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After a year-long, badly-needed hiatus, Armand LaMacchia has reopened his beloved Italian restaurant on Noyac Road in Noyac.
“I hadn’t taken a vacation in 20 years,” Mr. LaMacchia said. “So I took it all at once.”
Mr. LaMacchia closed up Armand’s last year after 20 years in business and rented it to a Thai food restaurant, although his pizza selection was still available for take-out. He said that he did not do much during that year, except relax, think and reflect.
After that year passed, Mr. LaMacchia realized that he missed the restaurant business and opened the doors of Armand’s once again to its throngs of devotees in late March.
“I’m doing it again for the first time,” he said, referring to a Kellogg’s cereal commercial from the 1980s.
Business has been encouraging since, Mr. LaMacchia said, noting that the Italian staples at his restaurant attract locals and summer people alike. Many year-round East Enders hang out at the establishment in the winter, he said, noting that having a fireplace in the dining room most likely makes the restaurant even more inviting during the winter months.
Jill Rappaport of NBC’s “Today Show” loves Armand’s, and recently had her birthday party there.
“The people in the neighborhood just love this place,” said Ms. Rappaport, who owns a ranch in Water Mill. “It’s my home away from home and that’s how so many people felt.”
Mr. LaMacchia agreed with Ms. Rappaport. Beyond the stellar cuisine, he said, the restaurant is a place “people like saying hello to each other.”
He suggested that the friendly, cozy atmosphere in the restaurant comes, at least in part, from the homemade food on the menu. It’s all traditional Italian meals—the kind a family would eat together on a Sunday afternoon.
For example, Mr. LaMacchia and his kitchen staff serve up pasta—either fusilli, spaghetti, fetuccine, penne, linguini, rigatoni and capellini—with a variety of sauces. Pasta dishes come with garlic knots, a favorite of Ms. Rappaport, and a garden salad.
A bowl of pasta with marinara sauce costs $17.95, or $19.95 with pesto or alfredo sauce.
Beyond the pasta dishes, Mr. LaMacchia also touted his veal and fish entrées.
The veal osso bucco, for $26.95, is a “falling off the bone” tender shank served in a southern Italian, hearty red sauce.
He also serves veal picatta, marsala and parmigiana, all for $23.95. All those dishes feature “top round veal.” For the picatta entrée, Mr. LaMacchia sautés the meat in a light butter, white wine, lemon and caper sauce; the veal marsala is served with mushrooms and marsala wine sauce.
The veal dishes also come with garlic knots and salad as well as a side of pasta with garlic and oil or marinara sauce or grilled vegetables and potatoes.
Ms. Rappaport said the salmon dinner is one of her favorites.
The salmon, for $23.95, is baked with butter, white wine and tarragon and lightly topped with bread crumbs.
The striped bass, which Mr. LaMacchia buys locally, is another entrée he’s particularly proud of.
Like the salmon, the bass is topped with butter, white wine and sprinkled with bread crumbs.
The menu is the same as before Mr. LaMacchia closed the restaurant, although over his year off he came up with a few new dishes he may introduce in the summer.
He has also hired a new chef to do baking for him. For those with room for dessert after their meals, Mr. LaMacchia recommends cannolis and chocolate mousse cake as just two standout dessert items available.
Mr. LaMacchia, who worked as a teacher in the Bridgehampton School District for 23 years before opening his restaurant, sees his establishment almost like a museum.
He puts so much effort into preparing the meals that they almost become works of art, and he considers it an honor when people eat them.
“It’s like they’re going to a museum and appreciating the art, appreciating the decoration,” he explained.
Between teaching in Bridgehampton and opening Armand’s, Mr. LaMacchia became a psychotherapist. Psychotherapy, he said, ties into how he runs his restaurant.
“Food is such an important part of our lives,” Mr. LaMacchia said.
Mr. LaMacchia learned the restaurant business during the summers off he had as a teacher, he said. In those years, he trained under Phil Mannino, the owner of O’Malley’s Restaurant on the North Fork, and Jack Tagliasacchi, who owns Il Capuccino in Sag Harbor.
Mr. LaMacchia also worked at the Meadow Club in Southampton.
Those jobs, in addition to his Italian upbringing, prepared him to run his Noyac restaurant.
Mr. LaMacchia is looking forward to the coming years he is in business—especially this summer, his big 21st summer, he said, and hopes to continue serving people well into the future.
“I don’t know how much longer I’ll keep doing this,” he said. “I hope I do it another 20 years.”
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