JUNE 2019 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 73
CHEF JEFF MANZULLO
PH.D. IN SEAFOOD
BY ALAN KRAWITZ
Jeff Manzullo, currently head chef at
the newly opened Tiki Joe’s Captain’s
Table at Captree Boat Basin in Bay
Shore, is no stranger to cooking up
some of the tastiest seafood on Long
Island.
Saying that cooking is “in his blood,”
Manzullo, 57, has been navigating hot
stoves and busy kitchens for the better
of three decades since graduating
from top culinary school Johnson &
Wales in Providence, Rhode Island in
1982, four years after celebrity chef
Emeril Lagasse graduated. Recalling
his early days as a chef, Manzullo
jokes that he had originally planned
to be a marine biologist but then
learned there was little money in the
profession, so he decided to change
things up.
“I went from studying fish to cooking
them,” he says.
Manzullo once appeared as a contestant
on the cooking show Top Chef
many years back. He recalls that his
grandfather was also once a sous
chef at the New York City landmark
Waldorf Astoria Hotel back in the
1930s.
Over the years, Manzullo says, he has
cooked at a number of restaurants
across the country, including a few in
the Florida Panhandle, before coming
to Long Island where he owned and
ran his own restaurant, Mulligan’s in
Hampton Bays, from 197 to 2003. That,
he says, was before rising rents in the
now super trendy Hamptons forced
him to close.
Ironically, Mulligan’s was primarily a
popular burger spot. He recalls routinely
going through up to 900 pounds
of chopped meat per week.
Manzullo also spent considerable time
crafting cuisine at other notable Long
Island restaurants including Morgan's
Beach House Restaurant in Patchogue,
Mickey Felice's Steakhouse, also in
Patchogue, Long Island National Golf
Club in Riverhead, and Larry's Crab
House in East Moriches.
Asked about his start in cooking,
Manzullo nonchalantly says he kind
of "stumbled" into cooking despite the
fact that he was always very good at
preparing food.
"I didn't picture myself sitting behind
a desk...I have a hard time sitting still
as it is," he explains, describing his
frenetic, always-on-the-go style of
cooking.
“This is a good business for me
because there’s always something
exciting going on,” Manzullo says. He
notes that he’s had his share of crossed
paths with notables and dignitaries
alike, including cooking at one time
for LI radio personality WBAB-FM’s
Bob Buchmann and his Jukebox Café
as well as cooking for former President
Gerald Ford.
Manzullo’s current focus is helping
Tiki Joe’s Beach Club visitors to discover
the joys of quality yet moderately
priced seafood at the just-opened
Captain’s Table restaurant upstairs
at Tiki Joe’s Captree Boat Basin. The
restaurant is on the former site of
Captree Cove.
The mostly seafood menu at the Captain’s
Table was a joint effort between
Manzullo and his boss Joe Vitrano,
president and CEO of J&B Restaurant
Partners, which owns Tiki Joe's
Captain's Table in Bay Shore as well
as a number of other Tiki Joe’s concessions
across LI, including Smith Point,
Cedar Beach, and Cupsogue parks, in
addition to a number of Friendly’s
locations.
The reasonably priced menu, which
features only a couple of items topping
$20, includes standards such as
calamari, baked clams ( which Vitrano
says are "likely the best baked clams
you'll ever have"), mussels, clams on
the half shell, marinated flat-iron
steak, mahi-mahi, and lobster ravioli.
Manzullo’s specialties include puttanesca
mussels, and a popular Tiki
Joe’s favorite, a lobster salad roll, will
soon make its seasonal debut.
And as a student of marine biology,
Manzullo ensures the fish is always as
fresh as those coming in off the boats
at the pier just outside the restaurant.
He wouldn’t have it any other way.
Tiki Joe’s Captain’s Table is open
daily for lunch and dinner from 10
a.m. to 10 p.m.. It is located at 3500
East Ocean Parkway, Bay Shore. It
can be reached at 631-333-1781 or
tikijoesbeachclub.com
MAIN DISH
Jeff Manzullo is head chef at the newly opened Tiki Joe’s Captain’s
Table at Captree Boat Basin in Bay Shore. (Photo by Jennifer A. Uihlein)
“I went from studying fish to cooking them,”
says Jeff Manzullo, head chef at Tiki
Joe’s Captain’s Table.
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