Long Island Restaurant Week to Start Sunday

Several Huntington restaurants are participating in Long Island Restaurant Week, which starts Sunday and extends through the following Sunday.

Amid the pandemic, organizers have made a few changes to the popular tri-annual promotion to give restaurants more flexibility. In the past, all participating restaurants offered a three-course prix-fixe dinner menu for one price; most recently, the price was $32.95. This time around, restaurants can choose to offer a $25 three-course dinner menu, a $35 three-course dinner menu, or both. In addition, restaurants can also offer a $20 two-course prix-fixe lunch for the first time.

Honu Kitchen & Cocktails  on New York Avenue, a long-time participant in the promotion, is once again taking part.

“It’s usually a great event for us,” said Ryan Taylor, general manager of Honu, which is offering the $35 prix-fixe dinner option and, like many of the participating restaurants, has some outdoor seating.

Other restaurants offering the $35 menu include Konoba Huntington  on Gerard Street, Piccola Bussola on Jericho Turnpike and Pico Mondo (piccolomondoli.com) on East Jericho Turnpike.

Prime: An American Kitchen and Bar on New York Avenue has opted for the $20 prix-fixe lunch.

“We saw an opportunity to highlight our lunch price-fixed menu while also supporting a promotion that brings a lot of business to many Long Island restaurants who have been struggling this year,” said Michael Bohlsen, co-owner of the Bohlsen Restaurant Group, which includes Prime.

Elsewhere in the Town of Huntington, participating restaurants include Harbor Mist  on Route 25A in Cold Spring Harbor and La Piazza Italiana Cucina & Wine Bar  on Walt Whitman Road in Melville, both of which are offering the $20 lunch and the $35 dinner. Ruvo  on Broadway in Greenlawn has the $35 dinner.

In order to participate, restaurants have to offer the promotion throughout the eight days, except they may opt to exclude the period on Saturday night from 7 p.m. until closing if they wish.

The event website details which restaurants are participating and which menu they are offering.

Because of the pandemic, fewer restaurants than usual have signed up, said Steve Haweeli, president of Long Island Restaurant & Marketing Hospitality Group, the event’s organizer.

“Some restaurants have closed,” Haweeli said. “Others are small” and therefore have less flexibility to participate with the constraints of the 50 percent capacity limit, he said.

About 70 restaurants had signed up as of Tuesday, down from more than 200 in years past. But Haweeli said many restaurants tend to come on board in the final days leading up to the promotion. 

 

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