Five years ago, while having dinner with a girlfriend at the bar of a restaurant in Huntington, Lisa Cocchi first met the man who was to become her husband. Bruce Cocchi had stopped in after work for a meal and a drink at the bar. The couple, married since November, consider themselves avid epicures and, given a choice, they'd almost always prefer eating at the bar than at a table. "It's more fun that way than just waiting around for a waiter," said Cocchi. "We like the interaction."
So, apparently, do lots of other people, who are settling into bar stools and ordering everything from French onion soup to pappardelle with sausage and broccoli rabe.
"It's a kind of turnaround," said Clark Wolf, a restaurant consultant. "As restaurants become more like bars and lounges, it's only fair that bars become more like someplace to eat."
What started out as a city trend, Wolf adds, has caught on big time in suburbia, mostly because people enjoy being in the midst of the urban energy bars seem to generate.
Tony Caracci (the self-named "Tony the Wine Guy") of Hudson's Mill in Massapequa, said that lately, the number of people eating at the Hudson's Mill bar is starting to equal the number just there to drink. "A lot of people may have an appetizer and wind up staying, having the rest of their dinner at the bar," Caracci said. No doubt, a personable bartender adds greatly to the allure of bar dining.
And, according to food pundit Ted Allen (a judge on Bravo's "Top Chef" and the food expert on "Queer Eye"), it's not merely by chance that most bartenders are extremely good-looking. "Owners of bars know that having good-looking bartenders is a good idea because people by themselves get the illusion that they're in the company of somebody attractive," Allen said.
And there's another enticement dining at the bar provides for the solitary diner: "Bars are places where it's always been all right to be sitting by oneself."
And you never have to worry about catching your server's eye.
10 counter encounters
At lunch and dinner, I ate at the bars of 10 restaurants. Sometimes, I ate solo, and other times with as many as three companions. Here's what I found:
NASSAU
Brasserie Cassis, 387 S. Oyster Bay Rd., Plainview, 516-653-0090.
The scene: Lunch for two on a weekday at an authentic-looking French bistro with marble-topped tables and zinc bar.
Food highlights: A fine salad frisée aux lardons topped with an egg, garlicky mussels with white wine sauce and a rich croque monsieur (grilled ham and cheese sandwich) were high notes.
The bartender: A disengaged young man who also waited tables. We had a hard time getting his attention, and he had a harder time getting our order straight.
Novita, 860 Franklin Ave., Garden City, 516-739-7660.
The scene: Dinner for two on a weeknight at a sleek Italian spot whose wine bar offers about 100 wines by the glass.
Food highlights: Very good mussels topped with so-so "crispy" fried artichokes. A special of lobster roll sliders suffered from too much mayonnaise, but a pasta of cavatelli with crumbled sausage, broccoli rabe, pine nuts and sun-dried tomato-herb butter was supernal.
The bartender: An attentive, and knowledgeable young woman who, on hearing our preferences, offered tastes of several wines and steered us to a Valpolicella I plan to drink wherever I can find it.
Taste, 660 Franklin Ave., Garden City, 516-663-5140.
