First bite: Amicale in Huntington Station
Sign at Amicale, new Huntington Station that replaces Panama Hatties. (May 2011) Credit: Peter Gianotti
Amicale has been open a few months. Now, the full menus are in place and the overhaul is complete. In short: go and enjoy.
The successor to Panama Hatties is a first-class restaurant, as you'd expect from owner-chef George Echeverria, who earned three stars at the departed Soigne in Woodmere.
He has fashioned a dining room that suggests the opulence of a different decade. Service is outstanding. And the kitchen neatly balances the contemporary and the traditional. This is a spot for grown-ups.
Standouts so far include shellfish cocktails, a Thai-style shrimp salad, a combo of grilled octopus and jumbo lump crabmeat on tostones, filet mignon au poivre, mustard-crusted rack of lamb, pork loin with cherry peppers and portobello mushrooms, and a rich goat cheese-and-potato souffle. The white-chocolate cheesecake arrives on a caramel stand. Presentation counts here.
Price range for main courses is $20.95 to $35.95; pastas, $19.95 to $24.95; appetizers, soups and salads, $8.95 to $15.95, with a foie gras opener for $22.95.
Amicale also is introducing a $32.95, three-course surf-or-turf menu for the summer. Entree choices include steamed Maine lobster, lobster thermidor, lobster ravioli in pink sauce, beef Wellington, prosciutto-wrapped filet mignon with a roasted shallot-red wine sauce, and the pan-roasted filet mignon au poivre.
Amicale, 872 E. Jericho Tpke., Huntington Station; 631-351-1727.
