By Emma Barhydt
A trip to Long Island has to earn itself. Home already has good restaurants, handsome shops, and the easy rhythm of a familiar downtown. But at Belmont Park, a new day-trip formula has taken shape: arrive for the shopping, settle in for a real dinner, then head over to UBS Arena with fans in orange and blue ready to cheer on their home team.
Belmont Park Village is set within the broader Belmont Park area in Elmont, alongside UBS Arena and the Belmont Park race track. For first-time visitors, the geography is worth noting. The Village, arena, and track are neighbors along Hempstead Turnpike, but not one continuous front door. On our visit, after parking at Belmont Park Village, we took a short Uber from the Village garage to UBS Arena. It was easy, and the sort of practical detail that makes an outing feel smoother when known in advance.
The first surprise is how much Belmont Park Village feels like an actual village. It is open-air, brick-paved, and carefully composed, with gabled rooftops, arched passageways, ivy-wrapped columns, and storefronts that look more like a polished town center than a retail complex. In the late afternoon light, the red brick glows warmly against the gray-blue sky. Benches and café tables are tucked into courtyards. Green chairs sit on herringbone brick patios. Window murals show banks of blue hydrangeas and garden paths. There are small visual pauses everywhere: a chess table beneath bare-limbed trees, glass display cases holding handbags like sculpture, a dog statue beside a rustic bench, a red streetside café kiosk waiting in the plaza.
For New Canaan readers, the appeal is recognizable. This is a place built for strolling. It understands the old pleasure of looking in windows, noticing a good façade, stopping for a drink, and letting an afternoon unfold slowly.
The retail lineup has real draw: Valentino, Thom Browne, Missoni, TWP, Vivienne Westwood, Coach, Longchamp, Lacoste, Paige, The North Face, Tumi, Roberto Cavalli, AllSaints, and others. Belmont Park Village, part of The Bicester Collection, describes its offering as designer fashion at up to 65 percent off every day, with spring arrivals including lululemon, Roller Rabbit, and Zadig&Voltaire. The discount structure matters, but the Village wisely does not lead with bargain-bin energy. The experience feels curated, calm, and upscale.
Its smartest game-day feature is Hands-Free Shopping. Guests can shop before puck drop and have purchases delivered to the Isles Lab Customization Station inside UBS Arena. That means no bulky bags through security, no shopping tucked under arena seats, and no choosing between a boutique stop and an easy hockey night.
Dinner before the game was at Hundredfold, the French American brasserie at the center of the Village from James Beard Award-winning chef Timothy Hollingsworth. The room has a soft glamour to it: high windows, warm wood, glowing bottles behind the bar, a deep blue ceiling, brass-toned light fixtures, and cut-glass drinkware that catches the light. It feels grown-up without feeling stiff.
The cocktails set the tone. The Heaven Cent, made with citrus vodka, grapefruit, French lemon sorbet, and brut rosé, arrived pale pink and frothy, the kind of drink that looks delicate but has a bright, clean snap. The Chère Margarité, with blanco tequila, aloe liqueur, grapefruit, lime, and agave, was refreshing and elegant — a more polished cousin of the usual margarita.
The food leaned comfortably brasserie, with just enough playfulness. Crescent rolls came warm with whipped butter, honey, and sea salt, a simple dish made memorable by the contrast of flaky pastry, cool butter, and sweetness. Lobster roll bites were neat and generous, perched on brioche. A spicy tuna bite with avocado delivered crunch, heat, and coolness in a single mouthful. Tallow fries arrived in a metal cone with ketchup and garlic aioli, golden and properly crisp.
For mains, the steak au poivre brought the deep satisfaction of charred beef, rosy centers, and a glossy peppercorn sauce. The rigatoni pesto with grilled chicken was bright green and comforting, rich with basil, dotted with blistered tomatoes, and finished with a snowy layer of cheese.
Dessert was Hundredfold’s deconstructed lemon cheesecake, and as someone who is always happy to see cheesecake on a menu, I found it genuinely exciting. It arrived in a glass bowl, with bright lemon cream, delicate crumbs, and soft spoonfuls of ricotta. It still had the comfort and pleasure of cheesecake, but the textures made it feel playful and unexpected — one of the more interesting ways I have eaten a dessert I already love.
After dinner, the evening found its game-night rhythm. From the Belmont Park Village parking garage, it was a short Uber over to UBS Arena, and by then the Islanders faithful were already easy to spot — families, couples, and groups of friends in orange and blue, jerseys layered over sweaters, caps pulled low, everyone moving with the purposeful excitement of people ready to show up for their home team.
Inside UBS Arena, the Islanders faced the Philadelphia Flyers, and the building had the charge one hopes for in a division matchup: banners overhead, blue-and-orange jerseys filling the seats, the scoreboard glowing above center ice, and the Flyers bench lined in orange across the way. Live hockey has a sound no broadcast can quite capture — the scrape of skates, the thud against the boards, the sudden rise of the crowd when the puck turns dangerous. UBS Arena makes that drama easy to feel. The sightlines are strong, the building is handsome, and the energy builds quickly.
Taken together, Belmont Park Village and UBS Arena create a rare kind of outing: elegant but not fussy, sporty but not rough-edged, local in spirit even though it is very much a destination. For New Canaan residents looking for something beyond the usual dinner reservation, it offers a full arc, and the pleasure of a day that feels planned without feeling overproduced.
By the end, the appeal is simple. You come for the Village. You stay for the game. And somewhere between the honeyed butter, the brick walkways, the orange-and-blue crowd, and the roar from the ice, the trip to Belmont Park starts to feel very much worth making.
