Java’s Brewin’: The Java’s Brewin’ again on Route 110 where Kenny Bernatzky has opened a store by that very name on the site of the former Starbucks across from Walt Whitman Mall. Open for two weeks, Java’s Brewin’ is winning over a crop of regulars with the chain’s signature coffee – a smooth and mild Columbian blend or a Danish dark roast – along with lattes and cappuccinos, made-on-premises gourmet muffins, breakfast sandwiches and other to go selections. The shop also offers an inexpensive menu of sandwiches and paninis, soups and salads. Bernatzky’s makeover of the store — an underperforming Starbuck’s whose scheduled closing was accelerated by a lightning strike last summer — made room for about 15 seats, and a plasma TV and wi-fi. “People walk in and say, ‘Toto, we’re not in Seattle anymore,’” Bernatzky said. The store is not far from where Bernatzky grew up (his elementary school a few blocks away is now South Huntington’s administrative office) and he likes to tell customers that he remembers when the mall across the street was a few stores, the Whitman Theater and potato farms. “After they’d plow the potato fields, we would go to a movie and then walk through the fields and pick up the potatoes that had been turned up,” he said. “That was our big Friday night out.” You won’t have to work quite that hard for a bite at Java’s Brewin’. Drop in at 195 Walt Whitman Road, Huntington Station, sample a latte, and tell Kenny the Foodies sent you.

NO TRANS FAT GIRL SCOUT COOKIES: All of your favorite Girl Scout cookies, including Thin Mints and Samoas, now contain zero grams of trans fat. This year, Girl Scouts of Suffolk County also welcomes its newest edition, the Sugar-Free Little Brownie, to its stellar cookie-lineup. If you still haven’t met a Girl Scout in your neighborhood from whom you can order cookies, call (631) 543-6622. You can also purchase cookies to send to U.S. troops serving abroad and in military hospitals through Girl Scouts of Suffolk County’s Operation: Cookie campaign: www.operationcookie.us.

WINE AT THE MANSION: The beautiful Mansion at the Woodlands (1 Southwoods Rd., Oyster Bay) is offerring complimentary wine tasting in The Lounge Friday evenings from 5-6:30 pm. Each week their wine experts will help you experience and analyse a different varietal. For information 516-921-5707.
PIZZA CAKE? Under the heading, “crumb cake in pizza box on Long Island” from the Chowhound.com tristate region board we learned: “Question: Where to get that amazing crumb cake that is basically ALL crumb topping that comes in pizza box?” Answer: Hummel-Hummel Bakery, 572 Larkfield Rd., East Northport, 631-266-3517.

CURRANT EVENT: When you think Florida, you think “oranges” and when you think Idaho, you think  “potatoes” – well, how about “New York black currants”? In 1999, Greg Quinn, a culinary and horticulture expert, also known as WNYW’s “Garden Guy,” grew interested in black currants and founded The Currant Company, located in Clinton, New York, an area in the Hudson Valley well-known for its culinary and farming heritage (the Culinary Institute of America and specialty farms, ranging from garlic and wine to goat cheese, are nearby). The black currant, once a very popular and readily harvested fruit in the New York region, was banned in the early 1900s because it was found to help facilitate the spread of white pine blister rust, which threatened the booming timber industry. Quinn has led the fight to attempt to bring back the U.S. black currant industry by first getting the ban lifted in New York State. And now with the first crop in almost a half century that may provide profitability to the State’s struggling farmers the Current Company has a product at your local supermarket (King Kullen, Stop&Shop, PathMark): CurrantC Black Currant Juice, winner of Independent Food Festival 2006 Award for “Best Juice Imaginable.” They say its full of antioxidants too.

CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK II: Ruth Graves Wakefield (1905-1977) invented chocolate chips and chocolate chip cookies – bless her. The 1924 Household Arts graduate of Framingham State Normal School with her husband Kenneth in 1930 bought a tourist lodge near Whitman, Massachusetts — a place where passengers had historically paid a toll, changed horses and ate home-cooked meals. They named the establishment the Toll House Inn. Ruth cooked and gained local fame for her desserts. One day, she realized she was out of baking chocolate, and instead substituted a broken-up bar of semi-sweet chocolate made by the Nestlé company. The bits did not melt and a cookie was born. Ruth soon contacted the Nestlé and they struck a deal: The company would print her recipe on the cover of all their semi-sweet chocolate bars, and she would get a lifetime supply of chocolate. Nestlé soon began marketing chocolate chips especially used for cookies. In 1940 Ruth wrote a cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes.

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