People sure do have strong opinions about chowders. Should it be New England, Manhattan, Long Island, Rhode Island, or, as our esteemed editor suggested, “alt-chowder,” in other words, allowing for substitutions, additions, creativity?

In Louis De Gouy’s 1949 cookbook, “The Soup Book,” he said, “Clam chowder is one of those subjects, like politics and religion, that can never be discussed lightly. Bring it up even incidentally, and all the innumerable factions of the clambake regions raise their heads and begin to yammer.”

A Maine politician once claimed (I don’t know when, but it sounds very McCarthy era) that the addition of tomatoes to chowder was “the work of the reds” who seek to undermine “our most hallowed tradition” and suggested that any housewives or chefs caught adding tomatoes be forced to “dig a barrel of clams at high tide as penalty.” Ha ha.

Manhattan clam chowder, which has a clear broth with tomatoes, carrots, celery, and onions, has been found in cookbooks going back to the 1890s. The title “Manhattan” was supposedly given by New Englanders as it was an insult to call someone a New Yorker.

Rhode Island clam chowder, also known as South County style, has a clear broth, along with bacon, onions, potatoes, and quahogs. Some are a hybrid with a tomato broth base.

Long Island clam chowder can also be a hybrid, tomato and cream based.

New England clam chowder is loosely defined as a thick chowder made from clams, potatoes, onions, sometimes salt pork or bacon, and milk or cream. It can be further thickened with oyster crackers.

Although the author of 47 books about Cape Cod, Joseph C. Lincoln, referred to New England clam chowder as “Yankee Doodle in a kettle,” it probably originated with Breton fishermen who migrated south to New England from Newfoundland. The word “chowder” is believed to be derived from the French word “chaudiere,” roughly translated to pot or boiler.

For the past six or so years I have had the honor of being a judge at the Montauk Chamber of Commerce’s chowder contest — Oct. 6, mark your calendars! The chowders are provided by local restaurants; judges make their choices, and the people choose their favorites, too. At first the two varieties, Manhattan and New England, were lumped together. Now they are in separate categories, and approximately 30 to 40 restaurants participate, with New England being the predominant variety offered. I’ve often thought (well, actually, loudly suggested) that there should be a third category for most original or most unique, because some of them don’t quite fall into a classic definition of either, but they are exquisite soups — the alt-chowders.

For instance, David E. Rattray told me about a chowder he made recently for his friend Jameson Ellis’s birthday. Based on a Sam Sifton recipe. He eliminated the dairy (folks could add it later), used leeks in lieu of onions, added rosé, and substituted smoked bluefish for the bacon. Mind blown. This genius substitution made his chowder close to the Scot’s broth “cullen skink.”

For other creative additions and variations on chowder I turned to my Department of Slothful Research, Facebook. Most people are adamant about preferring New England over Manhattan, myself among them.

Ellen White suggested a touch of Old Bay seasoning in either variety. Sydney Jones recommended Jarlsberg cheese and sherry in New England. Jeremy Blutstein, who never lacks for strong opinions, declared Manhattan “whack.” 

Chef Peter Ambrose had some outstanding suggestions. He has made a New Mexican version with andouille sausage, hard clams, belly clams, sweet potatoes, and Mexican spices. He also has made a New-England-style chowder with coconut milk and Thai red curry spice. He uses chipotle peppers as a substitute for pork and said that a drop of booze like Lillet is a great addition. These are exactly the kinds of variations that deserve their own category.

Naturally, you can find great chowders at many restaurants out here. Some recommended by those in the know are at Bostwick’s, the Quiet Clam, and Silver’s.

To put you in the mood in this first month of “Rs”, here are two recipes for your Yankee Doodle in a kettle. One is Mr. Rattray’s, the other from Lisa Kristel, an owner of South Edison in Montauk. This chowder won the people’s choice award at the Montauk contest in 2010.

