Dee Muma: Baker and Restaurateur
Riverhead, the gateway to North Fork Wine Country has so much to see and do—and EAT!
Dee Muma, Co-owner of both Dark Horse and Tweed’s restaurants in Riverhead, has been baking for most of her life. She also co-owns Spicy’s BBQ in Riverhead.
Muma started her career in food at the age of 10, doing bread routes in order to pay for her hobby of horseback riding. She made bread and delivered it by bicycle. At the age of 10 and a half she started doing catering.
Being too young to drive she would either leave a list of the items she needed for her parents or she would go to the store with them and pick them out. She was able to get $1 a head for her catering services and she did all the work by herself.
Dark Horse, which has been open for a year this September, is located at 1 East Main Street in Riverhead. It is well known for it’s gluten-free baked goods. What started Muma baking gluten-free products was that for 10 years she believed she suffered from gluten-intolerance. However she refused to go to the doctor to get a diagnosis. At first she started to bake items that were gluten-free and openly admitted that they “tasted terrible.” “I wanted them to taste just as good as the real thing. It took a little tinkering here and there but I was able to achieve my goal.” Now that there are items on the menu that are gluten-free, people who suffer from gluten-intolerance are able to enjoy such treats as breads, brownies and more. They don’t have to worry about harming themselves. “I didn’t want them to be a punishment to eat, they had to be delicious. Now people eat the gluten-free items voluntarily.”
When asked what the best selling items she makes were, she answered, “I’d have to say the blondies, mock rye bread and challah. Challah is a Jewish bread.” Muma doesn’t have a favorite item on the menu, she noted. “I’ve been a life long foodie, like a tiger eating a goat. I’m always thinking what’s next? It’s a sport to me, I’m always thinking what I’ll have next.”
Gluten intolerance is when a person suffers from barley and wheat allergies. Approximately 10% of the U. S. population suffers from this; it can be a very serious disease.
Tweed’s Restaurant & Buffalo Bar, is another establishment in Riverhead co-owned by Muma. “It’s a lot darker and it has a clubby-type feel to it. I leave that up to (her husband) Ed to take care of,” she explains. At Tweed’s they offer Bison Rubens, cabbie soup, burgers, a full bar and much more. The bison is raised locally on the owners’ North Fork farm. Bison in lower in fat than is beef.
Their farm is 240 acres and is the only bison farm on Long Island. There’s a total of only about 1,000 buffalo in the state of New York. Muma mentioned that, “with buffalo meat there is no fat to hide it if a dish has been overcooked. If it’s overcooked, that’s that.”
At her barbeque restaurant, Spicy’s, located at 225 West Main Street in Riverhead, they serve fried chicken, saucy ribs, and other southern items including collard greens and baked beans. It’s the ideal place to go if you are a fan of southern cuisine.
So with these three restaurants you have a huge variety to choose from. Whether it’s ribs, bison burgers or gluten-free blondies, you’re sure to leave satisfied.
Dark Horse Restaurant
1 East Main Street, Riverhead
631-208-0072, darkhorserestaurant.com
Tweeds Restaurant & Buffalo Bar
17 East Main Street, Riverhead
631-208-3151, tweedsrestaurant.com
Spicy’s BBQ
225 West Main Street, Riverhead
631-727-2781