Tasting Room Kitchen & Cocktails opens in Farmingdale
Lobster egg rolls at Tasting Room Kitchen & Cocktails in Farmingdale. Credit: Newsday/Marie Elena Martinez
Farmingdale has a new restaurant in a familiar spot. Earlier this year Vintage Wine Bar and Bistro owner Jeff Rumman said he closed the restaurant because of "the high cost of doing business in New York." Now he's opened Tasting Room Kitchen & Cocktails, an upscale, moody restaurant with dark walls, an elegant bar, warm orange accents and a menu by former Farmingdale resident-chef Marc Anthony Bynum.
"I felt a shift in the consumer," said Rumman, who also owns High Tide Taco Bar down the street. "I wanted to focus more on main courses, instead of tapas. And more on cocktails, as opposed to wine." He shares that vision with Bynum, with whom he has a 15-year friendship. "He's been a great asset to us as far as curating the menu, plating, all aspects of food, training the staff."
Moody lighting at the vast bar inside Tasting Room Kitchen & Cocktails in Farmingdale. Credit: Newsday/Marie Elena Martinez
Over the last 15 years, Bynum has blazed a path through the Long Island dining scene that hopscotches sports bar to soul bistro, ramen shop to upscale food truck, even a pizzeria. He left Long Island a year ago to put down catering roots in Birmingham, Alabama. From his southern perch, he nurtures his food truck, Hush, as well as consults on restaurant concepts around the country.
Bynum’s Tasting Room menu has a little bit of everything, including simple starters like avocado hummus ($16) served with naan bread, fried calamari ($18), lobster-stuffed egg rolls ($18) and kung pao pierogies ($17). There’s charcuterie for two or four people ($32-$44), salads from a Mediterranean-style piled high with quinoa, chickpeas, cucumber, pistachios and feta ($19), to an Asian-inspired seared tuna with carrots, scallions, sesame seeds, crispy noodles and honey soy vinaigrette ($25).
The dining area at Tasting Room Kitchen & Cocktails in Farmingdale. Credit: Newsday/Marie Elena Martinez
Main dishes include lemon pesto rigatoni with pistachios, tomatoes, asparagus, basil and burrata ($27) and a tricolor lasagna bears pesto, marinara and vodka sauces ($28). There's a brie burger with bacon jam ($18) and Philly cheese steak ($20). Larger: perfectly cooked mahi mahi covered in a silky beurre blanc sauce over jasmine rice ($36), and chimichurri skirt steak with roasted carrots ($39).
The vast bar has daily happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m., featuring cocktail specials like a salted caramel espresso martini ($15) plus a strong selection of mocktails. Tasting Room's Sunday brunch rolls out in December and will involve pancake tacos, French toast tots and eggs Benedict, alongside bottomless mimosas, Bellinis and bloody Marys.
Tasting Room Kitchen and Cocktails, 185 Main St.,, Farmingdale; 516-249-4758, tastingroomny.com; Open Monday through Wednesday 4 to 10 p.m., Thursday 4 to 11 p.m., Friday 4 to midnight., Saturday noon to midnight, Sunday noon to 9 p.m.
A global freelancer who has checked her suitcase to raise her young daughter on her native Long Island, Marie Elena will always make time for good mezcal, even better tacos and killer conversation. Preferably, in a corner bar seat. She can be found on Instagram at @mariesworldeats.
