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Lombardi's on the Sound

Guy Lombardi, left , chef and owner of Lombard's on the Sound in Port Jefferson, with manager Bob Willemstyn, help give the Lombardi chain's latest offspring a personality all its own. (Newsday Photo/Ken Spencer)

Mamma mia!

Yes, Lombardi's on the Sound is the polished offspring of Mamma Lombardi's, a bastion of southern Italian cooking since the bicentennial.

It's also the latest venture in the expanding mondo Lombardi's, which also includes Villa Lombardi's, a caterer; and Lombardi's Market, both in Holbrook, where the original Mamma's presides.

The new restaurant is in the Port Jefferson Country Club, with its Harbor Hills perch on Long Island Sound. The decor and the style are more restrained and refined than at the buoyant and colorful Mamma's. You know how it is with the next generation.

But, personality aside, this Lombardi's does not specialize in what often passes for country-club fare -- even if a tuna wrap slips into the lunch menu. The first hint: "no half sandwiches available."

Lombardi's doesn't deal in downsizing. It's about very plump braciola, steaks and chops; huge portions of savory red-sauced pastas; a bodybuilding assortment of Parmigianas, pizzaiolas, marinaras and oreganatas, plus "Mamma's meatballs."

They're served in a water-view setting that's in full holiday trim for the season, festooned with as much evergreen as platters are with broccoli rabe. Polite prints of arches and the like adorn the walls. Creamy hues and shiny wood are standard. The dining area is pretty compact, almost a niche in the country club, especially when compared with the Holbrook compound. But the kitchen is all about big flavors -- and sufficient lycopene to boost the health of the northeastern United States.

Get started with a half-order of pasta. The house's penne arrabiata packs enough red-pepper heat amid the garlic and tomatoes to ignite your appetite and interior thermostat. Linguine puttanesca's scarlet spiciness is heightened with anchovies, capers, olives and garlic.

For a milder approach, try orecchiette with broccoli rabe, olive oil and sausage, either sweet or hot. Cavatelli with dependable tomato sauce; linguini primavera, in a creamy marinara; and rigatoni alla vodka are straightforward and satisfying. The house's hefty, sprawling lasagna is good, too. But Lombardi's isn't the ideal spot to order fettuccine all'Alfredo, thin and bland.

Oysters Rockefeller may have no bearing on the original, but they're fat and tasty, under coverlet of creamy spinach and bread crumbs. Sea scallops Provencal, with sun-dried and plum tomatoes in pink sauce, are slightly overcooked. The hot antipasto is dominated by a delectable eggplant rollatini, which you should order on its own. One shrimp, a baked clam, a stuffed mushroom, and several mussels marinara comprise the supporting cast.

Minestrone contains enough vegetables and tubettini pasta to move beyond the soup category. Likewise, the red-tinted pasta e fagioli.

Halibut alla Livornese, thick as a paperback dictionary, shows up snowy and moist, under a mantle of tomatoes, onions, garlic, capers, olives and basil. It's excellent. Consider shrimps fra diavolo and calamari marinara, too.

A day's catch of squid forms the blond and crisp foundation of the fritto misto, topped with two slabs of fried sole and shrimp. This production, like several others, is easily shared by two.

Three could divide the chicken campagnola, a rustic and reliable combination of fried chicken, sausage, mushrooms, onions, vinegar peppers and addictive rounds of well-oiled, crisp potatoes. Modest alternatives: chicken scarpariello, on the bone, sauteed with sausage, garlic, white wine, lemon and rosemary; and chicken cacciatore, with tomatoes, peppers, onions and mushrooms.

Pork chops Lombardi, center-cut and fried, are juicy, paired with those zesty vinegar peppers and potatoes. The homey pork braciola, shaped like a mini-zeppelin, is spiked with pignoli nuts and raisins, accompanied by cavatelli in tomato sauce.

Veal scaloppini alla pizzaiola is a tender riff on the Neapolitan classic. You also may have rib-eye steak alla pizzaiola, similarly sauced with tomatoes, garlic, oregano, basil, mushrooms and pecorino Romano cheese. The veal cutlet giardiniera, breaded and crowned with a chopped salad of arugula, tomatoes and basil, takes a lighter approach.

To conclude, pick freshly filled, overflowing cannoli; the grand, celebratory cassata; textbook Italian cheesecake; or the seven-tier, Italianate version of a napoleon.

Just like Mamma's.

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti, 12/19/04.

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