Farm-to-table restaurant Rustic Root opens in Woodbury
A salad of roasted beets with Greek yogurt, pickled Swiss chard, black olives and pistachios is a seasonal special at Rustic Root in Woodbury. Credit: Newsday / Erica Marcus
Woodbury is hardly Long Island’s most rustic town, but its newest restaurant, Rustic Root, wears its countrified mantle with ease. Located in a corner of Woodbury Village shopping center (where Laguna Grille used to be), it’s an earth-toned venue of reclaimed wood and exposed light bulbs, with whimsical touches such as room dividers made from rolling pins — and useful touches such as purse hooks, electrical outlets and USB ports hidden under the bar.
Rustic Root brings together three seasoned restaurateurs: Keith Giannadeo and Jim Rehm, owners of Zim Zari California Coastal Grill in Massapequa Park, have teamed up with chef Tom Gloster, formerly of Lula Trattoria in Mineola and Rothmann’s Steakhouse in East Norwich.
Gloster’s menu is an on-trend collection of New American, Mediterranean-inflected re-imagined comfort classics. Starters, $8 to $13, include deviled eggs with caviar; mushroom flatbread with ricotta, pecorino and a sunnyside-up egg; grits with duck confit and Cheddar cheese. Mains, $26 to $38, include chicken breast with Swiss chard and chickpea fries; halibut with spring onion, snap peas, mushrooms and potatoes; rib-eye with bone marrow herb crust.
The lunch menu emphasizes salads and sandwiches, the most expensive of which is a grass-fed burger, $16, with cheese from Sprout Creek Farm creamery in Poughkeepsie, and vinegar fries.
There is a real emphasis on vegetables. Daily specials can include a salad of roasted beets with Greek yogurt, pickled chard stems, black olives and pistachios; watermelon-feta salad with watercress and pickled onions; asparagus with roasted garlic; roasted mushrooms; fingerling potatoes; spinach; Swiss chard (from MarGene organic farm in Mattituck); celery root puree. Regular menu items: roasted carrots; frisee salad; and tomato salad with burrata, sorrel and pine nuts.
Rustic Root is open for dinner seven nights a week. Starting June 18 it also will be open for brunch and lunch.
Rustic Root is at 7927 Jericho Tpke., Woodbury; 516-364-5041, rusticrootkitchen.com
