bike suggestions for a commuter who takes an occasional long road ride
It sounds to me like you want a fairly simple bike with rear hub gears, styled similarly to a track bike...  There's now "Urban"&dagger; bikes that match up to that category... The traditional thing would be to take an old 10-speed (horizontal-dropout) or singlespeed and replace the rear wheel with a 3-speed hub. (7 or 8 are common now, too)

Here's a few I found (starting with brands my 3 favorite LBSs carry, then some stuff I've randomly run into elsewhere):


Trek/Fisher Waubesa
Trek Soho or Trek Soho DLX
Less of the fixie styling, but the Trek Belleville is nice-looking and well-equipped for hauling stuff.  (this is one I've considered getting)
Globe Live 2&Dagger;
Globe Live 3
Globe Daily 3
Globe Vienna 4
Giant Seek 0
Cannondale Bad Boy ONbike (concept) (but custom would be cheaper)
Cannondale Hooligan 3
Novarra Fusion
Raleigh Cadent I8
Torker KB2 (only 2 speeds, not 3)
Civia Hyland
Civia Bryant
Charge Tap
Charge Mixer


&dagger; "Urban" or maybe "City" or "Street" or something that means "road" without actually saying road.  Sort of a silly term that their marketing departments came up with.

&Dagger; If you hadn't heard, Globe is a spinoff from Specialized.