Signature Dish: Alobar Summer Menu

Welcome to the Q’Stoner food feature, Signature Dish! Once a week we check in with Queens restaurants and ask the owners about the all-time favorite dishes they serve. If you know of a dish you’d like to see featured here, please email emily@brownstoner.com.

The Spot: Alobar, 46-42 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City.

The Deal: When your restaurant’s philosophy revolves around farm-fresh produce and seasonal dishes, it’s imperative that the menu reflects the changing seasons. So although patrons may miss a favorite hearty dish – such as late winter’s Signature Dish of the Loaded Baked Potato Gnocchi – summer is just an opportunity to find a new favorite.

“Summer is exciting for us because so much great produce comes into season,” says owner Jeff Blath. “Chef Greg likes to plan his dishes around the fruits and vegetables that are in season (as opposed to planning around a protein first). So we naturally get excited when a new ingredient comes into season.”

The Dish: Nothing says summer like fresh heirloom tomatoes, and David Muhs, Alobar’s general manager, is quick to pick out the Heirloom Tomato Salad as the restaurant’s summer signature. With fresh avocado, basil and goat cheese, the salad is light and bright when topped with the charred onion vinaigrette.

The tomato salad is perfectly complemented by the restaurant’s rotating menu of seasonal cocktails as well. The perfect elements of a perfect summer meal, and the perfect lead-in to Alobar’s coming tomato fest in September – “celebrating all things tomato!” according to Blath.