East End Eats: Leyla Marchetto

Endless Summer: Year-Round East End Eating

August 30, 2011

All the fixings at Town Line BBQ

It’s hard to believe that Labor Day weekend is upon us—even more so since Hurricane Irene stole one of our final, precious summer weekends. But time is by no means up. If you are able to spend some of the shoulder season out East, September is a beautiful month. The weather is often magnificent and the crowds are usually gone. If you’re like me and you spend a lot of the off-season on the East End—whether full-time or otherwise—you will need to determine who stays open and what they offer. Here are my choices for dining out year-round in the Hamptons, no matter what you crave.

Barbecue: Town Line BBQ, Bridgehampton

Burgers: Rowdy Hall, East Hampton

Family Style Dining: Harvest, Montauk

Pasta: Nick & Toni’s, East Hampton

Pizza: Serafina, East Hampton

Sushi: Sen, Sag Harbor

Thai: Phao, Sag Harbor

Wings: O’Murphy’s Pub & Restaurant, Montauk

David Loewenberg's East End Empire

August 17, 2011

David Loewenberg

Thanks to the opening of little/red in Southampton this year (along with Kirk Basnight), David Loewenberg’s East End restaurant empire is now four strong. As I saw firsthand a few weeks ago at Beacon, he is hands-on and on top of things from start to finish—characteristics that are surely at the heart of his success.

There are a lot of food and beverage trends out there right now. What has your attention and what are you tired of?
DAVID LOEWENBERG: Trends come and go. When you think about it slow food, farm-to-table, sustainable farming—these are not really new ideas. My attention has always been given to the regionality of our restaurants. It is important to me that we provide smart and healthy selections for our diners. Sourcing from our own backyard makes it all the better. What trends am I tired of? While I support the idea of exciting and fun cuisine, I can get impatient of those who only follow what is “hot.”

You have several successful restaurants with varying cuisines. What do you cook at home?
DL: I love to cook at home be it for my wife Sarah and daughter Lucy or a full house of friends. When I cook in the summer I mix in some “shopping” at the restaurants: cous-cous from Beacon; endive and watercress salad from red/bar; and quinoa from Fresno) with grilled striped bass or rib eye steaks. When cooking off-season it can be a whole-day affair with hearty braises, pâtés and terrines and great tarts and cobblers to finish off.

If you were on Iron Chef, what secret ingredient would you love and what would you hate?
DL: I love Iron Chef. It’s always fascinating checking out the serious cooking and different techniques. My secret ingredient would be local blackfish but only if I could have chefs Sammy, Erik, Bobby or Gretchen to bail me out! I wouldn’t know what to do with sea cucumbers.

What has been your go-to beverage this summer?
DL: Rosé. Pink is my favorite color.

And on a slightly different note, I hear you like watches. What was your most recent purchase?
DL: I haven’t bought a watch for two years. My 10th wedding anniversary brought me my first Rolex, a classic Submariner. My 20th landed me my Panerai Marina, which is almost always on my wrist. I’m presently looking at vintage Omegas and Rolex models from the 1970s.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARYANNE RUSSELL

A Perfect North Fork Getaway

August 10, 2011

The view from A Lure chowder house and "oyster-ia"

It is hard to believe that there are only four official weekends left of the 2011 Hamptons summer season. Now is the time to make the most of what’s left. Why not a road trip to the North Fork, where you can wine and dine at some of the best spots on the East End? From roadside cafes to renowned wineries, here are my recommendations for a perfect North Fork itinerary.

To get started right, drive over early and stop for a bite at Erik’s Breakfast & Lunch. This lovely, locally run spot is open daily for breakfast until 11 AM and is well known for its friendly service and great food.

After you’ve filled up, take the time to visit some of the area’s top wineries. Some of my favorites are Lieb Cellars (the Pinot Blanc is great), Macari Vineyards (try the Early Wine) and Bedell Cellars and Corey Creek. On Tuesdays the Rolling in Dough pizza truck is on-site serving thin-crust gourmet pizzas (5-9 PM).

For dinner with a view check out A Lure chowder house and "oyster-ia" at the Port of Egypt Marina, where you can enjoy a raw bar tower and a steamed whole lobster while overlooking the Peconic Bay. And when you’re ready to crash spend the night at the Harborfront Inn at Greenport. All in all about as perfect a getaway as you can get.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIC STRIFFLER (PIZZA)

Stellar Seafood

July 28, 2011

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Tiradito Nobu style

 

Sushi at Banzai Burger

 

Almond seafood tower

 

A beer and sushi at Banzai Burger

 

South Edison oysters and crab

 

The Phao roll

 

South Edison's raw bar menu

 

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There is no shortage of fresh seafood when it comes to dining out in the Hamptons. Over the last few years raw bars, sushi and ceviche have become increasingly popular on menus across the East End. Here are my recommendations for the season.

