In the car we went, me, my wife and our sidekick Benson, the black lab. He always sniffs the right direction, especially when it is close to the water.

We heard about this new restaurant in Hampton Bays and figured that today was the ideal day to go, before the Jitneys, wanna be surfers, wanna be actors, star gazers and vacationing teachers hit the roads.

As soon as we walked through the doors of this cool looking eatery with attached light house, we were cheerfully greeted and seated in a comfortable, open dining room with clean wood floors, crisp linens and fresh flowers on the table.

After the very sweet server came to our table to take our drink order she materialized back bearing a basket of warm, fresh, homeade Portuguese rolls. They were lightly crunchy on the outside, warm, soft and delicious on the inside and seems to stay heated for 15 min. These were truly a fresh artisinal bread.

The menu choices seemed simple but after a simple roll made me coo coo I knew that I was in for a treat.

The hot appetizers consisted of fried mozzarella, fried zucchini strips, fried calamari, baked clams and daily specials. The cold appetizers consist of cold antipasto, seafood salad, shrimp cocktail and fresh mizzarella with grilled veggies.

Some of the entrees are Seafood Fra Diavlo, Grilled Salmon, Paella, Duck, Veal, Chicken parm and a few pasta dishes.

We had the Ziti Senhora with a tomato cream sauce, baby shrimp and peas and the Linguine with Fresh Clams and Shrimp in a White Clam Sauce.

We decided to keep it simple and so glad we did. The dishes were not simple at all. The flavors were complex with delicious flavors, textures and the aroma tied it all together.

Both dishes were cooked to perfection. I have been to so many places that over cook the pasta or even under cook it. It’s not that difficult people. It’s pasta.

The rigatoni a la senhora was not smothered in sauce but just enough to soak up a few of those delicious rolls. The sauce was sweet, creamy and blended perfectly. There was an ample amount of shrimp and the peas were fresh and delicious.

The linguine dish had fresh shucked clams, baby shrimp and a light broth. Enough broth to soak up those damn rolls again.

For dessert there were cakes, creme brulee and the canolli. the famous, or soon to be famous, canolli.

This was a fresh, not pre-filled canolli over flowing with a homeade sweet delicious canolli cream. When I saw over flowing I mean it looked like a mini dumbell on my plate.

Crazy……The way this review went looks as though I work there or have some vested interest in it. not at all.

I do try to find the things that are wrong, missing and could be worked on and with this place I really didn’t find much.

I would have used homeade fresh butter instead of those little hard gold bars but that’s about the only issue I had with this place that I would change. In fact I’m kind of shocked myself.

The service, the decor, the ambiance and the food were all excellent.

Ciao Bella is the creation of Chef Americo Araujo, previous owner of Il Miradoro in Port Jefferson. If you have been to Il Miradoro your reaction may have been the same as mine was. “I can’t believe you guys were associated with that place.”

As they say, change is good. In this particular case……change is very good.

“Lombardi’s Market is a gourmet market offering a wide selection of gourmet food and food gifts with an exceptional selection of domestic, imported and private label artisanal products. Some our fine selections of gourmet foods include cheese, spreads, oils, bread, pasta, our very own Italian pasta sauces, marmalades, chocolates, nuts, fresh baked goods, specialty drinks like Sarsaparilla, Express Coffee Soda, Italian Soda, Orzata Syrup, and so more items for you to explore.”

The product is all homeade with the highest quality ingredients and at a VERY fair price. You will be amazed at how many items are in this Foodie Paradise. If you cannot find something that makes your mouth water you most likely have no pulse, have rotting flesh, suffer from erectile disfunction and are a zombie. Harsh? Yes but you must be the walking dead if your heart doesn’t skip a beat here.

Choose from a tempting display of sweets at the bakery/ coffee bar, have them toss a freshly made tossed salad, heat up a custom panini, hot entree, hero or stop by the olive bar and take some home for later.

They also have a wonder butcher dept, deli as well as premium olive oils and hard to find seasonings.

I may be jaded but I frequent this place about 3 times a week….and find something new upon each return.

Located where the old Medford Post office was situated now stands a bit of Little Italy just shy 60 miles east of it.

It’s a cold November night, you’re hungry for something different. Something organic, something prepared with a conscience and an artful touch. Something creatively delicious. Food that you actually notice as it is placed in front of you. Food that you actually think about with each bite.

In the Spring of 2008 the village of Port Jefferson FINALLY came out of its fried food coma. You see, Port Jeff was never really known for its food. Sure, tourists thought that places like George Wallace’s Dockside or The Steam Room actually had good fresh seafood. WRONG! The only thing fresh that came out of these place were the attitudes from the pissy employees that didn’t want to be there.

The food is creative, fresh and prepared by professionals that are more like artists than chefs. The staff is professional and corteous and managment is always friendly.

The Bar: Happy hour specials varry and are available 7 days a week. It’s a bar but don’t worry it’s not a sports bar with screaming maniacs. Sure there is a flat screen tv with the big game playing but there is no half time screaming or glutten contests here.

