I live in Nassau and I can tell you that Long Island is a very tough market for cabinet shopping. Retailers assume that everyone will spend $100k.

Anywhere you shop your experience will be greatly impacted by the salesperson or designer assigned to you when you first shop. It's better to get some recommendations rather than walk in blindly.

Another frustrating issue is that after your kitchen is layer out, you will not get a cost breakdown so it's near impossible to comparison shop and compare apples to apples.

My advice to you is to shop around. I ended up buying a custom Cabinetry in Pennsylvania because the prices I got locally were absurd before even adding on bells and whistles. I also couldn't stand the coy nonsense of the sales people.

Dilly_ny: thanks for your input. I just started getting educated on kitchen cabinets myself and you are absolutely right... Prices on LI are ridiculous. May I ask where exactly you got your cabinets?

Worse is the attitude of the KD's on Long Island. Glad I am not doing a kitchen here. stellaalto, my sister just redid her kitchen. All custom. I'm sure she paid through the nose, but it came out gorgeous. I could ask her if you'd like.

Cpartist: yes please ask your sister. Thank you. I wonder where I would need to go if I am to avoid the notorious LI prices and attitudes!

I am on Long Island too and did a kitchen with cherry Ultracraft cabinets from Consumers last year. They have been great for the last year-fingers crossed! I was focused on getting frameless cabinets and they were the best cost/quality value we could find. We went through our contractor and saved about 15-17%. I had a pretty set layout (thanks to the layout gurus over here and my small space)- so I used that to get a feel for basic pricing. I also made a spreadsheet with different features that I was looking
for in frameless cabinets and used this knowledgeable forum to get what
the 'best' answer for each feature should be. This way I was able to
rule out some companies that looked like good value but the cabinets
didn't have the best quality.
I would suggest you get a basic layout on paper, use exact measurements and find a basic door style you like. Then, get quotes on that to get a feel for different grades of cabinets.. Also, if you like a KD and find their price a little too high-ask them what they can do to lower the quote. I would suggest you don't compare prices of your kitchen with others (like friends/relatives/forum members) because the details are never the same. You might not know if they did fancy end panel detailing or multiple glazes or maybe the manufacturer was running some special or the retailer had to meet a sell quota etc. You should figure out what your wants and needs are and shop that around.
If you read this forum enough, you will find the standard/best answer to a problem like yours is to read, read some more and arm yourself with as much information( and a good basic layout) before you go in to cabinet shop. That way, you can stop the KDs from wasting your time with BS.

Good Luck! I know how stressful it is especially on Long Island where it seems everybody wants an arm and a leg and you only have so many to spare :-) .

ETA: I have heard good things about Ken Kelly kitchens recommended above. I haven't used him myself but Ken spends time educating customers on a LI forum that I visit. Also, a custom cabinet maker that has been recommended a lot on that forum is Dynamic Kitchens http://www.dynamickitchenfurniture.com/ He doesn't do frameless-so I have no personal experience with the firm.

Well I texted my sister and this is what she said. She has the Wood-Mode/Brookhaven cabinets and when I asked her about her KD, she wasn't too keen on her. to quote her, "I had to micro manage her."

So while her kitchen is gorgeous and the cabinets are stunning, she wouldn't recommend who she used. I'll check around some more.

if you know what you want as far as door style and a layout, i have a good custom cabinet maker. his workshop is in long island city and we are pleased with the construction of his cabinets. with install, we paid $5k less for custom frameless cabinetry than a semi-custom quote we received that did not include install. that also included two "fancy" blind corner items- a magic corner and rev a shelf two tier cloud. i personally do not like susans so those were my personal preference. let me know if you'd like his info. my only caveat is he is not a designer. so you either have to already have a design or he can do a very simple one for you.

Agk2003: I would love the cabinet maker's info. Thank you

That sees really high. I paid just over 12K in the Boston area (also very expensive) for more than 16 cabinets - almost half of which are drawers which are more expensive with deluxe upgrades, customized inserts, soft close, and all. Of course, mine are Home Depot KraftMaid (we purchased them during an annual sale) which are not top of the line but they are nearly 3 years old and look and feel like new, with lots of abuse from three young kids and a dog. I purposely didn't go top of the line because of young kids and all... Also, consider this before doing a Lazy Susan. Way better use of space! It's a double decker shelf that tilts out and has two deluxe roll out drawers behind it. Uses she same space/configuration as a lazy susan.

Agk2003: I'm in Westchester County, NY and interested in doing Frameless cabinets for my kitchen. Doing my research now on Design-Craft, Ultra-Craft and InnerMost. Would your cabinet maker be available to do work outside of Long Island?

lisa, i would think so but am no longer in a position to recommend him as he screwed up some of our molding.