Amid pandemic, Extensive Island eating places uncover new way to endure by opening markets
A Grandma pizza, pasta e fagioli and …. paper towels, a bottle of Chianti and some flour? Online cafe purchasing got a little bit bizarre final spring, when vacant grocery store shelves compelled some dining places to peddle adds-on from eggs to rest room paper and hand sanitizer to caught-at-property regulars.
Although those surreal days have largely faded, some operators found that advertising groceries was not just a way to provide their communities and retain staff employed, but also opened up a vital more channel of dollars. The final result: A handful of those marketplaces have turn out to be lasting, with a few a lot more in the pipeline.
“COVID had dropped us to our knees. You experienced to pivot,” recalled Lisa Cusamano, a associate of Pentimento, of the darkish time very last spring when the Stony Brook restaurant shut briefly and some personnel were laid off. Pentimento had celebrated its 25th birthday with a get together only a handful of months right before the pandemic struck, and chef-proprietor Dennis Younger had been retired to Florida for awhile. But just after COVID swept in, Youthful returned to Extensive Island as he, Cusamano and remaining workers fired up a takeout procedure and robust outdoor dining, then reopened the eating room with limited seating in late June — including plants rather of plexiglass, and keeping the bar shut.
Early on, stated Cusamano, they observed desire for get-and-go meals and large-high quality food items that could be cooked at home, as nicely as takeout exhaustion. “Individuals were being struggling to get diverse goods, and we noticed the want — and we also experienced the product or service,” Cusamano claimed. “We stated, ‘the group requires this and they come to feel safe right here. So, why not try it?'”
So they took the chairs and tables out of their major eating space, repurposed wood wine crates into shelving and remodeled the area into an Italian-esque market stocked with cheeses, chops, pasta, olive oil, bottles of wine and home favorites such as pesto, dips, dwelling-treated salumi and Caesar salad kits. Afterwards, they additional dishes that could be reheated or cooked at residence, these as falafel, lasagna and the kitchen’s well known “hen under a brick,” marketed as a marinated break up rooster breast that could be seared or thrown on the grill.
“It was a obstacle, but we experienced enjoyment with it, and tried out to discover cool items,” said Cusamano. The stock grew and grew — to new greens, spice blends, and distinctive ought to-haves such as cheddar-bacon bread twists, Italian IPA, yellow-tomato ketchup, fragile residence potato chips and Butter of Parma. The kitchen also boxed up a couple of firsts, this kind of as turkey pot pie and meat loaf. “The prospects are generally dictating what they have to have and want, and we preserve evolving,” he reported.
As Pentimento’s current market grows, other folks continue on to get into the activity. Two eating places, 317 Main Avenue in Farmingdale and The Oar in Patchogue, are established to debut their individual marketplaces in coming weeks. Without having more adieu, here are destinations you can invest in, or soon obtain, groceries together with your lunch or dinner get.
Pentimento Restaurant + Marketplace (93 Key St., Stony Brook): With the DNA of a chef’s pantry and the looks of an Italian deli, Pentimento’s new current market is a charmer. Main amid the treasures built or butchered by chef-proprietor Dennis Youthful: Spreads, pesto, burrata, clean pasta, house-treated pancetta, focaccia, chops that are brined or marinated in residence, and get-and-go dishes this kind of as lasagna. The current market also delivers private searching to those who are nervous to be about others, and limits the market place to a few prospects are a time. Much more info: 631-689-7755, pentimentorestaurant.net
Konoba (486 Gerard St., Huntington): Croatian wine is a mainly undiscovered gem and was nary to impossible to find right until 2020, when proprietor Daniel Pedisich began to promote bottles of it from his Huntington cafe. Ditto for the Croatian cabbage rolls (sarma), borek pies and Croatian tea cookies, chocolate, jams or plum-butter unfold (prodavaka). Get these from shelves inside the cafe or increase them on to an buy of cooked dishes, from burgers topped with whipped feta or brudet, Croatian seafood stew. Much more facts: 631-824-7712, konobahuntington.com
Lost & Found (951 Beech St., Very long Seashore): If you’re not nonetheless prepared to pull up a stool to a high-top for chef Alexis Trolf’s dry-aged rib-eye with bleu-cheese butter, you can now grab stated steak from the butcher counter that debuted listed here summer season. Hulking veal chops, duck breasts, household-floor burgers and porterhouse steaks minimize to buy await, way too, as do canned anchovies, tomatoes and exceptional condiments. Cash only. Much more information: 516-442-2606
317 Most important Road (317 Key St., Farmingdale): Missing chef Eric LeVine’s soup dumplings or sweet-potato gnocchi? Come early February, get pre-geared up versions to make at residence from a marketplace set to debut at the again of the significant place. “You will be equipped to feed two people today for the very same price,” you could spend at a table, explained LeVine. “We’re constantly innovating, and this is the next development.” The market’s shelves will be stocked with an eclectic, world wide array that mirror’s 317’s ethos: Pastas, sauces, mac-and-cheese, chops, fish, sauces and even dim sum will be sold, as will gelato. Much more facts: 516-512-5317, 317mainstreet.com
Tullulah’s Tiny Industry (12 Fourth Ave., Bay Shore): This summertime, chef-owner Steven Scalesse and his wife, Nicole, transformed a private dining space inside the cafe into a sweet minimal light-flooded industry whose cabinets are loaded with beverages you would be tough pressed to discover somewhere else — uncommon pet-nats and all-natural wines, Italian liqueurs, and cordials built by bartender Bert Weigand. Also bought listed here are jars of regional horseradish, cold-pressed juices, salumi and cheeses, as well as property pickles, pumpkin-seed pesto and merchandise built by the kitchen. Additional facts: 631-969-9800. tullulahs.com
The Oar Steak & Seafood Grille (265 West Ave., Patchogue): If it has gills, odds are The Oar has served it on a plate — but like all people else, this 34-year-old Patchogue fixture has had to adapt. In early February, they’ll open up a digital industry selling seafood and shellfish — filets, clams, oysters, lobsters — for pickup together with a dinner of, say, lobster wontons and hen Richard. “Simply because of the pandemic, we’re often striving to feel outdoors of the box, and we have a ton of consumers who really do not feel relaxed coming into the restaurant but still want our dishes and sauces,” stated co-operator Lindsey Chalifoux, who operates the restaurant with her father, Richard Blakeslee. The online industry will also offer you sauces, this sort of as fra diavolo or bleu cheese, to slather across stews, pastas and wedge salads. Fish will be marketed by the piece, instead than the pound, and prices will be on par with place fish marketplaces, Chalifoux claimed. Much more data: 631-654-8266, theoar.com
