Trattoria Diane, the Roman-style restaurant at 21 Bryant Avenue in Roslyn, has reopened under a new name and with a new cuisine. The family-run restaurant is now Milroy Bistro, and the menu has moved from Rome to Paris: leeks vinaigrette, escargots, moules frites, steak au poivre and a whole Dover sole finished in Isigny butter.

The restaurant announced the change on its own site, telling regulars that it had reopened its doors with a new name, a refreshed dining room and an entirely new menu built on French cooking. The team wrote that the hospitality and service that kept people coming back to Trattoria Diane would stay the same. The phone number, (516) 621-2591, and the address have not changed.

From verdure and fritti to a French bistro card

Trattoria Diane described itself as a casual Roman spot modeled on the neighborhood places its owners had found on trips to the Eternal City, with a menu laid out the Roman way: verdure, fritti, antipasti, primi and secondi. Milroy's menu, published as a single page on the new site, is a classic bistro card in French, with English descriptions under each dish.

The starters, listed as les entrées, run from $16 to $32. They include poireaux vinaigrette with beet vinegar and hazelnuts, a dayboat scallop with Jimmy Nardello peppers and sorrel, a celery root tartare with taro chips, and a mushroom vol-au-vent made with chanterelles, puff pastry and a vin jaune sauce.

The main courses, les plats principaux, run from $30 to $75. Among them are a roast half chicken, rabbit confit with duchess potatoes, branzino with a shellfish sauce vierge, a pan-roasted prime lamb loin, an eight-ounce prime filet mignon with peppercorn sauce and pommes purée, and a 600-gram Dover sole served with sautéed haricots verts. Sides such as sautéed potatoes, pommes frites and haricots verts are $14 each.

A raw bar with a Long Island accent

A full section of the menu is given over to shellfish, and much of it comes from close to home. Oysters are from Oyster Pond, served by the dozen or half dozen with a pink peppercorn mignonette. Clams on the half shell are listed simply as Long Island clams. Chilled red shrimp are from Montauk. The escargots are listed as Peconic snails, cultivated locally, and served with three butters.

For a table that wants to share, there are two towers: a petit plateau with six oysters, six clams, four shrimp, mussels and tuna crudo for $110, and a grand plateau with a dozen oysters, a dozen clams, eight shrimp, tuna crudo, marinated mussels and jumbo lump crab for $190. A chilled half lobster is offered at market price.

The produce side of the menu leans on the North Fork as well. Two salads and the roast chicken are built around vegetables from Rottkamp Farm, including red and gold beets, lettuces, butternut squash and baby carrots.

What stays the same

The restaurant is in the same building on Bryant Avenue, and the letter to guests is signed by the Milroy Bistro team that ran Trattoria Diane. Trattoria Diane had added heated outdoor dining, and its old site still points diners to online ordering and reservations while the new site finishes going up. Milroy has also posted a separate wine list alongside the food menu.

One detail for anyone searching: the new website's address uses the name Bistro Diane, while the menu, the wine list and the announcement to guests all use Milroy. The restaurant's own letter to diners names it Milroy Bistro.

How to go

Milroy Bistro is at 21 Bryant Avenue, Roslyn, NY 11576. Call (516) 621-2591 for reservations and hours. The current food menu and wine list are posted on the restaurant's website, and prices on the printed menu may change with the market, especially for lobster and shellfish.

Sources