‘Tis the season for keeping up traditions, and with an exception or two (sorry, Grandma, but we’re officially putting the kibosh on your annual holiday ambrosia salad), we’re looking forward to celebrating a very merry season full of family-fun festivities—and perhaps making new ones in the process. And we’re not the only ones! The Longobardo family, who have been serving up traditional Italian cuisine for more than seven decades at their legendary Pearl River-based restaurant, Joe & Joe, are continuing their delicious legacy at their newly opened sister location, Joe & Joe Nyack. And while foodies are sure to find many of their favorites from J&J’s mothership menu, they’ll also find more than a few updated, more modern additions—including brick-oven pizza—all made with the freshest local and seasonal ingredients available.
We stopped in for dinner last week to check out the 2.0 updates, starting with the handsome renovation, a total transformation from the previous tenant, Cinco de Mayo, featuring a large three-sided bar near the entrance, an open-air pizza oven in the center of the 70-chair main dining room, a more formal 75-seat dining room toward the back, and walls decorated with Pop-Art-style images and beautiful vintage black-and-white photographs.
Despite it being only a limited “opening menu,” there were still plenty of dishes for us to choose from, including a variety of appetizers, soups, sandwiches, house-made pastas, kid-friendly plates ($7-$9) and those aforementioned brick-oven pizzas. We ordered a 10-inch, gluten-free one featuring a cauliflower crust, shredded spinach, heirloom tomato, and fresh mozzarella for our appetizer (what, we were hungry!), and were blown away. As a die-hard pizza lover, we were a little skeptical but was pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted- and didn’t miss the typical traditional crust at all.
Craving more red sauce, we went with the Chicken Parmigiana ($22) for the entrée. The crispy cutlet was served with a side of penne and hit the spot. Meanwhile, the rest of our table dove into the Italian Stallion Burger ($14)—a quarter pound of angus beef topped with sharp cheddar, Applewood smoked bacon, onion, lettuce, tomato, and served on a brioche roll alongside “skin-on” potato fries—and the Chicken Milanese Salad ($17), a bountiful bed of arugula dressed up with a chicken cutlet, tomato, onion, lemon, chimichurri sauce, and white balsamic vinaigrette.
For dessert, our table shared the Italian-style Cheesecake ($8) and the Mint Brownie Pie ($8), which were both amazing and totally Insta-worthy in their presentation.
This might have been a “soft” opening, but we definitely fell hard.
Joe & Joe Nyack 173 Main Street, Nyack, NY 845-535-3888
