70 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • FEBRUARY 2018 70 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2017 70 LONGISLANDPRESS.CO M • SEPTEMBER 201-----------TUTU111
Turnaround Chef Johndavid Hensley spins pub into Blue Oyster Seafood & Oyster Bar
By ERIC VOORHIS
The newest addition to Long
Island’s restaurant scene is Blue
Oyster Seafood & Oyster Bar, a
white-tablecloth restaurant that
debuted last month where sports
bar Bottoms Up once stood in
downtown Islip.
Executive Chef Johndavid Hensley,
a veteran in the restaurant
industry, touts classic dishes with
contemporary flair and a focus
on featuring local and regional
ingredients.
“My oysters and clams are pretty
much dug right here in our
backyard,” says Hensley, sitting in
a booth as members of the dining
staff began setting tables for the
dinner rush on a recent Monday.
Fitting the restaurant’s motif,
blue light floods the dimly lit
dining room accented by bright
white tablecloths and nautical
decals. Techno music thumping
in the background completes the
nightclub feel.
Hensley takes a positive, hands-on
approach in managing the kitchen.
“I never really tell anybody here
what to do,” he says. “I tell them
why and how to do it, so they
themselves can make discoveries. I
want to inspire and empower.”
Hensley, who grew up in the
Hamptons, got his start in the
restaurant business at an early age.
“My family, we’re restaurant
people,” he says. “So I grew up with
it in my blood. I just fell in love
with the job and the environment.”
He worked his way up the ranks
at Hampton Bays’ now-defunct
Indian Cove Restaurant and
Marina, where he eventually served
as executive chef for more than
15 years. In its heyday, the East
End fixture ranked high among
LI restaurants, receiving four stars
from The New York Times three
years in a row.
Craving the bright lights and big
city, he moved to Manhattan in
the late ’90s, and bounced around
before securing a position as
executive chef of the Russian Tea
Room, where he worked from 1998
to 2000.
“I got a chance to rub elbows with
a lot of political dignitaries,” he
recalls. “It helped polish my skills
with the service aspect of the
industry. I fell in love, not just with
the food, but also the customers
and what they represent.”
In the following years, Hensley
returned to the Island, and worked
at The Montauk Yacht Club, Greek
Bites Grill in Southampton and
Claudio’s Restaurant in Greenport.
While discussing his long career
in the restaurant industry, a much
younger chef approached the
booth at Blue Oyster Bar and asked
Hensley for a second opinion on a
meatball.
“It’s fluffy enough, right? Not so
dense?” Hensley says, inspecting
the chef’s creation. He later
explained it was an “Arthur Avenue
meatball,” a Blue Oyster appetizer
served with whipped ricotta cheese
and named for the Little Italy
section of the Bronx. After a brief
consultation with the other chef,
Hensley says, “All right, run with
it.”
Throughout the course of his
career, Hensley says, skilled chefs
often took him under their wing,
a practice he’s now adopted. He
believes strongly in “paying it
forward.”
“The kids here, when I give them
a recipe, I want them to feel it and
touch it,” he says. “I like others to
discover what made me smile when
I was younger.”
Blue Oyster Seafood & Oyster Bar
serves up a variety of regional and
local seafood along with classic
dishes and steaks. Appetizers
include baked clams with lemon
and thyme ($12) and herb-crusted
Tuscan wings served with a curry
cream dip. Entrée selections include
Montauk swordfish with a honeysweet
potato mash and cranberry
chutney ($28); traditional paella
with shrimp, clams, mussels and
chorizo ($32); and French lobster
ravioli. That’s in addition to a full
raw bar that features a variety of
local oysters served daily.
Blue Oyster Seafood & Oyster Bar is
located at 524-526 Main St. in Islip.
They can be reached at 631-446-
4233 or blueoysterlongisland.com
PRESS MAIN DISH
A pearl of a clam bar
Johndavid Hensley of Russian Tea Room fame shucks his new
restaurant’s namesake shellfish. (Long Island Press photo)