The hotel restaurant circuit on Long Island can be a culinary roller-coaster ride. One day, you're scaling the heights as you savor a delicate house-made ravioli in a fragrant broth, a specialty of a local Hyatt. The next thing you know, you're plummeting, as you face down an almost inedible tropical shrimp Cobb salad, such as the one recently encountered at a Hilton branch. It's an eccentric dining scene, one that both confirms and refutes the stereotype of suburban hotel restaurants as bland
and careless places.
Decidedly, this is not the white-hot hotel food arena of Manhattan, home to spots such as L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon at the Four Seasons and Alain Ducasse at the Jumeirah Essex House. In fact, the majority of Long Island dining rooms with bedrooms upstairs operate well under the radar, servicing a predominantly business-oriented demographic or guests coming in for a weekend wedding or bar mitzvah.
"Most of our clientele are domestic travelers, not from Long Island," said Michael Bonawandt, director of sales and marketing at the Hyatt Regency Long Island in Hauppauge, which underwent a major renovation last year that included a restaurant overhaul. These days, Bonawandt said, the restaurant is targeting a larger following among locals. "In the past year, we have given our chefs more creativity and all the necessary essentials -- the trendy space,
the unique plateware, the correct atmosphere," he said. Future plans include a "cook and learn" program as well as a series of wine dinners.
Attracting diners
It's been a real challenge for the Residence Inn by Marriott in Plainview to attract locals to its out-of-the way location on a residential side street, but the house restaurant, Baldino's, has steadily built a following. "Four years ago, we started out with no street presence," said executive chef Robert Cahill, adding that, in recent months, the place has seen
several fully booked Saturday nights.
On the other end of the spectrum is the highly visible Garden City Hotel, one of the Island's premier hostelries. The independently owned hotel offers two restaurant choices, Rein Bar & Bistro, and Polo. Vice president of sales and marketing Brian Rosenberg describes Rein as "our version of an all-purpose bistro," serving "power" breakfasts and lunches as well as dinner. "Polo caters to upscale dining and that's it," Rosenberg said. Significantly, both places feature
the cooking of Belgian-born chef Stephen de Bruyn. A high-profile chef, said Rosenberg, draws in food-savvy business travelers who might otherwise opt to stay in the city.
The buzz is the thing
The names of chefs at most larger hotels aren't bandied about by local restaurant devotees. Instead, the hotel must rely on its energy, said Bonawandt, pointing out that a hotel is a place bustling with activity.
But that doesn't always work, since hotel restaurants can be dead quiet, especially on weekends, when the business crowds have checked out. This, however, can work in the diner's favor: When a reservation is hard to get anywhere else, the top table at a local hotel may be waiting.
A case in point is Tru North Martini Bar and Grille at Courtyard by Marriott in Ronkonkoma, site of a surprisingly good dinner that began with an appetizer of grilled baby lamb chops. Right now, the entire concept of the place is under revision, according to Frank D'Andrea, director of hotel sales, who said that chef Stevan Mezzolesta's menu will shortly switch from New American to Italian. Still, staples, such as those lamb chops, a burger and a steak, will remain. "We're bringing in a pizza oven," D'Andrea said, noting that pasta also will be prominent on the new menu.
Worth checking out, perhaps, one Saturday night when there's not a table to be had at Mama Lombardi's.
