Long Island Restaurants

Taste

If you like Taste, you also may want to try: Della Femina 99 N. Main St. East Hampton 631-329-6666. Heirloom 107 Forest Ave. Locust Valley; 516-609-2075.

Down-home via downtown, Taste shows you how complicated simplicity can be and why relaxed style takes hard work.

It's an openhanded, unfussy, full-flavored restaurant with broad appeal, from two city guys who've moved to the suburbs.

Ed Witt, the colorful and creative chef from Varietal and Il Buco in Manhattan, has reunited with John Cantwell, ex-manager of Brooklyn's River Cafe, to juice up dining out in Nassau.

Their carefully conceived, culinarily correct spot delivers a very satisfying spin on new American cooking, giving the homey the respect accorded haute. You'll want to eat the whole menu.

Cantwell and Witt have taken over the former, two-level home of Opera. Now, the dining room glows with a buttery hue, framed with polished dark wood. The upfront bar also keeps to an updated bistro look.

But the food is what's eye-catching and invariably appetizing, using products that you're advised are "natural, sustainable and humanely produced."

From a menu arranged by tastings small, medium and large, you can build a many-sided meal. Nibble on a trio of little wild-mushroom and maple-smoked-cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches, or spread good bread with the housemade liverwurst and some horseradish mustard. Enjoy delicately deviled eggs with smoked trout roe, or sheaves of the satiny, delectably cured Col. Bill Newsom's Aged Kentucky Country Ham.

You could couple any of these with grand pulled pork sandwiches, cucumber slaw and beer for a revel in the casual pleasures of American chow. Newsom's fine ham does get lost in the house's tart stuffed peppers. And the salt cod in the Lincoln Logs of "brandade fries" is undone by overcooking; likewise, the shrimp in the hush puppies.

But Witt's elemental lobster salad, with dewy meat atop shaved fennel in a chile vinaigrette; and salad of pea shoots, fava beans, cherry tomatoes and sheep's milk cheese, are straightforward successes.

Duck-and-cherry sausage with corn bread waffles is on the sweet side. House-made ramp pasta with braised artichokes and chanterelles: irresistible. Witt also excels with pan-roasted sea scallops surrounding a combo of English peas and morels; and pan-roasted snapper with red pepper sauce and crab dumplings.

Vibrant tastes continue with moist smoked chicken, crisped potatoes and pickled beans; and the generous grilled pork chop with addictive cheese grits, bacon and collards.

The best desserts underscore Taste's approach: an airy chocolate mousse and an artisanal root beer float. You'll have fun.

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti, 6/17/07.

Hours

Website

Assessment

Cuisine

Directions

Major Credit Cards Accepted

Notable dishes

Price Range

Wheelchair Access