Long Island Restaurants

Old Stove Pub

Crusty as its charred steaks, Old Stove Pub reopened last month as if it had never closed. Anti-vogue and trend-free, the joint that thrived offering tough love for the pampered now says, "Welcome back." But the revival still keeps some of the spare style reflected in the poetic motto that defined it: "Fed up with the chic, come to the Greek."

Coula Johnides, who ran it with her brothers, bridges past and present. New: the influence of chef Colin Ambrose, of Estia's Little Kitchen, who has kept most of the original menu and added a salmon in a pomegranate reduction. Weathered white signs advertising the Greek fare and steaks have been repainted; washed over, the faded come-on almost immortalizing a quote ("Country dining at its peak") that must have been one of the last public comments from Cue magazine (d. 1976). Waterproof, checked table covers have given way to checked linen. And you can catch that glimpse of sunset from the preferred tables on the wraparound deck, where movie-star and theater-celeb publicity shots are framed and chairs are plastic.

Follow the neon arrow, park on the grass. Contrarian to the last, Old Stove Pub is closed Friday and Saturday this summer.

THE BEST

A stack of sliced red onion, ripe tomato and mild feta cheese, followed by savory moussaka, or tender baked shrimp finished with tomatoes, basil and more feta. The signature: sunset steak, a 21/2-inch-thick, fibrous $58 slab of bone-in sirloin, black outside, rosy within, under wafers of butter and a solitary sprig of oregano. Colorado lamb chops, each big as a middleweight's fist, arrive assertively scorched but juicy. Break up the minimalist tableau with fries.

THE REST

Coula's Wedge means routine iceberg with Thousand Island dressing; saganaki, the baked cheese appetizer, hard-edged, nearly torched. Spinach with garlic oil, bland. Baklava, standard. The everlasting "cold fudge sundae" caps ordinary ice cream with a dense topping suitable for frosting cupcakes.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Time machine.

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti, 8/13/08.

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