There's not much guesswork involved with a restaurant named Lasagna, but there is quite a bit of mystery (and marinara). The restaurant opened on Huntington's New York Ave. in August in the space where Riley's used to be, during steamy summer weather, but the restaurant's owners are confident it will find its niche: Lasagna's parent restaurant in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood has operated continuously for 28 years — through recessions, blackouts, storms and COVID, proving the resiliency and magnetism of pasta al forno.

The Huntington spot is run by two friends, one of whom (Nourey Lhajii) long urged the other to open a place on Long Island. "We grew up together," said Lhajii of he and his partner, Adam Honig. It was Honig's father, Nathan Honig, who founded the original Lasagna in 1993 using his own recipes, said Lhajii. (For a time, there was another location on the East Side, but it closed about four years ago).