This month Long Islanders will gather ’round decorative dinner tables to break bread with their families and friends. And whether that bread is leavened or unleavened, everyone will leave feeling full in their hearts — and stomachs.
The region has long been a melting pot for people of all places, particularly Italian- and Jewish-Americans. Some have even turned their beloved family traditions into popular family businesses, which keep customers coming back to enjoy tried-and-true recipes passed down from one generation to the next.
We spoke with a handful of local business owners who are serving up traditional treats for Easter and Passover this year. Each remarked that the makings of these specialty menu items were handed down one way or another, and they’re eager to share them with you.
BAKED BY EMILY ROSE
Baked by Emily Rose is offering traditional Easter bread and St. Joseph’s Day sweets through Easter Sunday. The former is made of a sweetened, yeasted dough that’s baked to perfection and sprinkled with rainbow nonpareils, and the latter is reminiscent of a cream puff.
Owner Emily Reynolds said the bakery will have three types of St. Joseph’s pastries up for grabs: custard, cannoli, and cannoli rainbow cookies. The Easter items are available in limited quantities in store, but can also be pre-ordered online.
“All of our recipes are passed down from my family … made with all-natural ingredients, [and] baked fresh every day,” Reynolds added. “Baked goods are often associated with Easter and spring, especially in Italian households because [they] bring families together.”
To keep the kiddos busy during dessert, Baked by Emily Rose is offering a truly eggcellent treat: paint-your-own sugar cookie egg kits. Each kit comes with six egg-shaped cookies, a “paint” palette, and a brush bundled up in an adorable egg carton.
518 Broadway, Suite B, Massapequa, 516-490-5050, bakedbyemilyrose.com
Read also: Your guide to Easter Egg Hunts on Long Island 2025
BRUNCH SAYVILLE
Over the past year, Brunch Sayville has served up a small-but-mighty menu of elevated items made from local, sustainable ingredients. Owner Michelle Panciarello, who’s half Italian on her father’s side, said the restaurant is offering her family’s pizza rustica recipe for Easter.
Panciarello described the specialty item as “a joyfully dense deep-dish quiche.” She added that pizza rustica is typically reserved for holidays since it is “pricey and a pain in the butt to make.”
“For us and my family it was always something we did every Easter no matter what,” Panciarello said. “We eat it at room temp, cold, like animals, or heat it and [top it with] Sunday sauce. … It’s freakin’ delicious.”
The recipe includes four types of cheeses and three types of meats: high-quality ricotta, Pecorino Romano, provolone, mozzarella, salami, and a mix of hot and sweet sausages thrown into a bowl with a savory egg mixture. Panciarello also adds cracked black pepper to cut through the salt before baking everything together in a flaky, homemade crust.
Brunch is offering small and large pizza rusticas for pre-order a week before Easter, but will also have limited quantities available for purchase in its display case. Panciarello said the specialty item will be available the week after Easter by special order only.
32 Foster Ave., Sayville, 631-319-1556, brunchsayville.com
LIDO KOSHER DELI
For more than 90 years, customers have flocked to Lido Kosher Deli for a taste of traditional Jewish food. The business is co-run by father and son Wally and Russell Goetz, who represent the family’s third and fourth generations.
The deli offers packages that enable anyone, regardless of faith, to experience all the makings of a proper seder, a ceremonial dinner held the first two nights of Passover.
“The ingredients we use . . . have not changed [from] whatever we cooked generations ago — we keep it real,” Wally said. “Even people who are not religious observant have the opportunity to purchase a traditional Passover meal.”
The Passover Packages feed six or 12 people, and include an appetizer (chopped liver, gefilte fish, or mini stuffed cabbage), soup (chicken matzo ball or vegetable), one main course (roast chickens, brisket, or fresh turkey), and two side dishes. Lido also sells shank bones, roasted eggs, and bitter herbs, the traditional fixings of a Passover Seder plate.
Wally’s hope for the holiday is to make new customers feel like family — a tradition he and his family have upheld since opening the deli back in 1932.
641 E Park Ave., Long Beach, 516-431-4411, lidokosherdeli.com
ZAN’S DELI
In the 40-plus years that Zan’s Deli has been in business, consistency has been the key ingredient to its success. From the coleslaw and stuffed cabbage to the soups and sandwiches, Owner Pat Ruggiero said customers have noted this distinction since Day One.
The deli counter will be stocked with classic Passover favorites like carrot tzimmes, gefilte fish, noodle pudding, and more. Customers can even purchase a premade seder plate from Zan’s, which includes a shank bone, an egg, parsley, and charoset, a sweet mixture of finely chopped fruits and nuts sometimes marinated with Manischewitz.
Ruggiero said the food eaten at Passover closely resembles what the Jewish people ate to survive upon fleeing Egypt.
“We eat unleavened bread (matzo) because they couldn’t make regular bread,” he added. “Food is an essential part of any occasion for Italians and Jews.”
135 Alexander Ave., Lake Grove, 631-979-8770, zans-deli.com
