Max's Es-Ca

Max's Es-Ca is a family-owned Italian restaurant and bar on Richmond Road, where Dongan Hills starts to climb toward Todt Hill. It is as much a place for an occasion as for dinner, and the calendar is long: mozzarella-making nights, comedy shows, mahjongg lessons, holiday dinners and dance parties, with a pavilion for bigger events and a catering business that goes back more than twenty years.

The menu runs from Italian-American standards to steakhouse plates. Start with spicy tuna tartare or baked clams, then go for the rigatoni, a seafood linguine or the vodka chicken parmigiana; the kitchen's showpieces are a rack of lamb and a beef Wellington named for one of the family. Desserts are the comfort kind — beignets, blueberry bread pudding, fried ice cream — and regulars' reviews on the restaurant's site single out the shrimp fettuccine and a pumpkin cheesecake in season.