FOOD.D.LOVE

Last night we checked out one of Long Beach, New York's newest restaurants, Corazon de Cuba . Located on Park Avenue in the center of town, across the street from the train station, Corazon de Cuba is small but full of life, warmth and excellent food. Everyone we encountered, from the bartender to the manager to the servers and busboys, was extremely friendly and accommodating. The server knew the menu very well and thoroughly and patiently answered all of our questions. He also sold me on the fish of the day, the grouper.  A classic mojito - sweet, tart and minty We started with drinks at the bar, which is located right in the front of the restaurant. The bar is long, and surrounded by beautiful rustic wood stools that were actually very comfortable. The bar also has purse hooks underneath - a huge plus in my book! The mojito was a very good, classic version of this minty, sugary rum cocktail.  I love these bar stools! There are two levels to the rest

In the seemingly never-ending stream of new, hip burger joints,  BurgerFi   is the latest to land on Long Island. A franchise that got its start in Florida, there are currently three BurgerFi locations in New York: Manhattan, Oceanside and Woodbury, and one is coming soon to Commack. Before you roll your eyes at BurgerFi's all-natural, free-range burgers, Kobe beef hot-dogs, gourmet toppings, craft beer and wine offerings served at communal recycled-wood tables in their "environmentally sustainable" restaurants, you should make a visit and try the food for yourself. It is really, really good and the concept actually works.  Each burger is branded with the BurgerFi logo     BurgerFi serves all the classic burger stand favorites such as burgers, hot dogs, fries, onion rings and custard, but uses very fresh, all-natural ingredients and gives everything a modern twist. For example, you can get your french fries plain, or you can dress them up and order the Urban Fries

Thanks to The Rolling Spring Roll  in Farmingdale ,  Long Island finally has its own Vietnamese restaurant! Yes, you read that right, this is the only Vietnamese restaurant on this entire, very Long Island. As the name suggests, The Rolling Spring Roll started out as a food truck and last summer opened as a small storefront restaurant on Farmingdale's Main Street. The interior is clean, basic and sparse, and the prices are very reasonable. The service during a busy Saturday lunch was fine. The focus here is definitely not the atmosphere, it's the authentic Vietnamese food. We started with an order of Vietnamese Spring Rolls and Summer Rolls , my personal favorite. The Vietnamese Spring Rolls were very crunchy, and the filling was delicious - ground pork, carrots, onions, spices, with a light vinaigrette dipping sauce. They are served with iceberg lettuce to wrap around the spring roll before you take a bite - this gives a very nice, refreshing crunch to the spring roll.

This past weekend we had the opportunity to dine at  Bryant & Cooper ,  one of Long Island's top steakhouses .  Bryant & Cooper is located in Roslyn just off of Northern Boulevard, which is also known as the "Restaurant Row" of the North Shore because so many fabulous restaurants are nearby. Bryant & Cooper has been around since the 1980s and specializes in prime, dry-aged beef that is aged and butchered right on the premises and sold at their adjacent butcher shop and market. It's all about the beef at Bryant & Cooper As you valet park amongst the Bentleys, Range Rovers and Mercedes (my husband joked that the "cheapest" car in the parking lot was a Cadillac), your eyes are immediately drawn to the hunks of beef dry-aging in the window of the butcher shop. Quite the impression as you walk into a steakhouse! The interior is warm and inviting, like an old clubhouse of a casual country club, and the staff is very friendly and professiona

Ever since my husband and I moved back to Long Beach, New York a few months ago, we have become completely addicted to the sushi at Nagahama , which is proud to have been ranked the #1 Japanese restaurant on Long Island by the Zagat survey for the past three years. In the Zagat survey, Nagahama narrowly beat Kotobuki , my other favorite sushi spot, by one point in food (28 points vs 27 points). Now that we have visited Nagahama at least once a week (sometimes more!) for the past few months, I can definitely see why this little gem reigns supreme in the rankings.  Chirashi - sliced raw fish over sushi rice The restaurant is small and cozy and the staff are very friendly and welcoming. What really stands out though is the ultra-fresh, inventive and delicious sushi. We love to sit at the sushi bar and watch the sushi chefs in action. What is unique about Nagahama is that even the simplest items have a slight twist that makes them outstanding. For example, the chefs place a tin

Last month my hubby and I went to one of his favorite cities, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the weekend to attend a Philadelphia Eagles game. Of course, we took the opportunity to visit some old favorite food and drink haunts and sought out several new places we had been wanting to try out. Below are some foodie highlights of our trip, including a couple of spots I recommend from past visits.                                                                   Mimosa at Red Owl Tavern Hotel Monaco : We stayed at this stylish Kimpton Hotel right across the street from the Liberty Bell. The decor in the room and throughout the hotel was retro-whimsical, despite its historic location, and the service was top-notch. When we first arrived on Saturday afternoon we had a drink at the hotel's Red Owl Tavern . The service at the bar was pretty slow because an entire wedding party of groomsmen had taken over the bar in between ceremony and reception. We wanted some appetizers but