Nick & Toni's

 

July 14^th 2026

Nick & Toni’s

Another year had gone by, and it was now time to plan for the annual visit to East Hampton of our friends Martha and Jimmy.  Historically, our dinners together consisted of one-home cooked meal and one or two dinners at a restaurant.   Nick & Toni had come highly recommended to Martha, and she was eager to try it.  Ed and I had tried the pizza menu there many years ago so experiencing the dinner menu for the first time would fall within the criterion for review on Restaurant Epiphany.  

 The restaurant opened in August 1988 and was created by Toni Ross and her husband Jeff Salaway whose childhood nickname was ‘Nick” -- hence the name Nick & Toni’s. The inspiration for the cooking is the ingredient style of Tuscan cooking, and the farmhouse design was centered around its signature wood-burning oven.  In its early days, the restaurant attracted many celebrities, and today well-heeled residents are patrons.   The greeter was cordial and welcoming and quickly brought us to our table in this comfortable environment. We were close to the wood-burning stove that could have been an issue had it not been for the delightful air conditioning. The cool, calming colors of the surroundings invited us immediately into the space.   A glass of wine was definitely in order as we browsed the menu.  Turns out this farm to table menu was easy to navigate with a dearth of items in the entrée column that contained three fish dishes and only one chicken, one beef and one vegetarian dish. We had barely taken a sip of our wine when the appetizers arrived. The Paccheri – a burrata with tomato and pesto unfortunately lacked the creaminess one expects in this traditional Tuscan dish and was notably under seasoned.  Far more successful was the rosemary, thyme and sea salt focchia.  The accompanying whipped honey ricotta was subtly sweet and delightful. We had almost finished the last morsels of the appetizers when our plates and utensils were whisked away with the entrees on their way.

  Here is a suggestion for restaurants: when more than one person orders a particular entrée: please try and make sure that portions are equivalent in size.  Alas, both Martha and I ordered the swordfish dish with mine clearly on the larger size.  Martha obviously noticed and asked the server who claimed that although the configurations of the fish were different, the weight was the same.  Oh well!  That being said, the swordfish was accompanied by chickpeas and a divine sauce that was scrumptious. Jimmy, however,  ordered the Penne alla Vecchia Bettola, a sad, unadorned,  plate of pasta  covered with a large  glob of tomato sauce.

 Again, as the last bite of the entrees was consumed,  the plates were swept away, and then on to the dessert. Martha’s friend had recommended the Tartufo, a quite frozen caramel truffle with chocolate and hazelnut gelato and almond biscotti crumbs.  Frozen proved to be the operative word: it was so solid that we had to wait 15 minutes before we could actually attempt to eat it.  Pleasant enough because there is always room for ice cream but unremarkable.

In a rather delightful irony, after all the earlier rushing and whisking away of dishes, no one seemed remotely interested in rushing us out.  We were free to linger at the table – a surprisingly gracious ending to an otherwise hurried evening.