A relatively low-key place serving as a natural spot for "low tea." Most folks are all relaxed and mellow from a nice day on the beach, and there's a large outdoor patio providing a gorgeous view of the harbor and all the ferries rolling by.
My impression is that the younger bartenders are more enthusiastic and generous with the booze. One Grey Goose cosmo delivered a knockout punch, while the exact same drink from an older bartender was limper than a Minute Maid lunchbox juice pak.
Still, a good way to ease into the early evening with a drink or two, before revving up the volume at "high tea."
I went to Fire Island for the first time on Sunday July 22nd. Â I had a ABSOLUTE BLAST at the Blue Whale, I didn't want to leave. Â Josh the bartender was super nice and friendly. Â Not only did he take care of my thirst, he helped me look for a souviner t-shirt to take home as a momento. Â He could have just pointed me in the right direction, but instead he took time from his free time to take me to the different shops. Â Much Mahalo for that Josh.
I didn't try any food, but be sure that I will next time. Â If any of my friends are headed to Fire Island, I will be telling them to ask for Josh at the Blue Whale when they get there.
Okay, here's what you need to know before eating anywhere in the Pines at Fire Island. Â Demand exceeds supply by a huge amount, so there is zero incentive for restaurant owners to provide good value or excellent service. Â Everywhere you go you will wait, the service will be spotty and you may or may not get what you actually ordered. Â So if you're in that frame of mind, you'll understand the three star rating I gave Blue Whale.
I had lunch here with a friend and overall the experience was so-so. Â Took awhile to track down a waiter...took even longer to get something to drink. However, the waiter was friendly, though absent minded. Â We both had burgers, which were a little overdone but still flavorful. Â The whole experience was unmemorable but not awful and it ain't cheap. Â Slow service, food not prepared correctly....in any other scenario this would have been a two star review at best, but for Fire Island Pines, this represents fine dining.
You just can't go to Fire Island Pines and expect a Danny Meyer-quality dining experience. Â Heck, you can't expect an Applebees-quality dining experience. Â Service on the island (this part, anyway) just screams "meh, we don't really care because what other options do you have?". Â Since the service was friendly with no attitude, I'd give this three stars. Â
Plus, low tea is fun so overall this isn't a horrible place. Â I look at it like cable TV...when there is not much competition, there's no incentive to provide an exceptional experience because the sheep will keep on coming. Â And to that I say, baa baa!
We had read about the new chef so we were eager to try it out. Â First, we stopped by during the day to make a reservation for Sunday dinner. Â They took a reservation for 7pm by writing a note on an advertisement they had lying around. Â They took my phone number. Â We learned of course that tea dance isn't even over at 7pm on Sunday when we came by, but they hadn't bothered to call. We came back at 9pm when they opened. Â We waited a considerable time before we waved over someone we later learned was a manager, who took our order in a rather perfunctory manner. Â The waiter came by a bit later and said it would be wise to let him know what we had ordered. Â After my partner's glass of wine came, another glass was delivered, because the order had been put in twice. Â We saw bread being delivered to other tables, and asked about it, and were told it would be right out from the oven. Â We were never served or offered bread after that. Â The main courses started arriving at the same time as some of the appetizers, and the waiter told us it was because the manager had put our order in without indicating what should come first. Â We ended up getting all our food at the same time, appetizers and main courses. Â The desserts were comped because of the badly timed meal. Â
Was the food good? Yes. Â Was the experience one I could recommend? Â Hardly. Â Restaurant meals on Fire Island have to be evaluated in context - you are a captive audience on an island with seasonal staff in a vacation town. Â But at these prices, I'd rather get something from the Pines Pantry and sit on the dock for a casual meal than give my money for such a lousy experience.
The Blue Whale does not make Blue Whale cocktails? Â Don't even know the recipe..What???? Â 4 friends living in the tri-state area gave me the "have a great time and have a Blue Whale for me"...oh definately planning on it..only to discover - nope no Blue whales...I looked it up on my i-phone and found recipe..bartender told me he used the ingredients ...well the cocktail was green!!! not the gorgeous Aqua blue from the blue curacao...tasted ok...but
Review Source:I have had dinner two times this summer at the newly managed Blue Whale. Â Dinner was very good both times. Â The porterhouse for two was cooked exactly how we ordered. Â Nicely sized shrimp in the shrimp cocktail. Â Last night, they had a special fried chicken thigh and pork belly frittata appetizer which was out of this world. Â The portion was huge so my friends were able to sample it as well. Â My friends had the tuna and grouper dishes. Â They both enjoyed those dishes. Â
The only downside is trying to get a reservation. Â No one ever picks up the phone. Â And no one returns your voicemail. Â I had to visit in person to make the reservation. And the person helping me wrote the reservation on a pad of paper -- no reservation book. Â I was afraid they'd forget my reservation, but they did not. Â Also, although they open at 9pm for dinner, they ask for reservations at 9:15 or 9:30pm to give them time to setup dinner after Low Tea. Â
Despite the difficulties in ensuring a reservation, I recommend trying the Almond managed Blue Whale. Â Note that both of my dinners were during the weekend.
