Two25 Italian restaurant opens in Locust Valley

And now for something completely different: For more than 45 years, the Locust Valley Inn served German-tinged continental cuisine in a homey, faux-Tudor building, its workaday modesty a seeming rebuke to its location in one of America’s toniest towns. But, as of April, the re-christened Two25 has new owners (the Capobianco family), a sleek new look and an Italian menu that is a lot more cacio e pepe than alla vodka.

Executive chef Joe Balbo cooked in Italy before running the kitchens at Porto Vivo in Huntington and a number of other Long Island restaurants. Balbo’s sous chef, Julius Miranda, was the chef at Meritage in Glen Cove and, until it closed earlier this year, Casarecce in Bellmore.

“There are a lot of chicken Parm places on Long Island — they’re great, I was a partner at two of them — but here the Italian food is more influenced by Italy," Balbo said. "I am making everything from scratch, the bread, the dessert, the fresh pasta.”

In a very Italian move, the kitchen gives vegetables their due, from salads such as radicchio (fresh and grilled) with Asian pear, fennel, guanciale and Gorgonzola; and roasted beets with baby carrots, ricotta salata and pistachio emulsion to fried artichokes with crispy lemons, baked eggplant Parmesan and fried zucchini blossoms. The pastas are divided into two categories (as they would be in Italy). Among pasta fresca selections are fettuccine with beef sugo, raviolo filled with an egg yolk and served atop spinach in a mushroom-truffle brodo, and burrata-filled agnolotti with lobster and pesto. Pasta secca (dry) is represented by bucatini cacio e pepe, paccheri alla carbonara and linguine vongole.

Balbo is not constrained by Italian tradition, though. Antipasti include smoked Calabrese baby back ribs with ’nduja and bacon-onion jam, sausage-broccoli rabe wontons and tuna tartare with avocado and balsamic “pearls.” And, along with classic tagliata di manzo (a 22-ounce cowboy steak), veal chop and chicken Milanese, he serves a pan-seared halibut with chive-lobster risotto, a braised short rib with parsnip puree, roasted chicken breast with polenta, broccoli rabe and blistered tomatoes.

From 4:30 to 6:30 on Monday through Thursday, Two25 has an “apertivo” special: Cocktails such as negronis, martinis, Aperol spritzes and Manhattans are $9, and there’s a terrific selection of salumi, cheese and small plates. These dishes also present a good opportunity to explore the deep wine list, full of little-seen Italian treasures.

Two25, 225 Birch Hill Rd., Locust Valley; open from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, until 10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; 516-676-5377, two25restaurant.com