City Island: The Food Edition

No visit to City Island would be complete without eating some local seafood. Technically I guess it would be locally cooked seafood due to that whole pollution making our local shellfish unsafe to eat thing. Most of the numerous restaurants on City Island look like obvious tourist traps with huge parking lots and unnecessary valet parking...perfect if you happen to be a tourist visiting from Staten Island or Jersey: So I let my fingers do the walking and did a little restaurant research on the internets. I found out that the place where all the locals go is Artie's Steak and Seafood.
When in Rome....we ordered the seafood salad for two which consisted of a minor amount of lettuce topped with an outrageously large quantity of seafood- clams, mussels, scallops, calimari, and shrimp. The mussels had a slight grit to them but otherwise everything was very fresh and tasty. The sauce the shellfish was steamed in had a slight hint of tomato and scallion. We also ordered baked clams oreganato which had a fantastic italian breadcrumb mixture on top.
Bellies full, we continued to walk down City Island Avenue passing such monstronsities as the Lido catering hall and it's gaudy statues and carpeted sidewalk with the huge squishy wet spot.

Our final destination after walking the entire 1.5 mile length of the island was Johnny's Reef at the tip of the island. Johnny's is a huge cafeteria style cheap fried fishery with a boatload of tables outside right on the water.

We did not eat anything but instead went for the $3.75 frozen strawberry daiquiris which were pretty weak but very refreshing while we sat by the waterside and enjoyed the pretty views of the Throgs Neck Bridge and Long Island. Note the barbed wire fencing of Tony's on the Pier across the street which has made the critical error of giving the parking lot the prime real estate and tables towards the inside.
So that's City Island food in a nutshell. Or clamshell. Maybe it's all just a dream we dreamed one afternoon long ago. A box of rain will ease the pain and love will see you through.
category: nyc_ food_