Four years ago Andrew Whitcomb was part of the leadership team of his family’s business, Whitsons Culinary Group, an Islandia-based food-service company that provides corporate and emergency dining to clients all over the Northeast. But after a private equity firm bought an interest in the company, he was free to pursue his own dream. Did he buy a ticket for a world cruise? Retire to a tropical island?

Nope, he opened a restaurant.

"I wanted to get back to the thing I really love, making food and making people happy." he said of his new Blackfish Tavern in Northport. "And after 45 years of working with my family, I wanted to try doing something independent."

Since moving to Northport in 2013, he’d driven by the old Elijah Churchill’s Public House and thought, what a great location for a

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