Eat your greens — but don’t forget the chocolate.
Chef Steve Amaral and Ann Corley are cooking up new options for vegetarian, vegan and plant-based foodies at the newly rebranded North Fork Chocolate & Eatery.
The change is a natural one for Amaral, who hasn’t eaten red meat since 1995 and has been on a plant-based diet for five years. Amaral hasn’t seen many options in the area for food lovers who prefer plant-based options, so he expanded North Fork Chocolate’s menu offerings — which already included non-chocolate food items — and revamped the business, formerly known as North Fork Chocolate Company, to North Fork Chocolate & Eatery.
“We thought that anytime we went out to eat, it was pretty impossible to find anything but a vegetable, grilled vegetable platter or a salad, so that kind of was a motivational factor in doing that,” he says.
Although the company — which moved to Mattituck from Aquebogue and opened a second location in Riverhead last year — has had vegan and vegetarian items for about a year now, the menu expansion allows the inclusion of more innovative plant-based options he hopes are enticing to everyone.
The expanded menu is currently only available at the Riverhead location, 309-1 East Main St., which boasts a larger kitchen and seating for about 20 people.
Aside from a large assortment of dark, white and milk chocolates and truffles, some highlights to the expanded menu include the chef’s seasonal soups, including minestrone, vegetable rice and butternut squash.
Another new dish is the white bean hummus and heirloom tomato, which is made with hydroponic lettuce, sunflower sprouts, and extra virgin olive oil. For those who can’t resist a delicious sandwich, there’s the portobello mushroom BLT, made from heirloom tomato, hydroponic lettuce, and mushroom bacon with balsamic mayonnaise.
Check out the complete menu here.
But plant-based dishes are not the only new offering on North Fork Chocolate and Eatery’s table.
Amaral and Corley have also started selling spices from Sri Lanka, including curry, coriander, cinnamon bark, chili flakes, Pandan leaves and more, as well as coffee and Ceylon tea.
The Riverhead spot’s larger kitchen has also allowed for pastries and other breads that will be available to patrons. North Fork Chocolate & Eatery also sells regular and whole wheat options of bread and rolls of focaccia and sourdough bread. The store also offers croissants, pain au chocolat, cinnamon pastries and scones.
Amaral hopes to bring a wide selection of meals to the Mattituck location, as well. He expects to set up a grab-and-go station of packed and prepared vegan and vegetarian meals for both locations, with foods such as mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables, cauliflower steaks and eggplant parmesan, as well as salads and other greens.
Amaral aims to have the grab-and-go program up and operating in Riverhead facility in May, and in the Mattituck building in June.
The chef is also developing a vegan cookbook with Stacy Dermont, the co-author of “The Hamptons Kitchen: Seasonal Recipes Pairing Land and Sea.”
He hopes that this menu expansion helps those who choose a vegetarian, vegan or plant-based diet to feel included.
“For us, it’s not so much of pushing an agenda or ‘hey everybody should be vegan,’” Amaral says. “I just think that it’s providing a voice for people who are seeking out vegan and vegetarian menus to have a place that they can go to and really feel like they’re just not a second afterthought.”
North Fork Chocolate & Eatery is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
