64 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JANUARY 2018 64 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2017 64 LONGISLANDPRESS.CO M • SEPTEMBER 201-----------TUTU111
Drinking outside the box
Chef Ed Davis marks 20 years at Waterzooi, LI’s only Belgian bistro
By ERIC VOORHIS
After the 1996 debut of Croxley’s
Ale House in Franklin Square whet
Long Island’s thirst for craft beer,
Ed Davis and his business partners
had a concept for a traditional
Belgian bistro.
But they kept asking themselves: Is
the Island ready? At the time, most
people said, “No,” recalls Davis,
executive chef and co-owner of
Waterzooi Belgian Bistro & Oyster
Bar in Garden City, which opened
two years later.
“Right off the bat people came in
looking for Bud and Bud Light, and
we had to tell them that we only
carried Belgian beer,” Davis says.
“The feedback we got was basically,
‘Good luck, guys. We’ll give you a
couple months.’”
Twenty years later, LI’s only
authentic Belgian bistro is still
going strong.
“Thinking back on it, though, it
was pretty crazy,” Davis adds. “But
we were young when we did it. We
went all chips in.”
Utensils clatter throughout the
brightly lit dining room as the
lunch crowd ebbs and flows on a
recent Wednesday afternoon. Like
clockwork, steaming pots filled to
the brim with mussels regularly
appear from the kitchen, served up
with crisp French-fried potatoes —
moules frites, as the dish is known
in Belgium, where it’s a national
obsession. Waterzooi has cooked
up a similar obsession on Long
Island and surrounding areas. The
restaurant goes through roughly
seven thousand pounds of mussels
a week.
“There are certain mussel pots
that’ll bring people driving here
from Connecticut, Westchester,”
says Davis. “All over.”
Davis and his business partners,
Joe Mendolia and Chris Werleand,
first made a trip to Belgium in
‘96, taking a whirlwind foodand
beer tour through Brussels,
Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp and
experiencing everything Belgian
cuisine had to offer.
“We really got into it,” says Davis.
“We were blown away with the
moules frites, the different types of
waffles. The beers were absolutely
insane.”
Developing the concept for
Waterzooi (the name translates
to a traditional Belgian stew) and
getting materials for the restaurant
was no easy task. These days, a
quick Google search for traditional
Belgian mussel pots for sale yields
plenty of results. But things weren’t
so easy “pre-internet,” according to
Davis.
“I remember contacting a Belgian
company for the pots,” he says. “I
basically had to go over there to
the restaurant supply district and
buy pallets of them and send them
back.”
Developing authentic recipes
proved to be just as challenging.
“We did multiple trips, got into
multiple kitchens and really went
over there to do everything,” says
Davis. “There weren’t many books
on Belgian cuisine. It was a real
process.”
Along with Waterzooi, Davis is
the executive chef of neighboring
Novita Wine Bar & Trattoria and
oversees the kitchens of all five
Croxley’s Ale House locations
throughout LI and New York City.
To manage it all, his day starts
early, around 6 a.m., before he
heads to the kitchen as patrons
start funneling in for lunch.
Managing his staff and working in
the kitchen is still a daily passion
for Davis.
“I still love the rush,” he says.
“There’s nothing like it. When the
dining room gets slammed, tickets
are pumping out, the kitchen is
running on all cylinders. It’s all
about teamwork”
Waterzooi Belgian Bistro offers
a variety of seasonal specials
that change weekly, along with
an ever-changing roster of fresh
oysters. Moules pot varieties,
which are all served with frites and
a house-made mayo, include the
“Homard” with a brandy-cream
sauce, scallions and fresh chunks of
lobster ($39); and the “Thai,” served
with a red curry broth, lemongrass,
ginger and cilantro ($31).
And it’s all washed down with 130
different Belgian beers.
“The slogan we like to use is to
drink outside of the box,” says
Davis.
Waterzooi is located at 850 Franklin
Avenue in Garden City. They can be
reached at waterzooi.com or 516-
877-2177.
PRESS MAIN DISH
Chef Ed Davis gets fired up in the kitchen at Waterzooi. (Photo by Mark Sylvester)
Waterzooi serves up thousands of
mussels weekly. (Photo by Mark Sylvester)