Newsday: Restaurants Lifestyle
Sophia Italian Bistro review: Former Luigi Q chef stars again at Amityville spot
Author: Peter M. Gianotti
Date published: November 5, 2015 @3:12PM
Publisher: Newsday
Original article: http://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/restaurants/sophia-italian-bistro-review-former-luigi-q-chef-stars-again-at-amityville-spot-1.11032845?pts=433802
The first hint: those long, hot Italian peppers.
A fiery opener, they're finished with pepperoncini, pan-roasted garlic and extra-virgin olive oil, and guaranteed to awaken any appetite. Diners may remember the explosive flavor from Luigi Q, the excellent Italian restaurant in Hicksville.
Enrique Bermeo has made sure they give off sparks in Amityville. Bermeo cooked at Luigi Q, and his soulful dishes often are just as vivid here. He joins Richie Sanseverino, a veteran of Tesoro in Westbury, to unveil this very welcome newcomer.
They took over the former site of Villa Avanzo, refurbishing and retooling the old spot Sophia Italian Bistro arrives warm and welcoming, with exposed brick and polished wood, but more so because it has a genuine personality. Never pretentious, dependably satisfying, it's a restaurant where you could eat once a week and be very content.
So, start by sharing those peppers and balance the heat with some good bread. Cool off with the glistening seafood salad of well-dressed shrimp, scallops, squid and octopus. Turn a little more contemporary with a lustrous tuna carpaccio, accented with lime and ginger.
The kitchen sends out hearty eggplant rico, with fresh ricotta, mozzarella and a quickly cooked tomato sauce. Baked clams oreganata: reliable. Likewise, fried calamari. But the hefty stuffed artichoke arrives with more than a few singed petals.
Spinach ravioli, light and tasty, are sauced with fresh plum tomatoes. Orecchiette oronzina translate into respectable pasta tossed with broccoli rabe, cannellini beans, Gaeta olives, sun-dried tomatoes and sausage. The sauce for the gnocchi at pesto tastes delicious, but the gnocchi are heavyweights. Cortecce, similar to oversize cavatelli, have the right texture, but the eggplant-driven sauce is surprisingly bland.
Seaside, chef Bermeo excels with baked Dover sole, simply prepared with white wine and lemon; and snapper alla Livornese, emboldened by capers, olives, onions and tomato sauce. Whole roasted branzino swims in moist and light, with herbs, garlic and lemon.
Bermeo also prepares a juicy pork chop, atop hot cherry peppers and caramelized onions; and a diverting, first-class roasted Long Island duck, glistening from an orange-infused demi-glace.
On the side, with these or any other main course, try the baby spinach with cherry peppers, broccoli rabe with garlic and olive oil, or escarole with white beans and garlic.
The obligatory desserts are cheesecake and cannoli. Each is easy to recommend, just like Sophia Italian Bistro.
