Where Hospitality Is Always on the Menu (Excerpt)

Long Islanders love restaurants, particularly those hospitable hangouts that they can treat as second homes or clubs. Although these spots come in all sizes, shapes and price ranges, most share similar characteristics.

They have welcoming, often charismatic owners, managers or hosts that personify their restaurants' warm spirit. These genuinely concerned restaurateurs quickly learn their patrons' names, birthdays, food preferences and allergies. They treat customers like family. When diners say ''I'll have the usual,'' they know what it is.
But all these hospitable and sincere hosts wouldn't mean much if the kitchen fell short. Here are seven superb eating places that offer both congeniality and fine food...

...The Extra Mile

When regular customers go to the hospital, Stresa in Manhasset (and Woodbury) follows them, sending flowers and more. On a Saturday night, in response to a last-minute call from a long-time diner, Giorgio Meriggi, a partner in the restaurant with Pasquale Cervera and Anthony D'Argangelo, cooked a meal, delivered it and got permission to use the hospital kitchen to prepare a chocolate soufflé, the patient's favorite dessert. Another recovering regular received baked clams and the scotch that always accompanied them, this time smuggled in a soda bottle.

A frequent diner at Stresa keeps a small wardrobe there. He often arrives wearing shorts, goes downstairs and changes into pants and a jacket and tie before appearing in the dining room.

On the night of her Passover seder, a customer with a broken oven and 30 guests only hours away called Mr. Meriggi in a panic. She used the restaurant's kitchen, blanketing it and the preparation area with reams of aluminum foil because she kept kosher.

When a nervous young couple chose the restaurant as the spot to tell his parents that they had eloped, the bridegroom's mother was so upset that she refused to eat and retreated to her car. Stresa's owners served her an entire three-course meal there, complete with tablecloth and wine.

WHAT TO EAT -- Sautéed portobello mushroom with chicken livers, onions and peas, a special; pastry-crusted four-bean soup; butterflied baby chicken; and bigoli alla Latina, homemade pasta topped with strips of pecorino cheese and laced with pancetta, cabbage and fresh tomatoes. Save room for one of the homemade desserts: chocolate soufflé, chocolate cake, a fresh peach tart with homemade vanilla ice cream, crème brûlée and lemon cake.

Stresa, 1524 Northern Boulevard, Manhasset, (516) 365-6956.