Haviland Kitchen & Bar opens in East Rockaway
Wagyu beef in puff pastry with ginger ketchup at Haviland Kitchen & Bar, a new restaurant in East Rockaway. Credit: Haviland Kitchen & Bar/Haviland Kitchen & Bar
When Victor LaPlaca and his wife Melinda were searching for a name for their new East Rockaway restaurant, everything was grist for the mill, including the town’s old grist mill. It dates back to 1688, is considered by some to be the oldest building in Nassau County, survives today as a museum and was built by a man named Joseph … Haviland. There can’t be many eateries named for grist mills, and it’s not hard to imagine why, but it’s also not hard to imagine why this one should be. After all, Haviland’s place was once the most happening in town.
"It became a center for commerce, a place for people to come and hang out and mill their grains," said LaPlaca, whose Haviland Kitchen & Bar opened in December and — wouldn’t you know it? — almost instantly became a site of congregation for villagers. A recent Saturday evening saw the attractive, 50-seat dining room packed, word having already gotten out about 49-year-old chef LaPlaca, whose career as a cook began at Michael’s Porthole in East Rockaway and has now come full circle — a gigantic circle, one that included stops in Vegas, Boston, Tokyo, the Queen Mary 2 and lots of other places. Most recently, he was the chef at Manhattan’s NeueHouse, a sort of shared workspace … for people who can afford to have a chef on-site.
"When I lost my job" — in March, 2020 — "I was like, do I really want to go back into the city and start from scratch?" Of course he didn’t, countered Don Poland, a friend from way back in LaPlaca’s Porthole days, now a schoolteacher. What he and Poland really wanted to do — along with their wives — was birth a comfortable gathering spot, "a place where I can do good food, approachable food," LaPlaca said. "Food that’s elevated, but doesn’t isolate or alienate people."
Roasted oysters Rockaway at Haviland Kitchen & Bar in East Rockaway. Credit: Haviland Kitchen & Bar
If diners wanted pigs in a blanket, he would give them Wagyu beef in puffed pastry with a side of gingery ketchup ($14), a yummy idea well-executed. Oysters Rockefeller would make way for oysters Rockaway ($18), its spinach goosed with jalapeño-maple bacon. He knew there was no plate of lamb spare ribs that couldn’t be improved by a puddle of whipped goat cheese and cup of cucumber salad ($16), and that a veal-pork-beef sauce could grace the humble rigatoni Bolognese without the dish forgetting what it is ($25).
"These are things that I love to cook and eat myself, things I’ve always thought people would want," said LaPlaca. "And by the looks of it, they do."
Haviland Kitchen & Bar is at 43 Main St. in East Rockaway, 516-612-4545, havilandkitchen.com. Opening hours are Wednesday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday. A Sunday brunch service is planned to begin in Feb.
Newsday writer and restaurant critic Scott Vogel aims for a refreshing, gimlet-eyed take on the Long Island food scene, often while drinking a refreshing gimlet.
