Foodstuffs: Restaurant Week and Chefs in Residence

Winter Restaurant Week on Long Island

The winter promotion of the tri-annual and award-winning Long Island Restaurant Week will take place from Sunday, January 29, to Sunday, February 5, and there are a number of prix fixe options on the menu. Restaurants may offer a $22 two-course lunch, a $27 three-course dinner menu, a $37 three-course dinner menu and/or a $44 three-course dinner prix fixe. Restaurants may offer one, two or all of these options throughout the promotion. Each participant is required to offer three options per course (appetizer, entrée, and dessert) for dinner. The promotion runs Sunday to Sunday (except Saturday night when it only has to be offered until 7 p.m.). Many restaurants will be offering the promotion for takeout as well as for indoor and outdoor dining.

“Our fall restaurant week saw the highest numbers yet post-COVID and we are excited to see more and more people coming out to enjoy this promotion,” said Nicole Castillo of Long Island Restaurant and Hospitality Group. “The winter promotion is the perfect excuse to get out in the quiet time of the year and visit that restaurant you have always been wanting to try.

“As our country is seeing rising interest rates and inflation, more and more people are on a budget this winter and a dining deal is just what many are looking for to get them out,” Castillo added. “Restaurant Week has been so successful over the years as it allows patrons to visit a restaurant they may have thought was out of their price range and after one visit during the promotion they have become fans.”

In 2020, the promotion was expanded with the goal of supporting restaurants in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis and offering more options to diners with varying budgets. These changes included price adjustments, now offering a lunch option and three price points for the dinner prix fixe.

Long Island Restaurant Week is a tri-annual event designed to garner positive publicity and additional business for the region’s restaurants. Since 2006, it has been an annual fall promotion until the first spring Long Island Restaurant Week was launched in April 2011 and then winter was added in January 2016, due to popular customer and restaurateur demand.

For a full list of participants and to view menus, visit longislandrestaurantweek.com.

On the East End, participating restaurants include Fauna in Westhampton Beach, Calissa in Water Mill, Page at 63 Main in Sag Harbor and Farm Country Kitchen and Bistro 72 in Riverhead.

The Roundtree Winter Culinary Series

Savor the season in Amagansett at The Roundtree Hotel’s first-ever culinary series. Beginning this month, a rotating slate of elite chefs and beverage experts are bringing a range of experiences to Rosie’s, the restaurant adjacent to The Roundtree, which is offering a tasteful winter culinary series. Highlights include pop-ups from Chef Doran Wong’s trio of restaurants, Junoon, a Michelin star recipient for eight years in a row, and renowned Chef Maria Loi. Tickets are available for specific slots throughout the evening of each events. For details visit theroundtreehotels.com/hotel-offers/savor-the-hamptons.

Here’s the schedule:

Wayla - Friday, January 20 and Saturday, January 21, 5:30 to 9 p.m.

Wayla is a popular Thai restaurant in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Chef Tom Naumsuwan offers a menu of Thai comfort food, combining his experience working alongside some of the top street market vendors in Bangkok, with local ingredients and a greenmarket sensibility.

$149 per ticket. The menu includes: mee krob salad (crispy rice vermicelli noodles, bitter orange, river prawn); tom kha hed (grilled lobster mushrooms, galangal, chili, coconut milk); gao lao nua yang (grilled ribeye, lemongrass, star anise, kaffir lime leaf); khao soy (seared salmon northern Thai curry, crispy noodles); and I-Tim (coconut ice cream, rice berry sauce).

Loi Estiatorio - Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28, 5:30 to 9 p.m.

Chef Maria Loi is an internationally renowned entrepreneur, author, television personality and philanthropist working to change the world — one healthy bite at a time. Known as the Julia Child of Greece, she is the founder and face of a lifestyle brand that nurtures a healthy body and soul and melds the inspiration of ancient Greece with a modern approach to the Mediterranean diet. In addition to her namesake Manhattan restaurant, Chef Loi is the author of more than 36 cookbooks and the host of a new show, The Life of Loi, on PBS.

