Sunday, June 09, 2013

A Graduation Celebration: Baby Moon, Westhampton Beach, NY

When Big Z graduated from Pre-K, we all deserved a celebration, and we let him choose the location.  Letting a 4-year old choose the restaurant can be riskly, fortunately the guest of honor requested pasta and fries, so we settled on Baby Moon, an Italian joint in Westhampton Beach.  I call it a joint, because that's what it is - old school Italian.  It is not fancy old-school Italian like Carbone (which I drooled about in this week's New York Times review with its amazing food and tuxedo-clad waiters), rather it is your typical pizzeria upfront, dining room in back crowd-pleaser Italian. 

Given that it is still not technically Hamptons high season, Baby Moon had only one of their two dining rooms open tonight in addition to the pizzeria.  It was packed.   Ironically, not with other graduates - I guess not too many parents take a 3 and 4 year old out for dinner starting at 7:45 but hey it was a special occasion.   

Dinner started with a plate of hot garlic knots.  They looked greasy and were greasy (and delicious), although not too garlickly.  We immediately ordered a second batch.  The second batch seemed more like crescent rolls brushed with garlic and olive oil, not that I'd complain about that.

Since it was pushing 8:00 on Wednesday night, we skipped starters and went straight to mains.  Bubba immediately chose the Chicken Cacciatore and we learned long after we ordered that the kitchen was out.  Out of chicken cacciatore?  That did not make much sense. She craned her neck to see what looked good on the other tables and by sight selected the Rigatoni Baby Moon.  Turns out her split second decision was a good one. We all enjoyed this rigatoni dish that had asparagus, peas and eggplant all covered in a tasty Tomato Sauce.  Definitely something to try re-creating at home. 

Best chose a sausage and peppers hero.  An odd choice for dinner, but Best often makes odd dinner choices.  I managed just one taste of sausage, it was well-cooked with slightly dominant fennel flavor.

JB selected one of my all time favorites, Organic Chicken Milanese with a chopped salad on top.  I prefer my Chicken pounded extraordinarily thin, the thickness here was close to 1/2 inch - too thick for me, alas he enjoyed it.

 I had eaten more than my share of garlic knots, and was therefore drawn to the Low Carb Chicken Parmesan from their light menu.  While I do prefer Full Carb Chicken Parmesan, I felt compelled to choose the grilled chicken instead of breaded and the fat-free mozzarella instead of full fat.  
And the boys got their fries and bowties.  They didn't talk much about their dinners, but I will tell you that we brought home leftover bowties and no fries. 

I'd be willing to put money on the fact that there aren't any homemade desserts here.  Nonetheless, Big Z indulged on a Tartufo and Little D shared a lemon sorbet in the lemon itself with Best and me.  Yes, they were good and if you want them, I'm pretty sure you can also get them at Trader Joe's

The meal certainly had it's highs and lows, but all in all it was good.  I'd love to go back in high season to see if there are any differences. I'm fairly sure that JB, Big Z and Little D all want to go again.

Until our next Berger,
KLB

Baby Moon
238 Montauk Hwy 
Westhampton Beach, NY
631.288.6350
www.babymoonrestaurant.com




No comments: