LONG ISLAND WEST

FEW Brooklynites prefer to admit it but Brooklyn is indeed the western end of Long Island. Long Island University still acknowledges this, but the Long Island Historical Society long ago became the Brooklyn Historical Society. And then there’s the Long Island Restaurant, 110 Atlantic, at the SE corner of Atlantic Avenue and Henry Street.

Emma Sullivan says the food in the Long Island Restaurant is exactly as it was when her father, Ramon Montero, opened up in 1951 — hamburgers (onions raw or fried), meatloaf, chicken soup, fresh-cut French fries — and eating it, you believe her. Why bother changing the recipes when everything tastes so good? The Art Deco bar back has been so well cared for that it looks brand-new, the wood and the two lighted columns in the middle polished so religiously that they shine. Wendell Jamieson, “The Quarrel,” NY Times, March 6, 2006

The two in-law matriarchs of Montero’s and the Long Island Restaurant had feuded for years, as the above article explains. It’s unfortunate. The restaurant closed in late 2007 after a death in the family. Montero matriarch Pilar passed away in 2012. Joel Tompkins and Toby Cecchini restored and re-opened Long Island Restaurant in 2013.  Cecchini owned the Manhattan bar Passerby;  he is also the author of Cosmopolitan: A Bartender’s Life and a columnist for The New York Times’ T Magazine.  Tompkins co-founded the underground restaurant Coach Peaches.

As you can see, yes, the neon lights up at night.

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3/16/22