Click for recipes

Artists and Writers

Almond in Bridgehampton will hold its first Artists and Writers night of the season on Tuesday at 7. The three-course dinner will be hosted by members of the Stony Brook Southampton M.F.A. faculty including Susan Scarf Merrell, the author of the novel “Shirley”; Amy Hempel, a short-story writer; Cornelius Eady, a poet, and Emily Gilbert, a writer and the editor of The Southampton Review literary journal. The cost is $45 and includes a glass of local wine or craft beer and tax but not gratuity. Reservations can be made by calling the restaurant. 

Quiet Clam Specials 

The Quiet Clam 2.0 in East Hampton is offering football specials, including a burger and a beer for $20, and chicken wings and a beer for $10, during any televised N.F.L. game. A taco special, available on Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to closing, features two tacos for $18 or three for $21, and includes chips, salsa, guacamole, and a Corona Light. There is also a two-for-one margarita special that night. Happy hour deals, including $5 pints of beer, $7 glasses of wine, and $11 specialty cocktails, plus bar bites are available from 4 to 7 p.m. every night except Saturday. 

Taste of Korea 

Members of the Korean Spirit and Culture Project will hold a free cooking demonstration and tasting of four traditional Korean dishes plus dessert at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor next Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. Registration is via the library’s website.

Oysters!

Tickets are on sale for the Shelter Island Historical Society’s oyster tasting event on Oct. 20 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Havens Barn. The cost is $60 for adults, $40 for children who will be eating oysters, and free for kids 12 and under who will not be partaking. Tickets are available on the historical society’s website.

Nick and Toni’s opened on Aug. 3, 1988, long before foodies started using smartphones to take photos of exquisitely-plated entrees to share on social media. Yet, even on day one, the restaurant had a following. “We didn’t tell anyone we were opening, but apparently people were driving by really curious, and waiting for the lights to go on,” said Toni Ross, who founded the restaurant with her late husband, Jeff Salaway, whose nickname was Nick.  

The North Main Street, East Hampton, location Mr. Salaway had chosen for the couple’s first foray into restaurant ownership wasn’t exactly hallowed culinary ground. Its most memorable inhabitant was Ma Bergman’s pizza and meatball place, and the space itself was disheveled. “I have no idea what Jeff loved about it,” said Ms. Ross. “It was small, the floors were awful, the walls were really bad. I guess he just saw it as a cool blank slate. When I saw it, I was like, ‘You’re kidding me.’ ”

“Jeff did all the demolition himself, and then we hired people and got friends to help us,” said Ms. Ross. The couple, both artists who had met in Italy and worked in restaurants in New York City, wanted to create a spot that would serve the kind of food they had discovered during their travels north of Tuscany. The cuisine, which had yet to become popular stateside, would feature dishes such as beet ravioli with poppy seeds, spaghetti with lemon, and calf’s liver and onions. 

“The simplicity of the food was a hard thing to grasp as a young chef,” said Joe Realmuto, who joined the restaurant in the early 1990s, and, now as executive chef and a co-owner, oversees the kitchens at Nick and Toni’s and its sister restaurants, Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, Townline BBQ in Sagaponack, and La Fondita in Amagansett. “It can be just three ingredients on a plate, but you use really good ingredients. That’s one main thing that has stayed the same since the restaurant’s beginning.”

An early proponent of the slow-food movement, the restaurant formed relationships with local farmers and fishermen, who supplied fresh seasonal produce and the catches of the day. Mr. Salaway also planted an herb garden on-site, where it remains. “Jeff rototilled that himself with his skinny little legs and his boots and his shorts,” recalled Ms. Ross. “I have very distinct memories of that.”

After a few years of running the restaurant at a loss, Mark Smith, who previously worked in the hosiery industry, was brought on to help Nick and Toni’s turn a profit. “Mark had pretty much everything that we did not, such as business acumen, ideas about systems, consistency, staffing,” said Ms. Ross. “It was really a lot about reining in Jeff’s creativity so that it worked in a business model. Mark righted the ship.” 

 Then, in 2001, the restaurant faced an existential crisis when Mr. Salaway died in a car accident. “That’s when everybody’s world changed personally and professionally,” said Mr. Smith. “It was a very uncertain time because he was the face of the restaurant to a large degree.”  

