Feature Article

Saturday, November 4, 2006
Tips by: Peter King
70 Restaurants Offer $21.95 Specials

Don't fill up on junk food this weekend. You may be eating out a lot this week. Beginning tomorrow and running through next Sunday, more than 70 local restaurants are offering a special $21.95 prix-fixe dinner every night. The promotion is part of Long Island Restaurant Week, as restaurants from Floral Park to Montauk Point, from Freeport's Nautical Mile to Oyster Bay's Gold Coast promote their cuisine and service.

"Every restaurateur says, 'If I can just get clients in here, I know our service and our food will shine,'" said Stephen Haweeli, organizer of Long Island Restaurant Week. Haweeli has run several Hamptons Restaurant Weeks, but this is the first time he has taken the promotion Island-wide. "We saw how well it benefited the entire restaurant community in the Hamptons and figured it was a natural extension." The restaurants participating run the gamut from steakhouses to seafood bistros to Italian family restaurants. You will find traditional restaurants such as Gurney's Inn in Montauk and Dick & Dora's in Massapequa and trendy nightspots such as Four Food Studio in Melville and Della Femina in East Hampton. For a full list, go to longislandrestaurantweek.com.

Every prix-fixe menu is different because the idea is to showcase each restaurant's cuisine. There are some ground rules: The restaurants must offer a choice of at least three appetizers, three entrees and several desserts. The prix-fixe dinner menu will be offered each night until closing time, except for Saturday, Nov. 11, when it will be offered until 7 p.m.

Michael Bohlsen, co-owner of Tellers Chophouse in Islip, knows he will lose money on the prix-fixe menu. "It's a way of opening doors," Bohlsen said. "We hope to get customers who haven't been here for a while or customers who haven't been here before." The expectation is these customers will become regulars. Bohlsen may change his menu as the week progresses, but befitting a steakhouse, he will be offering some steaks.

Despite the bite to the bottom line, the restaurants are enthusiastically participating. "You hope to give people who might not ordinarily come the opportunity to enjoy your place," said Jay Grossman, owner of Four Food Studio. For diners, it is a chance to sample food from some of the best restaurants on Long Island. "The only disappointment would be if people didn't take advantage of this opportunity," Grossman said. "If I wasn't in the business, I'd be hitting a different restaurant every night."