Is Huntington still Long Island's top dining destination?

Huntington has a reputation as Long Island’s liveliest dining town: The village, anchored by the intersection of New York Avenue and Main Street, is chock-a-block with restaurants of every style and price point — and serving the cuisines of most continents.

Flux has always been a factor here, but the last two years have seen the departure of an unprecedented number of longstanding and major players — among them, Faz’s (est. 1992), Finley’s of Green Street (1992), House of India (2001), Red (2000), Osteria da Nino (2003) and Neraki (2011). Except for Finley’s, all of those spaces have been snapped up by new operators.

Alex Moschos closed Neraki last month after struggling in a post-COVID era defined not only by the sky-high cost of ingredients, labor, insurance and rent, but by new dining habits. "The business model changed," he told Newsday at the time. "Either customers want extremely high-end or very inexpensive or huge portions or all-in-one food and entertainment. My niche — reasonably priced — just wasn’t working anymore."

NEW TIMES CALL FOR NEW CONCEPTS

Indeed much of the freshman class of new restaurants falls into the categories of very reasonable (Taco El Chingon, Burger Haven, Pasta Joint) — or, unique and upscale (Urubamba's chef-driven Peruvian pisco bar or the about-to-open Kahani’s Indian gastro-lounge). Longtime restaurateurs are taking note and adjusting accordingly.

"A lot of this churn is natural," said Frank Antonetti, partner at both the Rust & Gold sports bar (2016) and 1653 Pizza Company (2021). "Huntington has always been a hot spot that attracts the fast money, and an over-served market starts consuming itself."

That said, he continued, there are new factors at play. An evolving "healthy mindset" has customers dining earlier, eating and drinking less. "The conversation used to be ‘Where are we pre-gaming?’ [getting oiled in advance of the main event] and now it’s becoming ‘Where can we get GLP-1s?’ "

Nothing, he believes, is having a greater effect on restaurant culture than social media. "For too many customers, once they have a selfie, they move on to the next venue." Antonetti is actively engaged in the struggle. "This summer, Rust hosted a ‘Love Island’ watch party that went viral on TikTok. The next week, we had maybe a quarter of the people," he said. During the last month at 1653, there’s been calligraphy night, a motorcycle-centric Eurobike night and a private dinner of wood-fired specialties for the itinerant gourmands of Long Island's Dead Chef’s Society.

LONGTIME SPOTS STILL EVOLVE

On the other hand, some veteran restaurants attribute their longevity to predictability. Long Island has an unquenchable appetite for old-school Italian that Joanina has been satisfying since 1998. Decorated to look like an idealized Italian courtyard, it expanded once in 2009 and is poised to do so again: The adjacent Joanina wine shop (2009-24) will shortly become a third dining room.

"We’ve been doing the same thing here for 27 years," said partner Bobby Oliva. He’s a constant on the floor, chicken scarpariello is a constant on the menu, and there are many patrons who are constants at the bar.

Bernadette and Michael Olsen said that they dine at Joanina at least once a week, often more. "It’s reasonably priced and they are incredibly accommodating," Bernadette said. "It’s our Cheers." But there are five or six other nights in the week when you might find the Halesite couple at Finnegan's, Jonathan’s or Edoardo’s. Faz’s, the Tex Mex eatery, was another favorite but the sting of its closing last November has been partially soothed by its successor, Pasta Joint. "That place is so great," Michael said, "we have been telling everyone."

Everyone seems to have heard. Pasta Joint has been mobbed since it opened in September. Not only is the food Italian, it is the Italian trend of the moment: As at Pastaru Pastificio in Mineola and Pasta Project in Farmingdale, pasta is made fresh on the premises where customers can see its manufacture, and it is priced to go at $17 per bowl.

If the concept is new, the owners go way back. Brothers Eric and Jason Machado are the scions of a restaurant dynasty that started in Huntington in 1986. That’s when their father, Fabio, opened Fabio’s on Stewart Avenue (where Toast & Co is now). Over the ensuing 39 years, the family has operated no fewer than a dozen restaurants in the village — in addition to restaurants all over Nassau and Suffolk. With the recent sale of Cafe Buenos Aires, the Machados currently preside over Bistro Cassis, MB Ramen and Pasta Joint.

"There will always be people telling you how much they love your restaurant," Eric said, but that shouldn’t fool you into thinking "that changes don’t need to be made. You have to surround yourself with young people and new ideas."