Southampton
Newcomer Nobu at Capri—a collaboration between restaurateur Richie Notar, Chef Nobu Matsuhisa and hoteliers David Edelstein, Jackie Mansfield, and Steven Kamali—has been packed since it opened in late May. The menu offers some of Matsuhisa’s signature Nobu menu items as well as some crafted specially for the new location.

Bridgehampton
At its new One Ocean Road location, Almond offers a raw bar tower selection of oysters, littleneck clams, shrimp, lobster, scallop crudo, curried mussel cocktail and octopus.

Sag Harbor
Phao, sister restaurant to the ever-popular Sen, added a selection of sushi rolls to its Thai menu due to a growing demand from guests. The sushi menu includes the signature Phao rollmade with eel and avocado topped with fresh slices of mango and served with ginger-mango sauce.

From East Hampton to Montauk
East Hampton’s Turtle Crossing recently added a lighter touch to its new menu with a local seafood ceviche with avocado citrus cilantro and ricotta crostini. Banzai Burger, a new sushi and burger joint located on the stretch between Amagansett and Montauk, serves up fresh sushi made by Chef Isao Yoshimura, who catches much of the fish himself for daily specials including local fluke and black sea bass. The ceviche craze took flight in Montauk last season when Navy Beach opened with a halibut ceviche and scallop tiradito on its menu. This year it includes a tuna sashimi salad as well as salmon tartare. East by Northeast now offers a salmon ceviche in addition to its raw bar tower selections.  Both the raw and baked oysters are popular at the Montauk Yacht Club’s Gulf Coast Kitchen, which also serves ceviche made with the catch of the day. South Edison Chef Todd Mitgang, who hails from Crave Ceviche Bar and Kittichai in Manhattan, serves up a large selection of shellfish at the raw bar, as well as a fluke sashimi served with chili jam, kaffir lime leaf and micro cilantro.

Rushing to Ruschmeyer’s

July 20, 2011

Ben Towill and Phil Winser; a fresh razor clam dish

The dining scene in Montauk has expanded quite a bit since we moved here in late 2009 to begin working on the space that has since become Navy Beach. Last year I spent a good amount of time at Crow’s Nest, eating whatever Chef Jeff (Schwarz) would put on my plate. This year the addition of my good friend Ben Pundole’s reincarnation of Ruschmeyer’s has given me yet another new venue to choose from this summer.

Pundole, together with the Surf Lodge’s Rob McKinley, and the guys—Ben Towill and Phil Winser—who founded Silkstone and run the Fat Radish on the Lower East Side, has succeeded in creating an atmosphere that truly feels like a hip, artsy adult camp. From McKinley’s quirky-chic Jacques Cousteau décor elements to the rotating list of activities—bingo, drum circles, Madewell "Crafternoons"—the mood is anything but serious. That said the philosophy behind the food, beverage and hospitality is not something that any of the partners take lightly.

After sitting down with Towill and executive chef Greg McCarty (Nobu 57, Dune, Beach Street Sandwiches) to discuss the philosophy behind the food and beverage elements of the project, it was easy to see why the group works so well together—and how they were able to bring the project to fruition so quickly by Memorial Day weekend.

Towill explained that the philosophy that Silkstone brought to the table is about creating simple, honest cooking and seamless service with integrity that makes people want to come back and become regulars. Towill and McCarty both stressed that they were not trying to do anything too “cheffy” and that the quality of the local products—from fish to honey to baby carrots—is meant to stand out. McCarty believes that a lot of the food out there these days is “needlessly cluttered,” and that in order for the dishes to come out tasting like what you might eat at home (though elevated to another level) “the seasoning levels have to be perfect.” I’m not sure that we all eat like these guys do at home, but that’s not to say that we shouldn’t. If only we all knew how!

It was quite evident that Towill, Winser and McCarty share a passion for quality and attention to detail that would compliment the drive and love for hospitality that I know Pundole has cultivated through the last decade or so working for Ian Schrager and Morgans Hotel Group. It is nice to have a new destination in the neighborhood, and the fact that the people behind it are all really nice and intelligent doesn’t hurt either.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADRIAN GAUT (FOOD); JOE TERMINI (TOWILL)