Opening a new restaurant can be challenging even in the best of times, but opening up in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century is definitely not for the faint of heart.
Steven Del Lima, executive chef and owner of Hooks & Chops, a seafood and steak house in Commack, admits he was definitely “thrown a curveball” and has had to “adjust on the fly” since opening his doors in October.
“I’m a very positive thinker and I believe that all things happen for a reason,” he says.
Those adjustments include making sure his restaurant, formerly a 5,000-square-foot Ruby Tuesday’s, is replete with the latest in safety protocols including using enhanced filtration HEPA filters, numerous sanitizing stations, widely spaced tables, and dividers.
“By far, from a financial stance and also just keeping up with all the latest Covid safety guidelines to make sure people feel safe, this venture has been the most challenging restaurant ever,” says Del Lima, who has worked at various venues and helped open several spots for other people.
But Del Lima, 48, remains positive and says he has wanted to open the Hooks & Chops version of a seafood chophouse for quite a while and is pressing forward regardless of obstacles.
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in 1993, Del Lima says his interest in cooking goes back to his childhood at home in Massachusetts, when he could often be found in the kitchen helping with cooking, baking, or barbeques.
“I was always the one flipping the burgers on the grill,” he recalls.
Del Lima’s start in the restaurant business began with a job as a dishwasher, then at age 16 he got his first line cook job.
After graduating from culinary school, Del Lima was offered a job by one of his CIA instructors at a restaurant in Hackensack, N.J., called the Stony Hill Inn.
He quickly became a saucier chef at the Stony Hill Inn and would eventually move to New York City, where he made the rounds at elite venues including Gramercy Tavern, Le Bernardin, and Daniel. He also was a managing partner and executive chef at White Oak Oyster Bar & Lounge in Manhattan.
“I learned as much as I could from some of the best chefs in the world,” Del Lima explains.
As a resident of Long Island since about 2000, Del Lima has also made his mark at several Huntington venues, including Wild Fin, Black & Blue Seafood, and Piccolo Mondo.
“I got the idea for Hooks & Chops when I was with Black & Blue Seafood in Huntington,” he says. “I’ve had a passion for the seafood/chophouse concept for a while and I really wanted a place that was centrally located for Islanders.”
Current specialties include wild Alaskan cedar-plank roasted halibut, sweet Thai chili calamari, blue crab beignets, mussel pots, New York strip steak frites with duck fat fries, and a 22-ounce cowboy rib eye steak, prime dry-aged using a unique process with black Hawaiian lava salt, yielding a smoky flavor.
Signature desserts Del Lima says are popular include bagged dropped doughnuts, served with cinnamon and powdered sugar; his version of milk and cookies, which are homemade chocolate chip cookies served with a dolce de leche milkshake, and new-fashioned baked Alaska.
Asked about his business flow since opening, Del Lima explains he’s “pretty lucky,” and that he has been fairly busy.
“My reputation has helped; even though we can only seat at 50 percent, it hasn’t been too bad,” he says.
He says, though that in early February, business dropped a bit because Covid rates in New York State started to spike again.
Del Lima says he knows lots of people in the restaurant business who will not make it out of the current crisis. He believes it’s important to support local businesses as much as possible now.
“Without my customer base, I don’t have a business,” he admits.
However, while Del Lima thinks it will take a while to get back to some normalcy, he feels it will happen.
“You just have to stay positive.”
Hooks & Chops is at 6330 Jericho Tpke. in Commack. It can be reached at 631-600-0521 or hooksandchops.com
For more food and drink coverage, visit longislandpress.com/category/food-drink