** July 2011 Update **
In mid-July, my partner and I had the porterhouse for two again since we enjoyed it so much last year. Â As usual, we ordered it rare. Â It arrived a bit more than medium. Â No sign of any red or pink. Â They also did not have any bread that night. Â I was very disappointed because I ordered the mussels for my appetizer and did not have any bread for the broth.
I downgraded my Rating from 4 to 3 stars.
The Blue Whale is always the scene of Low Tea in the Pines (not much dancing, but plenty of drinking!), but it's also - as I learned in my third summer of visiting - a pretty decent place to have dinner. Â If you're willing to dine late (after they can get set up after Low Tea dies down), it's great!
While the staff wasn't able to give us a table for about 45 minutes after our 9:15 Sunday evening arrival, there were a couple of seats available at the bar, so we took a seat there and had a very nice meal. Â Pork chops were good, and the chicken was really good. Â Cocktails were, of course, strong.
From what I hear, this year's menu and service levels are considerably higher than years past, and I'm glad to see people who are ready to raise the bar on service levels in the Pines. Â This is, in my opinion, a really great start!
Don't bother. Â The food, when it eventually showed up, was better than in past years. Â But the service was so horrible (on a Tuesday night) that someone finally announced to us that we wouldn't be paying for dinner. Â A nice enough gesture, but I won't return anytime soon. Â We would have been a whole lot happier, and a lot less frustrated, if we had stayed at the house and cooked for ourselves.
Review Source:I mean, really. What *is* this place?
After a delightful ferry ride surrounded by a menagerie of pocket sized pups, colorful birds in cages the size of my apartment, and more Prada overnight bags than you've ever seen in your life, you're greeted by gorgeous, tanned, designer sunglass-clad men waving at you from the Blue Whale. Low tea, it's called, although I'm pretty sure the only tea you can get is of the Long Island variety. Hrm, maybe this is where the terminology comes from?
A giant patio opens on to the indoor dance floor, complete with a blue whale mosaic. But there's nothing kitschy about the decor here: everything in this commercial complex (as well as this segment of the island in general) is clean and modern. Well, except for the crazy lady who showed up to dance with her huge flags while attempting to hold her poor Yorkie at the same time. That was a sight.
There seems to be a DJ accompanying every facet of the island but the real dancing doesn't happen here: save that for middle tea or later on at the Sip and Twirl. No, low tea is like a big gay reunion where everyone's happy to be there and curious who else came out to the island for the weekend. It's a meet and greet with a hell of a lot of alcohol, and I loved it.
Once you've got your cocktail (and in my experience, it didn't take too long to get one, especially if you went to the inside bar), stake your claim out on the patio and enjoy the view(s).
Came out here over the weekend to check out the renovations and check in with some of my boys who are working the bars!
AWESOME experience, the food is being done by Almond (the same guys who have the space in Flatiron and out in Bridgehampton) what a turn around from past years. Â The place is upgraded for certian but preserved a lot of the old charms. Â The thing I noticed the most was that the service was outstanding, not like years past when it was more about the waiters being seen and less about the waiters being servers. Â We got our drinks in no time, had a great time chatting up Nate our studly server at brunch, and enjoyed an awesome meal compliments of Chef Jason Weiner. Â It was also great to see Antonio - a familiar face from the Flatiron spot out there working the crowds as usual.
A very enthusiastic YES to returning to this venue! Â Its obviously a boys town - so be sure and bring your guy with you! Â As a woman you'll probably want to head out to Ocean Bay or Cherry Grove after Low T, but be sure to leave you boy behind!!
Super outrageous, super over-priced and super watered-down drinks. Â Two margaritas later and I still don't have a buzz... hum... Â
The best place in town to seen and be-seen at high/dance t-party... Â but that's about it. Â The best place to watch the new meat... Â I mean... people coming from the mainland in the ferries. Â Also a good spot to do great people watching!
Next time, I will bring a little flask with alcohol and refill the watered-down served one. Â And wear tight shorts and a tight shirt... thus allowing some hunks and creeps either drunk or 'high' on something to stare and grab while dancing.
Yes, Arnab M., I did enjoy my Turkey burger. The overall menu was pretty good -- light and snacky. Granted, this is the ultimate gay paradise, and anything here that's not in liquid form is easily overlooked.
