When James Villani opened Branzinos Bar & Restaurant in Huntington Station in 2020, he wanted to bring modern Italian dinner classics to an area better known for its lunch options. In Brazinos’ new Northport outpost, which opened last week, it’s the opposite.
The new restaurant, in the former Southdown Market off Fort Salonga Road, features more lunch-friendly options as well as a wood-burning oven in which pizzas and fire-roasted fish are cooked to perfection. Executive chef Luigi Mazzeo moved over from the Huntington Station location.
At lunchtime, a fixed-price option for $24 includes soup or a house salad. Diners can choose between large salads including Caesar, wedge and crispy artichoke options and 12-inch pizzas spanning Margherita, hot honey pepperoni, vodka and pesto varieties, which run $20-$35 on their own. Mazzeo also introduces the panuozzo ($23-$32), an Italian sandwich from the Gragnano region of Italy, near Naples, in a nod to his mother, who still lives there. Made from pizza dough and stuffed with ingredients like braised short rib, mushrooms and Gruyere, eggplant caponata, or sirloin, provolone, mushrooms and onions, it is then baked in the oven for a warm, hearty meal.
At dinnertime, the menu remains true to its Huntington Station counterpart, only it’s been enhanced by three versions of the namesake branzino ($42-$44) — one with mussels and clams in a white wine sauce, one butterflied with herbed bread crumbs, the last topped with olives, tomatoes and capers — served whole or filleted. If branzino doesn’t grab you, steaks include a 35-day aged tomahawk rib-eye ($155) and two filet mignons ($42 for 6 ounces, $59 for 10 ounces). Pastas — from a spicy rigatoni vodka ($29) to gnocchi Bolognese ($27) to linguine with clams ($31) — round out the offerings. There’s a whole sushi menu, as well.
The space, which was gutted and meticulously renovated over the course of two years, shines. Evoking the al fresco feel of an Italian piazza, complete with twinkling lights strung overhead, the large dining room is anchored by a long, lush bar surrounded by a few highball tables for two-person dining, and primed to become a local gathering spot.
The new Branzinos in Northport. Credit: Newsday/Marie Elena Martinez
“We wanted to create something a little more casual here,” Villani said of the expansion. “A place where parents can have a nice bottle of wine, the kids can have pizza, and nobody spends $300 to do that. We don’t want to be a place you come once a month, but a place you can come every day … if you want to.”
Branzinos Bar & Restaurant, 240 Fort Salonga Rd., Northport, 631-355-7075, branzinosnorthport.com; Open Monday through Wednesday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Thursday through Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
A global freelancer who has checked her suitcase to raise her young daughter on her native Long Island, Marie Elena will always make time for good mezcal, even better tacos and killer conversation. Preferably, in a corner bar seat. She can be found on Instagram at @mariesworldeats.
Dining and Cooking