Columbus Day: 4 restaurants where you can celebrate
Capellini with crab-meat sauce at Mario's in Hauppauge. Credit: Doug Young
Christopher Columbus and his crew had a pretty basic diet before they reached the Bahamas.
Some seafood, salted meat, beans, breads, and soup were among the staples for the long trip. No tricolor salad, no hot antipasto, definitely no eggplant Parmigiana.
But celebrate his discoveries with a taste of worlds old and new. Here are a few places where Columbus and company would have had a good time.
Steve's Piccola Bussola (649 Old Country Rd., Westbury; 516-333-1335 and Steve's Piccola Bussola II (41 Jericho Tpke., Syosset; 516-364-8383 serve heroic portions, family-style dishes and enough flavor to quell any mutiny. Consider stuffed artichokes, grilled octopus, seafood salad, spiedino alla Romana, shrimp oreganata, linguine with clam sauce, rigatoni Bolognese, and chicken campagnola with sausages and potatoes.
Carnival (4900 Nesconset Hwy., Port Jefferson Station; 631-473-9772) could feed three ships of seamen with pasta with lentils, pasta e fagioli, pork chops with vinegar peppers, zuppa di pesce, seafood salad, platters of cheeses and cured meats, plus enough calamari to make squid an endangered species.
Restaurant Mario (644 Vanderbilt Motor Pkwy, Hauppauge) comes through with trenette al pesto, sure to please the Genovese explorer. The navigator also might have enjoyed fish soup, or brodetto; and linguine with frutta di mare. And for the huskier appetites on board: tripe alla Napoletana.
