Blackfish Tavern opens in Northport

Four years ago Andrew Whitcomb was part of the leadership team of his family’s business, Whitsons Culinary Group, an Islandia-based food-service company that provides corporate and emergency dining to clients all over the Northeast. But after a private equity firm bought an interest in the company, he was free to pursue his own dream. Did he buy a ticket for a world cruise? Retire to a tropical island?

Nope, he opened a restaurant.

"I wanted to get back to the thing I really love, making food and making people happy," he said of his new Blackfish Tavern in Northport. "And after 45 years of working with my family, I wanted to try doing something independent."

Since moving to Northport in 2013, he’d driven by the old Elijah Churchill’s Public House and thought, what a great location for a restaurant. He jumped when he heard that the building was for sale. That jump, in 2022, was the last thing that happened quickly. It took until last month for him to rebuild the deteriorated, century-old structure, update the septic system and secure all the permits to open for business.

The finished establishment, sleek and shipshape in shades of blue, has a nifty setup: The ground floor is centered around a four-sided bar but also has some tables. Churchill’s was a popular venue for live music and Whitcomb hopes to continue the tradition — once he figures out how to stop the sound from reaching the second-floor dining room.

While he attends to running the whole shebang, the kitchen is helmed by Ian Jackson. Whitcomb says he rewrote the menu 50 times. "I wanted an amalgam of what people would want but what they would also find interesting." That translates to starters ($13 to $26) ranging from wings, crab cakes on succotash and clams oreganata to French onion soup and a beet salad with toasted pumpkin seeds and Gorgonzola. Meat-based mains ($25 to $40) include brick chicken, chicken Parmesan and Milanese (untraditional, using a breast with the wing attached rather than a pounded cutlet) and short ribs over polenta. At the high end are a 14-ounce prime sirloin ($59) and roast prime rib ($50).

An avid fisherman, Whitcomb named the restaurant for his favorite local fish. The opening menu features no local fish, but that menu will change regularly (and should include both blackfish and black sea bass in the future). For now, piscine options include a raw-bar tower ($150) plus mains ($32 to $42) such as pan-seared salmon and halibut, bouillabaisse, shrimp scampi over linguine and broiled branzino with asparagus romesco and crispy smashed fingerlings.

Blackfish Tavern, 1031 Fort Salonga Rd., Northport, 631-606-0610, blackfishtavern.com. Open Sunday to Wednesday 11 a.m. to midnight, Thursday 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., closed Monday.