While coping with her loss, Ms. Ross left Nick and Toni’s in the hands of Mr. Smith, Mr. Realmuto, Christie Cober, director of operations, and Bonnie Munshin, who managed the floor. “I couldn’t be present at all because I had young kids,” she said. “But Mark, Joe, Christie, and Bonnie understood the mission completely, so I never worried about it. They kept it the mom and pop place that Jeff and I had started.”

Mr. Smith said the death of Mr. Salaway made him determined to build the Honest Management group, which owns and operates Nick and Toni’s and the other restaurants, into an organization sturdy enough to withstand such an unexpected setback. The company went on to open Townline BBQ, start a catering company, and shut down the Nick and Toni’s Cafe in the city. 

By the end of this year, a new restaurant, Coche Comedor, an offshoot of La Fondita, will open in the space next door to it, which was once the Honest Diner. 

Even as the business grows, the Nick and Toni’s ethos of creating a family atmosphere, both for its customers and its employees, remains. The restaurant is committed to staying open year-round to serve its clientele and to provide work for its staff. “It’s an investment that we make in people,” said Ms. Ross.  

“You can’t create a family atmosphere from Memorial Day to Labor Day,” said Ms. Cober. “Our staff knows who the people are coming in, they have real relationships with our guests. That happens on a continuum over 30 years.”

Instead of spending money on an anniversary celebration this summer, the restaurant group donated money to local charities such as OLA (Organizacion Latino-Americana) of Eastern Long Island, which supports the East End’s Latino and Hispanic community, the Springs School’s chapter of Blessings in a Backpack, which provides food assistance, and the Community Council of East Hampton, a social services agency. 

Diners who happened to be at Nick and Toni’s on the anniversary weekend did get treated to glasses of champagne in honor of the milestone. “A lot of customers were reminiscing about this place as part of their own history,” said Ms. Ross, who shared one of her most vivid memories from the restaurant’s opening night. 

“The first person to walk through the door was Craig Claiborne, the New York Times food critic,” she said. “He was retired then, but he could still make or break a restaurant. I was working the door, and I thought, ‘Well, okay, this is over, we’ll finish off tonight and then pack up and go home.’ ” 

As it turned out Mr. Claiborne became one of Nick and Toni’s earliest devotees, returning often and bringing companions. He even offered pointers on how the restaurant could improve. “It was amazing,” said Ms. Ross. “We were really lucky.”

Wunderkind Brunch 

The Maidstone Restaurant in East Hampton will offer a five-course brunch on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. featuring a menu by Flynn McGarry, the 19-year-old chef at Gem in New York City and the subject of a documentary about his rise in the culinary world, which will be shown on Saturday as part of the Hamptons International Film Festival’s SummerDocs series. The menu items include summer squash toast with ricotta, peaches, and mint, as well as fried and smashed potatoes with Hollandaise sauce, cured salmon, and a poached egg. The price is $65 per person excluding tax, gratuity, and beverages. Advance reservations are by email to [email protected]

Food Festivals

Tonight on the grounds of Ashawagh Hall in Springs, the East Hampton Reform Democrats are treating people to a Springs Community Food Festival from 5 to 8 p.m., including tastes from a variety of food trucks. Food, soda, and ice cream will all be free. 

Summerfest, a culinary arts festival, will take place next Thursday from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Southampton Arts Center. A fund-raiser for the center, the event will include food from EMP Summer House, the Golden Pear, Red/Bar, Saaz, Sant Ambroeus, Topping Rose House, Juice Press, Maison Vivienne, Boa, a Thai-Asian Fusion restaurant, and many others. Tickets start at $500 and can be reserved by emailing Molly Bishop at [email protected].

Fall Retreat

Stefanie Sacks, a nutritionist, will hold a culinary cleanse retreat from Oct. 11 to 14 at the Breakers hotel in Montauk. An early bird discount is available to those who reserve a space by Sept. 1. The cost is $1,750. Reservations are by visiting stefaniesacks.com. 

Beacon Specials

The Beacon in Sag Harbor is offering Sunday brunch specials. Menu items include crispy fish tacos for $15, avocado toast and poached eggs for $24, and a blackened flounder sandwich for $22. 

