Dan's Papers - November 9, 2007 -

On a wet, cold and windy evening, ducking into the Birchwood was a magical transformation to a surrounding of warmth, both from ambience, the welcoming fire and the equally welcoming greetings from the staff. This is a hometown restaurant that has been in the middle of what is known as 'Polish Town USA' since 1929 and over all that time has only had four owners. The current owner is the engaging entrepreneur Jimmy Loo, who also owns the Village Crossroads in Calverton and Birchwood on the Park in Southampton. Daryl Sulzer started at the Birchwood thirteen years ago and for the past three and a half years has been the manager of both the Tap Room restaurant and the extensive catering operation for the Champagne Room. They proudly claim to offer the best value wedding package and can host up to 180 guests.

The restaurant has a host of memorabilia on the walls, covering baseball to Broadway. Large model planes and rowing skiffs hang from the ceiling. There is an impressive bar, wood paneled booths, Tiffany style lighting and a staff that knows the names of most of their patrons. Their slogan, "Your meeting place for good food, good cheer and good times," is not an idle boast.

The menu is extensive and as you would expect, includes a good selection of Polish dishes, which are among the most popular items. Diners come from far afield and Executive Chef Mary Livingstone and her sous chef Lori Seibert make sure that no one goes home hungry, as we soon found out.

The main menu rarely changes but every day there are a good number of specials and we started with some succulent crispy corn fritters served with a horse radish cream sauce that made sure that you were warm inside as well as out. I love horseradish and found this to be a different and excellent combination. By the way, they feature an 'appetizer' listed as the 'Ultimate pu-pu platter' that contains chicken wings, spare ribs, pierogis, kielbasa etc., and which is listed as a dish for two or more people. Peggy, our very attentive waitress told us that there have been only a handful of occasions when one person has eaten everything on this platter!!

We contented ourselves with sharing a cup of excellent split pea and vegetable soup, again great for a cold evening and very well balanced in tastes and texture.

From the main courses that range from pastas to American entrees as well as Polish specialties, we decided on one Polish dish, a combo of pierogi, kielbasa. golomki (cabbage stuffed with meat and rice in a tomato sauce) and potato pancakes, that was a great blend of authentic Polish tastes. The kielbasa was certainly among the best ever and the stuffed cabbage was light and delicate. The other dish was one of the evening's specials, Portobello sirloin with gorgonzola, red peppers and a balsamic drizzle. Again, the portion was extremely large and the steak was well marbled, cooked exactly as requested and full of juice and flavor. The accompanying vegetables were good but really needed to be a little more tasty to effectively complement the steak.

For our dessert, again we shared the pumpkin bread pudding from the dessert specials list and this was deliciously moist and had great tastes enhanced by a distinctive rum butter sauce.

Appetizers, apart from the pupu platter, are $4.95 to $9.95; main courses from $12.95 to $21.95 and include soup or salad. Desserts are $4.50 to $4.95. Beers are a specialty of the Birchwood and they feature eleven draft varieties and eleven bottled beers.

The Birchwood owes its longevity to a combination of good wholesome food at very reasonable prices that enable a family to eat out without needing a second mortgage, plus excellent friendly, professional service. It is a great place for a casual drop in, a party, or a family event and the tables are also well spaced and cozy enough for a romantic evening. Jimmy told us that after acquiring the Birchwood he looked at the operation in detail for six months and then decided to leave everything as it was apart from some interior modifications, including the installation of the fire. From what we saw, that was a very wise decision.