So where can you go if you’re looking for a place with a great meal, incredible craft cocktails and the ultimate hospitality experience in dining? Welcome to Long Beach, New York and LB Social. This is what you could experience… If You Live Here.
LB Social Video Transcript
Dean Miller (00:54):
Hey, Matt, thanks so much for having us. I appreciate you doing this. So tell me a little bit about LB Social. How long have you been here?
Matt Hisiger (01:01):
It’ll be five years in February.
Dean Miller (01:02):
Terrific. And what was your inspiration behind starting this place and the menu that you put together?
Matt Hisiger (01:08):
I always wanted to be in a location where it was somewhat seasonal. I had a friend of a friend who had worked in this location years ago, told me about it. I was on the North Shore for many, many years, but I grew up in Rockville Center, which is two towns North of here. And actually my first job after college was just on the other side of the Long Beach bridge in Island Park at a place called Left Bank Cafe. And I always loved it down here. I always wanted to come back here and when the opportunity presented itself, I knew that this was the place.
Dean Miller (01:45):
Fantastic. So Matt, tell me a little bit about the inspiration behind the menu. What type of food are we serving here? And what brought you to that point?
Matt Hisiger (01:52):
I’d say it’s pretty much a classic American menu in the sense of pretty much anything goes, influences a little bit of French, a little bit of Asian, a little bit of Italian, and then some real classic dishes that we kind of spin off in a contemporary fashion. Try to keep the ingredients as fresh as seasonal as possible. My daily shop for proteins, particularly fish and meat, produce does get delivered directly from the market, but that’s it, just quality ingredients simply prepare just not looking to reinvent the wheel here. Just really looking to put out a tried and true, consistent product on a daily basis.
Dean Miller (02:32):
I love it. Well, if you know me, you know I’m always hungry. So let’s go into the kitchen, take a look and see what kind of magic we can make happen in there.
Dean Miller (02:38):
So give me a hint. Tell me what we’re making here.
Matt Hisiger (02:40):
Sure. So we’re going to make one of the signature dishes of the restaurant, which has many components to it, but the main components of the dish are shrimp, mussels and clams. This is just a very basic blended oil, which is 90% canola oil and 10% olive oil. What I’m doing right now is I’m just sauteing some garlic and some shallots, just trying to release some of that natural oil and get as much flavor as we can out of them. And I’m going to add the four clams.
Matt Hisiger (03:19):
In here, I have tomato sauce, chicken stock and white wine. I’m just going to let them sit for a minute. Now, in the meantime, I’m going to start on the zucchini. We go through about five to six cases of zucchini a week. And again, I like to toast the garlic a little bit, kind of changes the flavor of the garlic a little bit. It gives it a real nutty flavor, so it doesn’t have that raw, hot garlic flavor to it. Yeah. And it’s important to make sure you put enough oil in the pan so that you can actually toast the garlic a little bit. And then I’m just going to add the zucchini and just give it one gentle toss, which will stop the browning of the garlic.
Matt Hisiger (04:16):
And you notice we’re not adding any salt and pepper. We’re not seasoning this dish at all. Number one, the salt would extract the water out of the zucchini, which would make it kind of soupy. Number two, the dish has a lot of salt from the natural salt, which comes in all the shellfish, shrimp, the muscles and the clams. So we don’t season this dish at all. Plus, we already have our tomato sauce, which is seasoned pretty well, which acts as a foundation for the seasoning.
Matt Hisiger (04:43):
Now, I’m going to take my muscles and I’m going to add them in. Okay. Now, my zucchini is just about done. So now I’m just going to take my four shrimp and we’re going to work them into the zucchini. Look at those beautiful plump clams.
Dean Miller (05:34):
All right. Well, I’m excited. Just take a look at this, the colors, the smell. I wish you could smell what I’m smelling right now. It looks absolutely fantastic. Let’s dive in.
Dean Miller (05:45):
I haven’t even gotten down to the seafood yet. Just the flavors, the taste, the balance of this dish is absolutely fantastic. This is everything dinner needs to be. If you guys are looking for a cool, hip place to come to where they’ve got killer food, amazing cocktails, a staff second to none, this is what hospitality is all about. I hope you come check it out. And if you love what we’re doing here and you see it, share it with people. Let’s get Matt and company from LB Social. Let’s fill that house for them and do some great stuff. Thanks so much for tuning in.
Remember, if you lived here, this is what you could be eating too.
Have a great day.
Wrapping Things Up
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