By Cristina Cuomo
CRISTINA CUOMO: How did you devise your menu, rich in foie gras offerings, even a foie gras ice cream? Why is this a recurring theme on the menu?
ARIE PAVLOU: Why not? “Foie Gras Friday” emerged from a rather interesting experience. When I was on the North Fork, two ladies threatened to put me out of business for serving it. They posed as PETA, copying and pasting a letter that was sent to hundreds of thousands of people to boycott a high-end grocery store in California for selling foie gras, and replaced the name of the grocery story with my name. The local newspaper found that the letter with my name was not from PETA, but from someone posing as them. Foie gras is very controversial, but there is a big demand for it and many people enjoy it. I wanted to incorporate it into seafoods and desserts to offer something more than savory.
CC: Tell me about the Dry-Aged Meat Club.
LIZ PAVLOU: First, you consult with Chef Arie to choose a side of beef right for you. Once you’ve selected your cut, we tag it with your name and you brand your initials with extremely hot irons; it’s so much fun. Chef Arie then ages the meat and you can enjoy a steak at any time.
CC: Where did you two hail from before you came here?
LP: I gained my hospitality experience as an event planner at a private country club in Westhampton; however, Chef Arie’s background is much more exotic. He was born and raised in Cyprus. His family moved to the U.S. when he was in high school, but after that he moved back to Europe and studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. He furthered his training under two-star Michelin Chef Philippe Da Silva in Provence.
CC: How did you meet?
LP: Chef Arie was my teacher. When my sons became school-aged, I enrolled in a culinary class at Suffolk County Community College. I’ll never forget my first day when Chef Arie walked in off his motorcycle wearing a fur coat, Viking helmet and a beaming smile from ear to ear. I was so attracted to his vibe but our stars weren’t aligned at that time. We reconnected a few years later. He was very polite and gentlemanly, and it was the first time in my life I made the first move.
CC: What have been the most popular dishes?
AP: Our fish special with Champagne truffle sauce, truffle grilled cheese and our house-made pappardelle with fresh shaved truffles. I go through an insane amount of truffles.
LP: In my opinion, zucchini spaghetti, hands down. For a lot of people, summer in the Hamptons is nonstop entertaining, socializing and dining out several nights a week. Our customers find it, as I’ve been told, “lifesaving” to be able to enjoy a healthy, low-calorie meal that is still delicious.
CC: The ice creams are all homemade—how did you curate this unconventional list of flavors?
AP: Inspiration for my ice cream comes from one of my favorite Willy Wonka quotes: “And the snozzberries taste like snozzberries.” Our ouzo ice cream, which we created for Greek Easter, tastes just like ouzo. Some flavors happen simply by “Hmm, that should be an ice cream,” like the PB&J, or a customer request like the vanilla-caramel swirl. bistroete.com