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The dish on Long Island's restaurant and food scene

Umberto's pizza arrives in Indianapolis for Giants

Vincenzo Corteo carries pizza pies to a sheriff's

Photo credit: Jason Andrew

From New Hyde Park to Indianapolis, the farthest pizza delivery in Umberto's history is now complete.

To continue the Giants' tradition of eating Umberto's on Fridays, general manager Gaetano Corteo made more than a dozen pizzas this morning and carried them on a Delta flight.

The pizzas were packed in special bags to keep them warm, but the smell of fresh pizza remained. Corteo said...

This week’s restaurant reviews

Diners linger over lunch at Jewel, a new

Photo credit: Doug Young

In this week’s Newsday, Peter M. Gianotti visits Jewel in Melville, the latest venture from Tom Schaudel, “who gets attention the way a beach attracts waves.” Gianotti also revisits Schaudel's original flagship, Coolfish in Syosset, to see if it still deserves the three stars it got in 2000.

Joan Reminick reviews the Tex-Mex Del Fuego in St. James, “an attractively rustic cantina where culinary...

Umberto's pizza of New Hyde Park heads to Giants in Indy

New York Giants defensive ends Jason Pierre-Paul, left,

Photo credit: AP

The original Umberto's of New Hyde Park, which has provided pizzas to the New York Giants each Friday for years, is keeping the good-luck pies going by sending them to Indianapolis today for Super Bowl-bound Big Blue. The story goes that they've been so popular that the rookies don't get a slice.

The pizzas for the Giants will be delivered by Umberto's own Gaetano Corteo.

Umberto's,...

LI injured in Lady Gaga scrape

Singer Lady Gaga performs at New Year's Eve

Photo credit: Getty Images

In today’s New York Post, restaurant critic Steve Cuozzo pans Joanne, the new Manhattan restaurant owned by Lady Gaga’s parents. In the process of taking down the "clueless" service and chef Art Smith’s cooking (the worst calamari "in a lifetime of squid-mongering," “unspeakably fatty” osso bucco), Cuozzo launches a salvo at Long Island, observing that Joanne's “one-note orecchiette...

Smashburger makes LI debut in Hicksville

Smashburger and Smashfries at Smashburger in Hicksville

Photo credit: Newsday, 2012 / Joan Reminick

Just had lunch at the hours-old Smashburger in Hicksville, the first branch of a Denver-based fast-casual chain to open on Long Island. Overall, the place made a positive first impression, from the ultra-friendly can-do staff to the food.

After ordering at the counter, I was given a number and found a table in the attractive industrial-contemporary dining room. A short while later, the food...

Mattituck's Magic Fountain for sale

Magic Fountain owner Ali Chouldry makes homemade ice

Photo credit: Daniel Goodrich, 2010

The Magic Fountain, the popular ice-cream destination in Mattituck, is for sale.

Owner Choudry Ali said he plans to move to Utah, where he and his wife have a home. He added that he may open an ice cream shop there.

Ali said in a telephone interview that The Magic Fountain was busy, even in February, and that his decision was based on a long-standing desire to relocate west. There are...

Closing and closed in Great Neck

The interior of Pancho's Cantina in Island Park.

Photo credit: Photo by Jori Klein

Pancho’s Border Grill in Great Neck will serve its last fajita on Feb. 14. The Island Park location (4245 Austin Blvd.; 516-897-8300) sizzles on.

Benkerts Bakery, a longtime Great Neck fixture at 535 Middle Neck Rd., has closed.

Still open: Pancho's Cantina in Island Park...

Groundhog Day: What to eat?

Groundhog Club handler Ron Ploucha holds Punxsutawney Phil,

Photo credit: AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

In the movie "Groundhog Day," Bill Murray, playing a cynical weatherman, is covering  the essential, necessary, obligatory. required news at Gobbler's Knob: Will Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow?

Murray finds himself reliving Feb. 2 over and over, from the moment the radio clock hits 6 a.m. to the tune of "I Got You Babe." Since every day is the same and its events...

The Phoenix rises in Seaford

Scallop small plate at The Phoenix, Seaford

Photo credit: Handout

The Phoenix recently hatched in the former Seaford nest of Pomodorino. Chef Ryan Augusta, who was executive chef at The Good Life in Massapequa, puts out an American menu made up of sandwiches, flatbread pizzas and salads by day, small plates at night. In addition to having beer and wine, both on draft and in bottles, the place offers 5 bottles of mead, a fermented honey wine one usually associates...

West End Café with my new little friend

A Cobb salad is enjoyed at the bar

Photo credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus

Today my iPhone and I had lunch at West End Café in Carle Place. While my new toy helped me check my email and Twitter account and read a few more percentage points of George R.R. Martin’s Dance with Dragons, I ordered and consumed this fine Cobb salad.

We’re big-time Cobb nuts here at FeedMe (see recent Cobb dispatches from Caracara Mexican Grill in Farmingdale, Vine Wine Bar in Merrick)...

@feedmeli

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