East End Eats: Michael's Restaurant
The first thought, upon hearing that Michael's restaurant in Springs had changed hands, was "Darn it! There goes one of the last inexpensive places to eat."
All was well, however. Though the prices have gone up a little, Michael's is still great value, and the price rise is offset by a bigger menu with more imaginative offerings. There is an extensive selection of daily specials - on Sunday night, for example, there were six entree specials in addition to the regular menu.
Other things that haven't changed about Michael's are the cozy, Gemtlich atmosphere and the fact that it's still as difficult to find as ever. When searching for the turnoff from Three Mile Harbor Road, what you have to look for is Maidstone Market and the Springs Barber Shop on your right and what you have to remember is that you haven't got there until it feels as if you've reached Vermont.
Alcoves And Corners
Part of the restaurant's charm is its complicated arrangement of big and small tables, open spaces and enclosed booths, alcoves and corners, and rooms leading from one to another. It makes it a particularly attractive place on cold winter nights.
Appetizers range from $2.75 for a small soup to $7.95 for mussels, shrimp cocktail, or baked brie with apple or sausage. A la carte entrees start at $9.95 for pasta marinara and peak at $29.95 for surf 'n' turf, with the majority under $17.
But the bargains come with the special offers: a series of $9.95 entrees - on Sunday they were duck, chicken, and penne with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes - which include soup or salad, daily specials, or the regular $15.95 prix fixe dinners. These include soup or salad and dessert and a choice of half a dozen different entrees.
Maidstone Snails
Right up there in the imaginative category was the snail appetizer. Instead of being six little chewy things in pretty shells with a bit of garlic butter, this was a whole dish of snails, so tender they might just have ambled in from Maidstone Park, in a delicious Pernod sauce.
The Cajun shrimp and corn chowder was judged the best chowder anyone at the table had tasted in a long time - a sweet, creamy concoction enlivened with a peppery kick. The house salad was a little unimaginative and the dressing was a bit heavy on the vinegar. A couple who ate there on the same night raved about the fried oysters but were cooler about the portobello mushrooms with shaved parmesan.
Two Evenings' Worth
If you order the traditional sort of dishes that Michael's always carried in the past - roast beef, pork chops, lamb shank, prime rib, etc. - you can still rely on getting an enormous portion, laden with mashed potatoes, pureed squash, and fresh vegetables, that will feed you for the next evening, too, as like as not.
The three dishes we tried - roast lamb, prime rib, and flounder - were all the well-cooked, hearty, no frills offerings we had been expecting. Reports from other diners who have eaten at Michael's recently particularly praised the barbecued pork chops and the seafood fra diavalo, a dish of shrimp, mussels, clams, and calamari in a spicy marinara sauce that is $18.95 for one or $29.95 for two.
Though in theory we should not have had room for dessert, we felt we had to try some purely in the interest of research: a delicious chocolate mousse that came in a little pastry shell, a light tiramisu that didn't cloy, and a hearty, homey apple pie.
Bloody Mary
Also worth mentioning is Michael's Sunday brunch, which includes a complimentary Mimosa or Bloody Mary and a basket of featherlight muffins with the dish you order. That could be eggs Benedict ($9.95), poached salmon ($12.95), omelets, pancakes, chicken, or pasta. The French toast is particularly good, being made with challah which has been rolled in coarse-ground cornmeal.
There is nothing earth-shattering to report about Michael's, but the food is good, the service is friendly, the price is right, and it's the sort of place that, when no one can agree about where they want to go for dinner, someone says, "Well, then, why don't we just go to Michael's."