Food Reviews
By Richard Jay Scholem
Published: September 2007
I THOUGHT THE CLUBHOUSE WAS A down and dirty roadhouse. When I moved to Huntington in the late 60s, it had already been open for about seven years and the same family who ran it then owns it today. Despite my incorrect images of grizzled old bar flies with T-shirts downing brews at the bar, The Clubhouse is anything but that. It is a handsome, woody, masculine restaurant. It has an upscale white tablecloth look with carpeting, a stained glass window and flickering candles on tables, shelves and walls. Pictures of old Long Island dot the wall, prestigious wine bottles are quite prominent and more importantly than any of that, there is a gifted Culinary Institute of America graduate in the kitchen.
All of this is to say, I was wrong, wrong, wrong about The Clubhouse, even though I have passed it hundreds of times. It is also more than a steakhouse although the steaks are quite good. (The price includes steak fries, rice pilaf, baked potato or baked stuffed potato, all of which makes them less expensive than à la carte entrées at most other steakhouses). Charles Labartino can and does cook much more than red meat.
On a recent visit, we dined on wild white Alaskan salmon that was cornmeal crusted and enhanced by roasted garlic, red and yellow tomatoes, etc. It was a mild, non-fishy treat. A pork porterhouse pizziola seared in olive oil with sautéed mushrooms, onions and peppers then finished with a little marinara sauce was huge and full of flavor, though slightly dry. The cowboy steak special, a hunk of moist, minerally beef, if ever there was one, was a knockout. It’s a rib eye in a spicy Sauza Gold Tequila and wine marinade. Chicken Caciotta au Truffle or medallions of boned scaloppini sautéed in a white wine sauce and topped with goats milk mozzarella with specks of black truffle bits was tender and tasty though some at our table thought it would have been just as good without the mozzarella.
Starters held up their end of the meal as well. Mussels festooned with roasted garlic weren’t unusual, but were lip smacking good. A Caesar salad with homemade croutons was better than average. So too was a rich lobster and crab cake infused with roasted red pepper and a Sambuca laced sauce. A generous portion of French escargot was soft and pleasant, though I would have been just as happy with butter and garlic rather than garlic gorgonzola with it’s stronger taste, somewhat obliterating the mild flavor of the snails. There is no need for sides, but I’m glad we ordered two: A generous mountain of sautéed onions that was especially good with the steak but went with everything else, too; and smooth, luxurious creamed spinach with a tad of nutmeg and bacon flavoring.
Before jumping to sweets, a word about The Clubhouse’s impressive wine list. A small book actually, dominated (as it should) by reds and deservedly the winner of many Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast Awards of Excellence.
Now those four desserts, three of which are made on the premises. Not that there was a thing wrong with the Mississippi Mud Pie with vanilla ice cream (an intense, gooey pleasure). The pecan pie with vanilla ice cream (made there) was warm, not microwave hot as it often is elsewhere, and thoroughly enjoyed even by those who are not pecan pie fans. The crème brûlée was crisp surfaced and velvety. And the chocolate and white chocolate mousse served in the same sherbet glass, left nothing to be desired by chocoholics and just general lovers of sweets. Every dessert came with abundant whipped cream, ice cream, you name it.
I’m not going to keep making the same mistake- no more passes for The Clubhouse-I’m going back.
The Clubhouse
320 West Jericho Turnpike
Huntington
(631) 423-1155
www.clubhousesteaks.com