The outdoor patio is great -- you get a view of the harbor and the queens coming in off the ferry. As a matter of fact, I saw Carson Kressley and his entourage getting back on at some point and could DEFINITELY hear his voice clear across the harbor. Girrrrrrrl, turn it down a notch!
As far as the service goes, unless you're a hot plastic beefcake, service will not be fast.
Low tea, high tea, and then brunch the next morning. That would sum up my experience at the Blue Whale. Firstly, there is NO TEA served at the tea dances, but there is quite the serving of eye candy. I think if you ordered tea, you'd get a hunky man in a Speedo grabbing your crotch, which is a fine alternative, given that I really don't like tea anyway. The music is fabulous, the space is even better, since there is an indoor dance floor, and a pretty expansive patio that makes for a pleasant evening under the sun and moon, cocktails in hand. I would give the Blue Whale 5 stars if their brunch menu wasn't so limited and if their service wasn't soooooo slow. Thankfully, my bagel with lox and cream cheese was delicious, and Eric P. and Glenn L. enjoyed their veggie burger and chicken sandwich as well. Though, part of that might have been the fact that we hadn't eaten a meal since breakfast the day before. Surely, I"ll be back here, and if it's for food, it will probably be because of the outdoor seating and the lack of any other options.
Review Source:Fire Island is gay summer camp, and Low Tea is its casual, fashionable, pop-smiling soul. Â
Every day around six, the Blue Whale kicks off a great, feel-good party in Low Tea. No sedate tables at teatime! The dining room makes way for a small dance floor -- put your hands in the air for the Greatest Hits of Gay! -- while the outdoor space is reserved for slightly-lower-energy socializing, gadding about, and waving to the ferry passengers arriving here or returning to the real world. Â It's a happy place.
Later in the evening, the Blue Whale offers among the best restaurant fare in either Cherry Grove or the Pines. Keep in mind that this is a pretty low bar, but the trend has been toward increasing quality over the last few years. Â Perhaps it's not too much to hope that ingredients from the new Citarella a few doors down the pier will help the Blue Whale take its food up one more notch.
This place is terrible as far as restaurants go but a curious institution nonetheless.
The service is awful at best, the food is OK (when it arrives an hour after ordering it). Â The only good thing about this place is its location right on the harbor, where you can watch the crowd go by on boat and foot. Â
If being served by spacey waiters drugged out on Tina and God knows what else piques your interest then go here three or four times in one weekend. Â I'm guessing most others probably end up here by process of elimination--there just isn't much else.
I've been here several times. Â My first experience went something like this... Â Finally get a table, a *crazy crazy crazy* waiter comes, barks at us that we need to quickly decide what we want to order before everyone else orders, but we CANNOT order drinks yet because the kitchen will get backed up. Â We were given about 4 minutes before he came back and demanded to take our food order or else it would be over an hour before we got anything. Â About 30 or 40 minutes later our appetizer arrived--mind you our crazy waiter still did NOT want us to order our drinks yet. Â Then our main course came. Â We finally demanded that we order drinks, which arrived just before we were finished eating our main course. Â The food itself that time was pretty disgusting--cold and not really what we thought we were getting.
The second time we were told to go order drinks at the bar and then they'd have our table.. Perfect... We ordered and it took about an hour to get our food... Though we weren't in any hurry so this was OK, yet it really wasn't very busy there wasn't even a wait. Â
The next time we sat down and waited about 30 minutes and still hadn't heard any peep of a waiter... We went inside and asked if we could order but they told us they'd find our waiter. Â We waited at least another 20 minutes and went in again, this time they let us order... (Also they had ran out of French fries so we had to get side salads that were covered in a very garlicky/oniony dressing...who runs out of fries!)
So basically go here for the drinks maybe but I'd go elsewhere for the food unless you have all day to sit around.
Low tea, High tea.
One thing I know for sure is they DO NOT serve tea at a tea dance.
Billed as a restaurant and bar as well as the original birth place of The Tea Dance, Blue Whale is really more of a social club for speedo wearing fashionistas and their admirers. The low tea dance is not much more than a cock(tail) party with a DJ. Â I'll admit it is fun to watch the ferry arrive loaded with what the boys at the bar refer to as "fresh meat". Â
The eyecandy is amazing and the drinks are strong so it gets 5 stars as a bar/club.
During lunch and late dinner hours (10p) the dance floor and outside deck become a patio style dining room. I would say this is a good place to avoid if you want to have a meal. The menu is uninspired and most everything we ordered was bland. I'll have to deduct two stars for boring food.
Tea for two? Â
I danced with Carson Kressley.
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