Review: Blackbird Kitchen & Cocktails in Wantagh

Chris Perrotta and Frank Ubriaco’s eight-year-old eatery has become a standard-bearer for modern dining on Long Island, more akin to a neighborhood gem you’d find in a cool world city; albeit one that the locals want to keep for themselves.

The dark, moody dining room is a cross between an experimental cocktail bar and a pub, serving an elevated dining experience that relies on seasonal ingredients, housemade pasta and excellent beverages.

The brothers-in-law also own the excellent Rustic Root in Woodbury and Uncle Frank’s Pizza in Wantagh, but Blackbird remains the primary artist’s workshop of the self-taught Perrotta, who got his start in the restaurant business at Cafe Testarossa in Syosset.

The menu changes seasonally but consider yourself lucky if you find zucchini crespelle, sweet corn agnolotti or organic chicken with potatoes and aji amarillo. There’s a nice selection of vegetable-forward dishes like cucumbers with chili-honey-lime vinaigrette and jalepeno cheddar crisps, plus an earthy Little Gem salad with Medjool dates, pecorino and toasted almonds. Montauk sea bass is paired with local zucchini and corn.

But do not miss Blackbird’s pastas. Recent highlights include vegetable risotto with black truffles and rigatoni with broccoli rabe, sausage, garlic and Calabrian chili. Always on the menu: Spaghetti cacio e pepe, dry-aged strip steak and a superb Cheddar burger with fries every bit its equal.

Intuitive, layered cocktails have long been a hallmark — particularly strong is the Davy Crochet made with mezcal, tequila, lime, citrus syrup, honey, tiki bitters and seltzer. The roster of old-fashioneds is worth working through, visit by visit.

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