$90 per ticket. The menu includes: bread service (yogurt flatbread, ladenia, feta-yogurt pougi, Greek olives); kotosoupa/chicken soup (orzo, lemon emulsion); pitaroudia/pies (petite spinach and cheese pies, talagani, fig compote); patzaria/beets (roasted baby beets, spicy feta, arugula, vinaigrette); papoutsakia/stuffed eggplant (vegetable medley, Greek yogurt, anthotyro cheese); and karnios/Greek stone bass (pan seared, cherry tomato, wild greens, herbs).

Bronson’s Burgers - Friday, February 3, and Saturday, February 4, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday, February 5, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Bronson’s Burgers is a neighborhood burger spot in Nolita with a crave-able menu of burgers and milkshakes. Besides the classic, an all-beef patty topped with caramelized onions, cheddar cheese and pickles, the menu includes a bacon burger with bacon marmalade and a veggie patty with chickpeas, lentils and black beans. Addictive fries and tempura onion rings are the must-order sides. Bronson’s shakes are always a crowd-pleaser — try the cookie butter crunch, peanut butter and jelly or matcha white chocolate. Or don’t choose and order them all.

A la carte menu includes: Bronson’s burger (caramelized onions, cheddar); Impossible doner burger (tzatziki sauce, sumac onions, pita); truffle prime strip burger (winter truffles, truffle cream, arugula); chopped cheese (chopped beef, grilled onions, jalapenos, mozzarella cheese);

veggie burger (chickpea, lentils, black beans, baby bella, beets, oats); and crispy chicken sandwich (spicy coleslaw, alfalfa sprouts, pickles)

Jia - Friday, February 10, and Saturday, February 11, 5:30 to 9 p.m.

Jia is the Chinese restaurant in Port Washington, New York. Jia offers classic dim sum dishes ranging from steamed and crispy small bites to larger plates like a Peking Duck Platter, Seafood Fried Rice and more. Executive Chef Kand Hu was previously the chef at Red Farm in NYC for nearly a decade.

$149 per ticket. Menu includes: Kumamoto oysters (uni, caviar, yuzu); signature crystal shrimp dumplings; Peking duck rolls (sliced cucumber, scallion, homemade wheat pancakes); Golden Packing Meat 16 oz bone-in strip steak; and fresh fruit plate.

Junoon - Thursday, February 16 to Sunday, February 19, 5:30 to 9 p.m.

Pioneering restaurant Junoon, whose authentic, elegantly modern style helped redefine Indian cuisine within the New York dining scene, has reopened in a new Flatiron location just a few steps from where it debuted over a decade earlier. Junoon retains the same elevated, innovative spirit that earned it a Michelin star every year since it opened in 2010, in a relaxed, more intimate space that complements the convivial menu.

$185 per ticket. Menu includes: “It,s Not An Egg” (mango sphere, coconut milk); sunchoke moilee (zucchini, hearts of palm, tamarind coconut moilee sauce); vegetable korma (cauliflower, carrots, paneer, cranberry, saffron walnut); and winter halwa (butternut squash, khoya, pistachio).

Alligator Pear - Friday, February 24, and Saturday, February 25, 5:30 to 9 p.m.

Chef Dominick Lee hails from New Orleans and built his fame in Houston where he worked as the executive chef at Poitin Bar & Kitchen, a restaurant showcasing eclectic American cuisine. Under Lee’s culinary direction, the vibrant eatery was named one of the Top Restaurants Of 2019 by Texas Monthly Magazine and also earned him a rising star chef recognition from Eater. His latest foray into cooking has him exploring upscale Creole cuisine which will be reflected in his first New York restaurant Alligator Pear, opening this spring.

$125 per ticket. Menu includes: crispy maitake mushrooms (sauce persillade, dill pickles); New Orleans BBQ lobster (NOLA barbecue sauce, chive oil, crispy garlic); blackened ribeye (ribeye cap skewer, melted leeks, allium oil); and sno-ball (New Orleans style shaved ice, natural sassafras root extract).