Long Island Restaurants

Alison

The Maidstone Arms, which has challenged chefs for decades, this summer confronts Robert Gurvich. Expect a very good meal, if not an especially good time. The inn's latest resident is Alison, moving east, mannered style intact, impeccable ingredients in tow.

History

Alison Becker shuts Alison on Dominick Street in Manhattan, heads east in 1996, lands Alison by the Beach in Sagaponack; that closes, and in 2004 there's Alison in Bridgehampton. Now, this. A regular receives a smile and polite conversation. You eventually get the menu. But before slipping in, know that, on a weekday night when the crowd isn't quite big enough, they may shoehorn you and everyone else into the "tavern" upfront. Not that the Maidstone's main dining room is so seductive. That space still evokes an updated, Hamptonian production of "Separate Tables." But at least there's more room for your knees.

ORDER THIS

Gurvich, whose most recent Long Island show was Four Food Studio in Melville, prepares a delicate and delicious crayfish fricassee, refined even more with morels, ramps, peas and crème fraîche. Its cool competitor: a salad of lobster and spring vegetables, with a supporting cast of fava beans, fennel, haricots verts, cherry tomatoes and herb-flecked aioli. A delectably irreverent pasta puttanesca interrupts the culinary calm with anchovy and caper, olive and tomato. Half-order as an appetizer? Impossible - would you take a spire from Chartres? But the "crispy skin" Murray Farms chicken delivers a roast worthy of Don Rickles. And that sirloin Bordelaise comes with white asparagus; the sauteed foie gras, with 50-year-old balsamic vinegar. The chocolate cake: just as rich.

DON'T BOTHER

Granny Smith apple-and-Vidalia onion compote can't revive a too-roasted, bland pork chop. Braised halibut with pickled pearl onions, cherry tomatoes, fennel, zucchini and herb fumet aches with precision but needs a spark. The strawberry shortcake points to a late season - and the exit.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Unless you're known, a rather stiff evening at the old club. Locals must be taking bets about how long it lasts.

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti, 6/26/08.

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