At 24 years old, their classic French Bistro Cassis seems to be able to weather any storm, but MB Ramen (est. 2018) was a response to a national Japanese noodle trend they thought could work in Huntington. Eric said that business at MB Ramen is about half dine-in and half takeout, and he expects that to be the case at Pasta Joint as well.

STAFFING WOES STILL A FACTOR

The biggest challenge faced by the restaurant is finding staff. A "Help Wanted" sign is posted in the window directly in front of the pasta-making machine and, for now, it’s the Machado brothers who are running the kitchen.

The labor shortage afflicts restaurants new and old. Luigi Aloe owns the 2-year-old breakfast-lunch-brunch spot Over Easy, whose Gerard Street space has seen a lot of turnover — six eateries followed The Shack's opening in 2013. The Huntington native has been a player in the local hospitality scene since he was a teenager working at Renaissance Gourmet deli (the precurser to Joanina). He went on to be a partner at Munday’s (still going strong at 102 years old) and owner of the now-closed Black & Blue Seafood Chophouse.

"When I opened Black & Blue," he recalled, "workers came to us. Now nobody wants to work nights, weekends. The truth is you can be a DoorDash driver and make $200 a shift sitting in your car."

Another factor in the shrinking labor pool, Frank Antonetti explained, is that restaurants used to manage with fewer employees because those who worked more than 40 hours a week got overtime pay (time and half). But with the minimum wage at $16.50 (up $6.50 since 2010), "there’s more sharing of employees because nobody can afford to pay overtime."

If labor is so tight — and if the price of everything else is at unprecedented levels — why doesn’t that discourage new restaurants from opening? Aloe was torn between calling that new-restaurant impulse "hopeful" and calling it "naive. People think, ‘Yes, things may be bad out there, but for me and my business, it will be different.’ I know," he confessed, "I’ve thought that myself!"

One bulwark against the labor crunch is a hardworking family. That’s the strategy employed by the owners of Kahani, an upscale, Indian "gastro-lounge" opening this week. Amarjit, Daljit and Jasprit Singh are the brothers who own BRGRS, a smashburger spot that opened on New York Avenue last year. Surveying the Huntington scene, Amarjit observed that, competitive as the market was, "there was very little fast-casual, quick serve, other than pizza."

Now that BRGRS is launched, the Singhs are poised to tackle the high end of the market in the nearby storefront that was Lasagna Ristorante. The family spared no expense for Kahani ("our story" in Punjabi), gutting the space and importing chandeliers, brass plates and Persian rugs. The menu will feature Indian crowd pleasers (butter chicken, lamb vindaloo, saag paneer, biryani), each of which will be paired with a corresponding cocktail. There will also be spiked mango lassi and cold-brew chai and late-night bottle service. No workers? No problem. "We are a big family," Amarjit said, "and it will be all hands on deck."

LOCATION MATTERS

For a dining district as hopping as Huntington’s, there nevertheless are better and worse locations for establishing a business. Kahani and Pasta Joint both enjoy plenty of foot traffic. Over Easy, just a block west of Pasta Joint on Gerard, is slightly off the beaten path. The charming new taqueria Taco El Chingon, technically on Gerard Street but really hidden in an alley off Wall Street, can’t even be located using GPS.

For many visitors, The Farm Italy, set back from New York Avenue at Gerard Street, marks Huntington’s northern dining border. Push on farther, however, and you’ll find one of the village’s most exciting new venues — Urubamba Pisco Bar, the 10-month-old Peruvian spot that has challenged itself with more than an out-of-the-way location.

The name "Urubamba," explained owner Silvana Rojas, honors the "sacred valley of the Incas" that lies in the Andes north of Cusco. It is also the name of Rojas’ parents’ Queens restaurant, the city’s oldest Peruvian, but, she conceded, "Customers have no idea what it means. Ninety percent of people don’t know anything about Peru. They walk by, see the llama [sweet-looking, life-size but entirely fake] and come in to ask what kind of restaurant this is."

Long Island is in the midst of a veritable Peruvian boom (see also: Huntington’s new Brasas Peru, in the old Osteria da Nino space), but with its serene decor and refined cuisine, Urubamba sets — and meet — a very high bar. "Peru’s cuisine is recognized now as one of the best in the world," Rojas said. "This is not just about rotisserie chicken."

She figures her rent is lower than if she were on Main Street but concedes that "most of the people on Main Street don’t know we are here." (Huntington super-diners Bernadette and Michael Olsen didn’t.) 

Still, every week is better than the last, and Rojas is confident in her vision. "I know there’s nowhere on Long Island with more competition, but we are not just about good food and drinks and service here," she said. "We want to give people an adventure."