Dan's Papers - November 16, 2007

Elegant and pristine, Annona Restaurant of Westhampton Beach delivers a flawless dining experience with its modern Italian menu. Located on the second floor of the Manhattan Motorcars showroom, this classy restaurant offers one of the most expensive views in the Hamptons, as diners sit above some of the finest luxury automobiles on the East End.

My guest and I took an elevator up to the second floor reminiscent of a five star hotel in a big city. As we entered the room, we were face to face with an open kitchen that appeared immaculate with a hearth-like oven at the forefront. The first thing that struck us was the architecture of the chic dining room. We tucked into our modern booth, while hip and contemporary music played to our delight. Warm and very well placed candles flickered adding a touch of romance to the air.

We knew that we were in professional hands the minute we sat down. Our server Erica presented us with an extensive and worldly wine selection. Arranged progressively, the list was ten pages of really nice choices. We sampled a sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, which is the pinnacle region of this grapes' production. With the second course, Scurati Ceuso of Italy was buttery and smooth. The cabernet sauvignon Coco Drilo of Argentina was full bodied, peppery and bold to compliment our dinner. With desert we had an ice wine from Macari vineyard of the North Fork on Long Island that came highly recommended by Pietro Bottero, General Manager of Annona. "Macari is the best," he said. They work as an organic farm producing some of the finest grapes on Long Island.

Named after the Roman goddess of the harvest, Annona Restaurant showcases fresh local products on its modern Italian menu. There is even an organic herbal martini on the specialty cocktail list called Fleur de vie, a blend of peach and yerba mate vodka with fresh grapefruit and elderflower liqueur.

Bread was passed around traditionally with Bona Mini olive oil. This product is top of the line, D.O.P., from Italy and the co-owner of the olive oil company lives nearby in the Hamptons - keeping it local.

We were presented with the menu and unlike other restaurants, one of the specials that my guest was immediately drawn to was the 2007 Aston Martin in vantage steele grey, priced at $145,000. Turning back to the food, our first course consisted of potato and leek terrine topped with warmed brie that included robiola, micro mizuna and saba. One did not know where the potato ended and the cheese began. It was one of the best appetizers that I have ever eaten. We also had wood-oven roasted baby octopus salad in a pureed yellow lentil sauce with sweet grapes and salty olives. Our second course or "Primi" was pumpkin lune, a thin, homemade pasta stuffed with pumpkin that tasted amazing in a sage brown butter. This was also served with risotto, wild mushrooms parmigiano and black truffle oil. This dish was sultry and sexy. The entrees stayed with the theme of perfection. The Four Story Hill Farms veal chop with spring garlic, squash and anchovy-porcini sauce was cooked just right and it melted in our mouth just as anyone would imagine four-star cuisine should. Local wild striped bass from Montauk was accompanied by red peppers, hickory smoked bacon and fresh local brussel sprouts. The moist white fish was drizzled with black truffle oil, again nothing but the best.

After dinner we retired to the elegant bar. While looking straight ahead, we felt like we were in a skyrise. When we looked down we saw a yellow Lamborghini and thought that it would be really fun to come here on a Friday night for two-for-ones. It was truly an honor to dine in this establishment.

Annona is the newest venture of the Rubio family who have owned and run Coachworks/Manhattan Motorcars of the Hamptons for 30 years. They offer a prix fixe menu at the restaurant on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday along with half priced bottles of wine. On New Year's Eve there will be a raffle for a Porsche! The food is so fresh that the menu selections change daily and are posted on the Annona website at www.annona.com.