BLOG: Kitchen A Trattoria – Italian Food For The North Shore Masses

I’ll admit it…there are restaurants that once I find them I don’t want to tell anyone. Small, perfect, and so good you wish you never had to wait or battle for reservations. You could just waltz in, have an amazing meal, and head out. I dream what it would like to be born in the 60’s and have a welcome spot at Rao’s in East Harlem, where tables are passed down like family heirlooms. But alas I wasn’t and now having never been to Rao’s, I probably never will. But, luckily I live only a short drive from, in my opinion, one of the best Italian spots on Long Island’s North Shore – the enigmatic, yet amazingly delicious, Kitchen A Trattoria.

Originally the home of Kitchen A Bistro, which moved down the street to a bigger location in 2009, Kitchen A Trattoria still offers diners Kitchen A’s original hole-in-the-wall feel. It’s BYOW, cash only, and if it’s cold out they let you wait in your car if you don’t have a reservation. The restaurant only seats about 30 people but is one of the most desirable places to eat on the North Shore. Stemming from owner and executive chef Eric Lomando’s desire for “a good bowl of pasta,” the menu features simple, delicious Italian/American classics.

With two bottles in hand, a Montepulciano and a Portuguese red, we were seated at one of the best two tops in the small space- slightly behind the kitchen and away from the large party tables. At $35 per person, the three-course prix fixe is hard to beat. My wife and I played around with our options and were able to get an antipasta, a small and large plate “primi,” a “secondi,” and dessert.

We began with their fresh ricotta on warm bread. Oh, man, do I love ricotta. There’s a wonderful lightness to ricotta done well. It pleases yet excites your palate for what’s to come. We popped the cork to our wine and were instantly transported to the Italian countryside.

Soon we were presented our antipasti, the Grapefruit-Fennel Scallops. It was three simple ingredients done perfectly. My wife was instantly in love. “Seriously…no, seriously….these are some of the best scallops I’ve had in a WHILE.” The wonderful thing about the Trattoria’s cooking is that it’s straightforward. They’re not trying to wow anyone, just they're cooking expertly prepared food.

Next we moved to our pasta dishes, Spaghetti All’Amatriciana and Pappardelle Bolognese. What amazed us with both our pasta dishes was the expertly cooked al dente pasta. It’s tricky to cook pasta that well, but they nailed it. The only unfortunate moment occurred with the Spaghetti that was too oversalted for our palate.

Nearly popping from our previous courses, we received our “Secondi,” Hake with Chard and a Tomato Pesto. I was apprehensive of this dish when my wife ordered it, but it surprised me. I wasn’t sure how the chard would go with the Hake, but it actually complemented the fish’s buttery texture well, providing a woodsy flavor and a little heft to an otherwise light dish.

Lastly, we ended our meal with a Chocolate Rum Cake and Apple Tartlet. I was dubbed the winner with this course. Although the Rum Cake was good it didn’t beat out the Tartlet’s brown sugared crumble crust and warm baked apples. If only I could cook like that at home.

After the meal, I was fortunate enough to chat with the Trattoria’s chef, Steve Gallagher. Even though he was wearing a Red Sox hat, he assured me he was born and raised in the area. After cooking in different restaurants across the country, he landed in Kitchen A Bistro cooking with Lomando.

Now that Lomando has his hands full with his new restaurant Orto in Miller Place, Gallagher has been holding down the fort at the Trattoria. “We really try to cook good food at a reasonable price point,” commented the chef. When I asked him where he gets his ingredients, I was surprised when he said Setauket Seafood and the local St. James butcher shop, Mercep Brothers. “We’ve developed some great relationships with those guys and they have great products.

When it comes down to it, good Italian food is all about simplicity. Good ingredients prepared well. Nothing else. This is exactly what Lomando and Gallagher are doing at the Trattoria, and if you don’t mind waiting in the parking lot, completely worth experiencing….just remember: cash only, bring wine.