Baldwin eateries on the menu

It will be an all-Baldwin night on TV Jan. 21, when Verizon FIOS users tune into the company’s popular “Restaurant Hunter” show and find the entire episode devoted to eateries in Baldwin.

Three restaurants – Sweet & Savory, Benny B’s and Raagini – will be featured on the show, along with samples of their specials.

Antoinette Burrows-Porter, owner of Sweet & Savory, 821 Merrick Rd., said “Restaurant Hunter” contacted her in October. Weeks went by, she said, as the show tried to determine how her eatery would be featured. Then she learned that the show’s producers had found out about Raagini and Benny B’s, two other Baldwin restaurants.

For the show, that settled the question. There would be an all-Baldwin episode.

“The episode will be huge,” Burrows-Porter said. “It’s a huge thing for Baldwin.”

Taping the show proved nerve-wracking for Burrows-Porter and her crew. She said the TV crew came in about 2 p.m.

She said the production team did advance research and looked at reviews, so they came in requesting certain foods.

“The really scary part was we had to do it [cook] while they were filming, Bowers said. “For my team it was scary for them, so they made a couple of fumbles.” But the Hunter crew urged the S&S team to relax, so eventually they grew calmer. “From that point on, it was smooth sailing.”

The result: “They loved us,” Burrows-Porter said. “Initially walking in, they loved the décor. They said they felt a sense of home.” She said they compared S&S, which celebrates its one-year anniversary this month, to eateries in New York’s Greenwich Village and Soho.

The "Restaurant Hunter" crew requested some S&S specialties, including Marley Mac, a macaroni and cheese dish with a Caribbean-Jamaican flavor, and Burrows-Porter’s apple bread pudding. The crew also asked for a number of drinks, including an S&S specialty, a ’Smores hot chocolate, with a ’Smore’s topping.