Tag Archives: long island wineries

Love Lane: Mattituck, LI

5 Jan

After our wonderful adventure exploring the wineries in Long Island, Lori suggested we do dinner at one of her favorites, Love Lane Kitchen.

We didn’t have reservations, so they told us it would be about 30 minutes.

Luckily, right next door was Love Lane Market… and I love me a market. (I think they may be owned by the same people, but I’m not positive)

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They stock their shelves with great ingredients, many of which I am familiar with and some new ones.  It reminded me of a little Eataly.

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But with a bit more personal touch.

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I have this odd love for these types of chairs. I THINK the top is what they use to form horse saddles, but I could be making that up.

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Even their tiled floor was cool.

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I REALLY wanted to try the rotisserie duck, but we wouldn’t be able to eat it before I was off on a trip. Lori and her ABF got on though and said it was great.

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They even had a selection of homemade pastas.

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And homemade mozzarella.

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As well as a wood fire pizza oven in the back.

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This is the type of market that I wish would open up near me in Manhattan.  But it was just perfect in this little Long Island town, on Love Lane.

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As soon as we got out of the market, Love Lane Kitchen was calling our names.  We sat down and immediately dove into some delicious, fluffy rolls.

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We began with a calamari salad.  It’s refreshing to have calamari that isn’t fried and this was delicious, with a dressing that brought out all the great flavors.

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Mike, shockingly, got the cheeseburger.  Since it was devoured before I even remember picking up my fork, I’ll assume he enjoyed it.

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Lori got the skirt steak.  I tried some (without the sauce) and it was juicy and perfectly cooked.  It also had a nice char on it, so the flavor was great.

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Lori’s ABF chose the short ribs.  Oh these were good.  They were so tender and the sauce was a perfect compliment.

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I went with the pork belly with a slow cooked egg.  This was cooked to perfection, with both crunchy bits and the melty soft fats that make pork belly oh so good.

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And boy oh boy do I love eggs. It was on top of a radicchio (I think) which is usually a bit too bitter for me, but with the sweet of the pork and the egg yolk, it was delish!

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As if we weren’t indulgent enough, we split THREE desserts.  We got the cheesecake, the apple pie, and the chocolate pecan pie.  All three were good, but nothing was outstanding.  And I was too full to even look at another bite.

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Though the pumpkin cheesecake did just keep on calling out to me… “just one more bite!”

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Love Lane Kitchen was a perfect end to a perfect day.  Great, home style food cooked with love and attention.  Everything was scrumptious and I would love to go back to try more.

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

For Lori’s take on our meal at Love Lane Kitchen, visit her blog here.

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Long Island Wineries

3 Jan

Lori, from StuffIAte, has been telling me about the virtues of the wineries in Long Island for years.  I was skeptical.

Could decent wine come out of Long Island?  I don’t know what I was picturing, but it sure wasn’t this…

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Our first stop was Lori and her Awesome Boyfriend’s favorite, Clovis Point.  We actually had a Groupon for a tasting and then glass of your choice with a cheese plate.  It was just about to expire (whoops!), so we decided to head out the week after Thanksgiving. (YAY for off season!)

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We tried the full menu and I was really impressed.  I enjoyed all the wines on the list.

I actually really got into Chardonnay (and Pinot Noir) when Mike and I were in Napa. I didn’t think I was a Chardonnay person, but turns out you can make a damn good Chardonnay if you know what you’re doing.  We all wound up taking some bottles of Chardonnay home, but I especially enjoyed the barrel fermented one.

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And so I drank it (and took home a bottle… or two)

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The cheese plate was a good little snack in the middle of the afternoon with the wine. And there is a lovely tented area outside nearer to the vineyard (Lori told us it’s open during the nicer weather).

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Cheers!

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I usually don’t post photos of people on the blog, but I think this picture of Lori and her ABF is just too cute not to post.

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The day was young, so we decided to head to another winery.  As it turns out, most of the wineries are within a few minute drive of each other.  It actually really reminded me of a little Napa.  It was quaint and homey and come on… vineyards!

Our second winery was Pindar.

There was a lovely windmill outside and the sun was just setting.

(Photo courtesy of Mike)

While the vineyard seemed lovely, I was not impressed by the tasters who didn’t care to explain anything and seemed to want to be left alone as much as possible.  I didn’t really LOVE the wine there and I wound up taking NO pictures. Whoops!

Our last stop of the night was at Duck Walk vineyard.  This is probably the best known LI winery, however, we went to the one on the North Fork, which was supposed to be “smaller.”  I can’t image what the “bigger” one looks like because this was was bea-u-ti-ful.

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The inside of the tasting room had these awesome chandeliers

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And really put us in the holiday spirit.

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And a lovely aquarium.

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The staff at this tasting were splendid, adding a lot of color to the tasting and just being all around nice people.  The cute guy serving us was talking about how he just can’t find a “nice girl,” so that’s your cue single female readers. Head out to Duck Walk in the North Fork to find your wine loving mate.

We wound up falling in love with their dessert wines.  It was all good, but there was something special about their late harvest Gewurztraminer called Aphrodite.  We also really enjoyed (and also took home) their Blueberry Port.

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Our trip out to Long Island was an eye opener. It was so beautiful and so lovely, I can’t believe we didn’t do it before.  We also had a lovely dinner at Love Lane Kitchen (post to come) that just made me fall in love with the area even more.  I can’t wait to go back.

Thanks Lori!

Check out Lori’s post about Clovis Point Winery and her photos of Briermere Farms, where we really enjoyed but I forgot to take pictures.

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