Weekly Column

December 5, 2003

STREET TALK

Homestead is a comfortable, long-running steak house in Oyster Bay, a neighborhood place with a welcoming up-front bar and lounge, brick surroundings, fireplace banquettes, chairs, and tables decked in red over white cloths.

Steaks and chops are by and large, of good quality. The menu is atypical, with Italian overtones, raw bar, flash-fried calamari, stone crab claws, Tuscan bean soup, lobster bisque marred by tepidnes, and a selection of salads.

Curiously, among pastas, New Orleans Jambalaya risotto brimming with Spanish sausage, onions and peppers is flawed by over-salting. Rigatoni with smoked bacon turned up al dente but too smokey.

Oversized rib eye, incidentally, is tender and succulent, and sautéed catfish is earthy with garlic.

Homestead, 107 So. St., Oyster Bay, NY. (516) 922-9292. L-D. D-ent. $15.95- $29.95..