant within Jewel: "Bijoux" was the be-jeweled moniker being floated.  It fits. 

Kitchen A Bistro – St. James  631-862-0151. Chef Eric Lomando expanding restaurant empire began here with his dedication to quality and a benchmark for excellence that wins awards, stars and homegrown loyalty.  Chef Eric’s father in law, Bill Pisano, tends to the kitchen’s garden steps from the kitchen so field to fork couldn’t be shorter.

Chef Eric Lomando, grower Bill Pisano

The menu is enriched by the rich flavors and seasonal delights. BYOB.

Kitchen A Trattoria – St. James 631-584-3518.  Up until today, Chef Eric owned this restaurant too but just signed off on passing the toque to his long-time chef associate, Steven Gallagher.  Prior to working for Chef Eric and his restaurants he worked at another featured Homegrown Long Island Cookbook star: Chef Starr Boggs! In Westhampton.  Kitchen A Trattoria serves up informed Italian fair and local ingredients. 

Mirabelle – Stony Brook 631-751-0555 Chef Guy Reuge is the grand master of Long Island dining. His tradition of excellence has inspired generations of chefs and food enthusiasts. Don’t miss a chance to sample fine dining as it was dreamed to be.  Every dish is a culinary wonder lovingly prepared. Many of the ingredients are selected from Chef’s potager located right off the kitchen.  And Chef Guy’s wife, Maria, creates a warm and exquisite dining ambiance.  

Master Chef Guy Reuge selecting greens from Mirabelle potager

Almond Restaurant – Bridgehampton.  Chef Jason Weiner menu is creative, seasonal and local.  And in another lucky-strike twofer – Almond will host a special evening, Thursday, November 14th.

631-537-5665

Wine makers Kareem Massoud and Christopher Tracy will be on hand to pour, and Brian Halweil, co-publisher and editor of a portfolio of Edible Magazines:  Edible East End, Long Island, Manhattan and Brooklyn -- will talk about the East End's rich duck farming history and culture. 

Halweil wrote the Foreword for the Homegrown Long Island Cookbook.

Yet another link to the Homegrown Long Island Cookbook food network is Paumanok Vineyard’s Massoud.  

Paumanok Vineyards

The esteemed vintner and his Aquebogue family vineyard is a featured grower in the Homegrown Cookbook -- selected by Chef Tom Schaudel as his Homegrown culinary inspiration.

Paumanok Vineyard Vintner, Kareem Moussad & Chef Tom Schaulel

Further, Doug Corwin’s Crescent Duck Farm is featured in the Homegrown Cookbook, noted as the North Fork’s Scrimshaw’s owner and chef Rosa Ross’s Homegrown inspiration.  Corwin and his family have been breeding and harvesting delicious, world-class Pekin Long Island duck for generations.  

Mitch & Toni’s – Albertson.  516-741-7940 A Long Island native, Chef Mitch SuDock’s menu is revered for its mix of classic dishes with inspired twists and flavors using local, seasonal ingredients. Toni’s welcome and homegrown-inducing charm is the reason diners can’t resist frequent visits to their American Bistro.  

Chef Mitch SuDock, Mitch & Toni's American Bistro

Chef Mitch selects local ingredients: at the farm or farmers markets

Fresno – East Hampton.  631-324-8700  Chef Gretchen Menser is a true artist at heart. Her devotion to the bounty of local farms, artisanal food makers and her restaurant’s own garden narrates her good-food story and the “kaleidoscope of homegrown recipes”  she serves up with tempting, never-tried before flavors.   

Chef Gretchen Menser, Fresno Restaurant

Jedediah Hawkins Inn – Jamesport 631-772-2900

The Living Room at the Maidstone – East Hampton 631-324-5006

A Mano Osteria and Wine Bark – Mattituck  631-298-4800

Bistro72 at Hotel Indigo – Riverhead 631-369-3325

Fresh Hamptons – Bridgehampton 6310537-4700

Noah’s – Greenport, 631-477-6720

For tickets to Long Island Restaurant Week: http://longislandrestaurantweek.com/nassau.php

631-329-2111