| Issue #26, September 22, 2006 |
Blackwells Restaurant
Great Rock Golf Club
141 Fairway Drive
Wading River
631-929-1800
Even if you are a non-golfer, you cannot help but be impressed by the beautiful grounds of this golf course, a course that golfers who have played here will acknowledge that this is one of the best tests of golf on Long Island. Blackwells is the elegantly appointed restaurant situated within the equally well-fitted clubhouse.
Brian Burner is the new Executive Chef and Restaurant Director and comes here with a background of having trained at the CIA and cooking in several top restaurants in Manhattan and Long Island. His Pastry Chef is Brittany McKnight, also a CIA graduate. General Manager John Paul Gunderson and Restaurant Manager Daniel Bonomini complete the management team. Brian explained that the restaurant prepares everything in house, from the best and freshest of local ingredients and the menu will change with each season to reflect this. The new fall menu will be available shortly and will feature venison, duck, and quail. With their objective of making sure that the local dining public is aware of the ‘new’ Blackwells, they have several promotions running. From 4 to 6 p.m. you can sample the ‘Dining at Dusk’ menu offering a three-course meal for $24.95. On Saturdays from September 24th until October 29th there will be live music and unlimited wine tasting (with a free festival wine glass) from local and international wineries for the very modest entrance price of $10. A varied BBQ menu of meat and shellfish will also be available. Selected Long Island wineries will also be handing out tickets that can be redeemed at the restaurant for a complimentary bottle of wine with a meal.
We started with a wonderful piece of sesame seared Ahi tuna and agreed we had not eaten any better. We paired this with one of the daily specials, escargot Provencale. Daniel is a master at preparing dishes tableside, a wonderful touch of elegance that is seldom seen today. As he expertly flambééed the escargot, it really turned heads in the dining room. The result was plump succulent morsels, full of Mediterranean tastes.
We got the wild mushroom soup with truffles that we had opted to share and Brian sent out a dish of his special Uncle Brian’s clam chowder. These were two totally different soups. They were as different as a full-bodied Bordeaux blend and a light Chablis. The mushroom soup was full of deep fall tastes, earthy and assertive, whereas the chowder of delicate texture and taste developed as you drank more of it. There was a wonderful amount of great tasting vegetables to balance the plentiful clams.
The chopped salads with Gorgonzola and the Sicilian styled arugula salad with pine nuts, fennel and oranges were both excellent and highly recommended. For our entrees we chose the ‘Sexy shrimp’ from the daily specials. I am still not sure of the origin of the name, having forgotten to ask while Daniel again prepared these tableside. Suffice it to say that the garlic, mushrooms, jalapeno, cream and limejuice blend with Tequila made a great tasting dish.
The new menu at Blackwells still offers steak aficionados the best cuts of aged meat but we opted for the Dijon mustard and herb crusted rack of New Zealand lamb that turned out to be absolutely spectacular. This was lamb as it should be, juicy with a delicate taste and cooked to perfection. The accompanying sides of crispy onions and creamed spinach all combined to make this a dish to die for. When the desserts arrived we decided that the tiramisu was probably the best we have ever eaten – it totally restores the true delicacy and lightness of a dish that has been debased over recent years in many establishments. If you want to restore your faith in tiramisu, try Brittany’s version. The cheesecake made to Brian’s mother’s recipe also was extremely light with fresh clean tastes.
The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner and they also offer an excellent bar menu. The wine list is varied and sensibly priced with wines by the glass from $6.50 and by the bottle from $21. Appetizers are from $7 to $12; Main courses and pastas from $16 to $39 for Surf & Turf.
The ‘new’ Blackwells Restaurant is a lovely place in which to eat, either for a casual meal or for a special occasion. The new enthusiastic management team is dedicated to offering very good quality food to suit all tastes at attractive prices and this is definitely a place to add to your list of favorite restaurants if it is not already there.
– Roy Bradbrook
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