For more than a generation, fine dining on Long Island was synonymous with one restaurant and one man. The restaurant was Pappagallo, which opened in Glen Cove and later in Glen Head. The owner and host, who helped popularize northern Italian fare, was Mario Ghini.
“The Italian kitchen is not a specific recipe . . . it’s a very versatile cuisine,” Ghini said in a Newsday interview in 2015. He added, however, “To me, it was always to give people whatever they liked.” Ghini died last month at 83 in Florida, where he’d intended to retire. A a couple of years after having moved there, Ghini returned to his profession with three successful Italian restaurants.
