Review: Foster in Sea Cliff

With minimal signage and a clubby atmosphere, Foster is almost too contemporary for the picturesque village of Sea Cliff. But that's part of the charm. 

Jason and Tanya Potter met in Manhattan’s restaurant trenches and went on to revitalize one of the Sea Cliff's longest-running culinary acts, Metropolitan Bistro. Before the pandemic, Jason was the corporate executive chef at the New York-based Blue Ribbon restaurant group. And his wife Tanya was an executive at Empire Merchants, a leading wine and liquor distributor. The Sea Cliff residents took the reins from previous owners Anita and Billy Long, and in 2022 renamed the restaurant after Jason's grandfather, Foster Dixon Potter. 

Foster's interior is tavern-chic. There’s a comfortable dining room, one bar for cocktails and another set up with the best seats in the house: looking into the open kitchen that features a wood-fired pizza oven and a wood-fired grill.

The menu wears its other modern bona fides lightly. Yes, Foster sources as much local fish, meat and produce as possible; yes, the menu changes seasonally; yes, it's international. Starter highlights include miso bone marrow with house-baked challah bread, and a creamy ranch salad of fresh pea greens and crumbled potato chips. 

The pizzas ($19 to $24) are a worldly assortment, with toppings like cevapi sausage and kajmak cheese (a riff on the food of the Balkans) and another with pancetta and Korean kimchi. The dough is sturdy enough to hold the ideas, but if you're into pizza, it would be better to visit another Newsday Top 50 restaurant, The Onion Tree, down the street.

Dabble instead with the grill, which fires a Berkshire pork chop with rhubarb jam ($38) and a Foster burger with aioli, arugula, caramelized onions and Gruyère $25.

You'll have the best experience if you take a group and share a bunch of the small plates, leaning heavily into the vast assortment of Asian-inflected specials. Together they scream "chef" with a capital C. 

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