Build-your-own salads, wraps and warm bowls have set up shop under a new 2,5000-square-foot “Just Salad” restaurant that opened in East Meadow this month.
The 2411 Hempstead Turnpike location—Long Island’s eighth after Plainview, Port Washington, Commack, Oceanside, Westbury, Huntington Station and Hauppauge—was formerly occupied by AT&T in the same Clearmeadow Plaza as a CVS Pharmacy.
An aside: I hustled into said CVS as my girlfriend rattled off our orders Sunday night with just enough time to spare before her phone shifted this mortal coil–RIP. I did so to snag a couple of 2/$5(.48) gigantic-sized Gatorade Zeroes.
This I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-caloried, gargantuan gauntlet of glacier frost flavors has shaped up to be the antidote to my widely-reported penchant for Pepsi, I profess and happily digress in the same fell swoop.
An entrée: Southwest Crunch with Impossible Chicken; a first for me. I’ll still probably eschew impossi-beef for the time being, no disrespect to partakers.
Coming off a Fire Island feast Saturday that culminated in an after-hours Little Vincent’s indulgence in Lake Ronkonkoma, it seemed imperative I introduce another lifestyle correction for reasons made clear by the didactic tone of this dietarily-determined column.
The X-Factor of this excellent meal: a buzzer-beater request by yours truly designed to complement the dressings already cacophonously calibrating an inner circle dubbing itself around town as the avocado, corn and grape tomato medley.
Game-changer, thy name is Peanut Thai.
Last time I took on Thai: right when we touched down in Denver for my buddy’s bachelor party in July 2023. Something about spicy Thai, the altitude-shifting culture shock and a legitimately cursed airport walkabout drove me to drop just outside the Target we popped by to supply our Airbnb.
I lived to tell the tale, vowing to only return to Thai when I could handle the heat.
Just Salad of East Meadow, thank you for making my dreams come true.
Hauppauge, you’re on the clock.