Seth takes control of the bar making suggestions when you are indoubt. They have fresh microbrews on tap as well as about   From hefeweizen to hennepin and dead guy to doggie style they have a beer that will surely float your beer boat. ALL ABOARD! Not to mention a wine selection that will make your head spin and an array of cockails from the classics like The Sidecar to new concoctions made with fresh juices and purees like the bartlett pear & ginger martini made with grey goose pear vodka, bartlett pear, ginger, fresh squeezed lemon

Wines and microbrews are carefully selected to perfectly pair with dishes that seem to be created just for you.

Noted tastes include: ANY soup on the menu. Puree of Butternut Squash….HOLY CRAP THIS IS SO GOOD!

Caesar Salad $8.00 Baby red and green romain letuce with shaved aged pecorino. herbed croutons and a deliciously creamy lemony garlic dressing.

Noted Appetizers: American Artisinal and Farmstand Cheese Plate $12 Includes 3 cheeses with seasonal accompainments

Side Orders: All Sides are $6 and include the folllowing:

Mac and Cheese, Braised Kale with Lardons, Herbed Polenta, Sauteed Broccolini, Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Garlic Mashed potatoes, Yukon Gold Hash and my favorite, the Fresh Cut French Fries.

You may think…hmmm, french fries? What’s so special? I’ll tell you. They make them in a meth lab and sprinkle cocaine on them or that’s how I assume they are made because they are so damn addicting. Also, the mac and cheese is not like mom made and doesn’t come in a blue and yellow box. When I first saw the mac and cheese coming out I thought it was a bit too small but it really wasn’t, it was a perfect portion. Rich, creamy, tangy and so comforting.

Pros: The staff is amazing and are all “real people.”

        The owners are legit and a pleasure to chat with.

        The bartenders are cool and offer great suggestions, just don’t ask Set to make you a Mind Eraser.

        The atmosphere and ambience is so comforting it makes you want to curl up in the corner lounge chair…sip some scotch and dream on.

         Oh yeah….the food baby, the food.

Cons:  Specialty cocktails can get pricey however they are classic and made with the freshest ingredients.

           The parking lot is a metered parking lot and the wanna be jerk-off junior constables (who only have the job because they are related to someone of “importance” in the village) LOVE to give tickets. They wait around like sharks waiting for a pudgy baby’s leg to hit the water.

Take the 5th in Port Jeff and be sure to say hello to it’s honoray mayor Christie.

From 1850, carriages were built at this location. The carriage business continued here until about 1920, when the site officially became the Elk’s Hotel. Ownded by the Koutrakos family for more than eight decades the Elk’s name had been kept alive until it became Harrington’s Jazz Club then around 1999 to 2008 the Elk Street Grille owned this space.2008 Enter Tequila Jack’s Mainland.

From all of the incarnations that this space has seen this place seems to be the biggest dissapointment yet.

For appetizers we started with the Chef’s Selection of Fine Imported Cheeses.  The selection included a total of nine pieces of cheese the size of a scrabble piece. 3 horseradish cheddar, 3 wasabi cheddar and 3 elderberry along with a generic stone ground wheat cracker..well, actually 7 crackers, 3 tbsp diced pineapple and about 2 strawberries sliced.  The cheese, I would swear, were Pathmark’s super value brand. The crackers were the quality of the ones that come in those big Hillshire Farm basket deals that you see at Walmart that are atleast 5 years old. And for the fruit..let’s just say it probably wasn’t organic. $15 for this was a total RIP OFF!

I swear, I look for what’s good but sometimes its harder to find that than Big Foot…or George Wallace selling quality food. (local Pt. Jeff Joke)

For appetizer #2 we ordered the Raw Bar for 2. $21. Carribian Cocktail Shrimp, Long Island Little Necks and Blue Point Oysters.

There were more chips in these oysters than Chips Ahoy cookie. The oysters arrived at our table room temperature. Room temperature oysters? That’s like having chicken sushi or an extra rare pork chop. Not good. They arrived on a platter with the shrimp in the middle and no ice at all to keep then cool. Within 2 min they were warm! There were 4 of us sampling and everone said the same thing. “How can Littlenecks taste like rubber bands?” and ”How can oysters and clams stay fresh, safe and at the proper temperature with no ice bed?” Also the place was 80 degrees inside, the A/C was not turned on because they wanted everyone to hear the music as they passed by. No joke, I checked the weather..the humidity was 80%, it was muggy, humid and there were flies going from table to table. We were told that we had to put up with this stuff in Port Jeff in the summer. Everywhere else had air conditioning…PA-LEASE!

In the words of the prolific Chef Gordon Ramsay…”What The F$#K are you F$#king A$$Hol#$ thinking? Someone can get bloody sick!

After we got our apps we decided that we needed to end this experiment, save some money and get out. If you are looking for a full dinner review, I am sorry I cannot help but I would love to hear your experiences.

Not all was shot to hell. The sauce that the shrimp were coated in was a sweet and tangy caribbean jerk style sauce that left a nice bit of heat on your tongue when you were done. That was delicious. We just hoped that it was enough heat to kill the bacteria in those room temperatue oysters.

So kids, here is the takeaway…It was so hot that the band even mentioned a few times,into the mic, that it was time for the manager to flip on the air conditioner, there were more flies in the bathroom than there are at the harbor during low tide and I bet this place will be about as successful as Kirstie Alley on a diet.

Check out http://www.oysters.us/opening.html for useful info on oysters. Warm oysters are a loaded gun. Friends Dont’ Let Friends Eat Warm Oysters.