Some eat to live. I live to eat.: Italy in Glen Cove

It was Saturday night, and I had made plans with 2 of my girlfriends to get dinner at a local restaurant - the Fishery Grill (formerly Crabby Dan's). I pass by it every morning walking to the train station, but I've really never thought anything of it, even after they remodeled and renamed it. To be frank, I've never really thought much of any of the local restaurants since I've grown up here and always ventured out west to the city for eating.

However, we decided this time to stay local - little did we know, that apparently no one likes to cook on a Saturday night. We stopped by and called a number of restaurants after that to see if and when they could accommodate a party of 3 - everything was packed. So we're driving around time, racking our brains trying to come up with places to go while searching on our Yelp and Alfred apps on our phones [hooray for iPhones!] and yelling out names of restaurants and reading out their menus. At least we had narrowed it down to Italian, so that made it only slightly easier.

As we're driving, we also keep our eyes peeled (not the driver of course), for anything that looked like it was open with a decent amount, but not too many cars in the parking lots. We seriously had no idea there were that many restaurants in our area! I stumble upon Riviera Grill on Alfred right as we're driving by it. My friend was craving gnocchi, and there was gnocchi on the menu at a price that wouldn't break the bank either. I call them, they said to just stop by. Done Deal. We park. We go in. We're seated.

The man whom I assume is the owner comes by, and he's like a little Italian grandpa with a constant scowl on his face, and apparently, he asks us if we wanted anything to drink...thankfully Kate understood what he was asking and asked for a wine menu. While sipping on our Pinot Grigio and Chiantis, we look at the menu - everything looks delicious.

I myself love me some risotto, and while searching the menu online, saw one with champagne and black truffle that looked amazing. But then it wasn't on the menu in the restaurant, so I ask what the "Risotto Del Giorno" was, and the waiter (whom we all wanted to adopt as our grandpa) replied "whatever you want it to be." I think I heard the angels singing as he said that. IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES!!! I was already in love with the waiter as soon as I heard him say "allora,"but this, just made me fall that much more in love with him. In addition to letting you create your own risotto dish, they are very flexible on substitutions on their other dishes. The gnocchi gorgonzola was switched out for gnocchi alfredo, and whatever pappardelle they had on the menu was made into a pappardelle alla vodka with green peas. And my risotto, was mixed in with porcini mushrooms, truffle oil, prosciutto, and green peas (Alex and I really love our green peas and carbs). When I asked him if that was ok, he goes, "Porcini mushrooms + truffle oil, go very well together, porcini mushrooms + truffle oil + prosciutto, beautiful! + peas, eh." But I wanted the green, so the peas stayed.

When the food came out - my word, it was ah-maze-balls. Seriously good. Between the ambiance of the restaurant and the quality of the food, we felt like we had been transported to Italy. I had meant to take pictures of us eating the food as well, but became too distracted by the actual action of eating that I forgot to do so. I also realized for the first time, that Italian risotto, is very much like Chinese sticky rice *light bulb moment!*

Pappardelle alla Vodka w/ Green Peas & Cherry Tomatoes

Gnocchi Alfredo - aka, little fluffy pillows of cheesy, creamy potato-y goodness

Risottoa alla...me - this picture doesn't even do it justice, and I ended up taking half of it back with me

We were sitting right in front of the dessert table, so it was already decided at the beginning of the meal that we would be ordering dessert - good to know, because it helped us control how much of our actual meal we ate. Kate & Alex both ordered the chocolate mousse, and I got Nonna's (Grandma) Lemon Custard Tart. Before we even finished, the waiters came around with some limoncello and biscotti. He even left the bottle at our table "just in case." I think all in all, they refilled for our three times. And it was delicious every time.