Ready for Rosh Hashana

Stuart’s Seafood Market in Amagansett has homemade gefilte fish for Rosh Hashana. Advance orders can be made by calling the store.  

Labor Day Weekend Dining

Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor will hold a cookout on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The menu will include grilled bratwurst, Karl Ehmer hot dogs, and corn on the cob. The cost is $25 for adults, $15 for kids 4 to 12, and free for those 3 and under. Price includes one pass through the buffet, plus a soft drink or bottle of water. 

Townline BBQ in Sagaponack is reminding people in advance of the holiday weekend that it prepares takeout meals that feed 4 to 10 people. A sandwich and sliders package features a choice of pulled pork and chicken or brisket, plus sides including coleslaw, pickles, and baked beans. The price of a dinner for four to six people is $65. A pulled meat sampler dinner is $69, a chicken and rib dinner is $79, and an “extravaganza dinner” featuring ribs, brisket, pulled pork, smoked chicken, and sides including cornbread is $112. In each case, it is double the price for a dinner for 8 to 10 people. Advance orders are by calling the restaurant. 

Cooking With Iron

Terence McGuire, the owner of Homeslice Pizza and Catering, will lead a workshop on cooking with cast iron on Sept. 12 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Amagansett Food Institute’s South Fork Kitchens in Southampton. The workshop will take place outdoors around a wood-fired oven, and a representative from Acabonac Farms will be on hand to discuss different cuts of meat and the benefits of grass-fed beef. A meal featuring items from South Fork Kitchens will be served. The cost is $75, and $40 for students and beginning farmers. Tickets can be purchased at eventbrite.com.

How many mediocre grilled vegetables have you had in your life? At friends’ cookouts, at the deli counter, from caterers, the supermarket? It seems like everyone has a side platter of the usual suspects: zucchini and peppers, perhaps eggplant and onions. They are limp and floppy, under-seasoned, and sometimes suffering from refrigerator storage flavor. It doesn’t have to be that way!

I love grilled anything. I have a regular Weber grill with which I use a chimney to start the fire, and I always use Cowboy brand hard lump charcoal. This charcoal starts and burns faster and doesn’t give food that off-flavor that can come from briquettes. I never use lighter fluid, or the lighter fluid infused briquettes; these definitely give off a chemical taste. While I am not a huge fan of gas grills, I do have a little tabletop Weber gas grill that does a perfectly adequate job in a hurry or in the winter. You will not get the extreme heat that you get from charcoal but it’s pretty cool to be able to flip a switch and be ready to cook in minutes.

It’s important to have the right equipment for grilling vegetables. The Japanese use wooden skewers to spear asparagus stalks at the top and the bottom, forming a little raft so the stalks don’t fall into the fire. Same goes for smaller mushrooms like shiitakes. You may also want a grill rack (for fish and veg) or even a perforated grill skillet or grill wok. Tongs and wide spatulas are obvious necessities, as is a bottle of water kept nearby for potential flare-ups.

There are numerous ways to cook vegetables on the grill. You can cook them directly over the fire on the rack, wrapped in foil, and even buried in the hot ashes (this is good for potatoes and sweet potatoes). Most vegetables cook within 5 to 10 minutes and can be served hot, room temperature, or cold. Leftovers can be made into sandwiches combined with mozzarella or other cheeses and meats.

Some vegetables can be grilled and then turned into something else. For instance, whole eggplants can be turned into baba ganoush or another roasted eggplant dip. Same for peppers: Grill them, peel off the charred skins, and puree them with garlic, black olives, and Parmesan cheese to top grilled salmon, new potatoes, and asparagus.

Grilled zucchini, sliced about half an inch thick, is one of my favorites. I brush a little olive oil on the slices and sprinkle some salt and pepper on them before cooking. Once done (in mere minutes) I lay them out on a platter and top them with lots of chopped spearmint and coarsely chopped garlic. For eggplant slices, I use Arlotta’s hot pepper oil and Hog’s Breath seasoning mix. Hog’s Breath is a big, nasty, noisy bar in Key West that I avoid like Margaritaville, but it makes a great seasoned salt. Goya’s adobo is another great shortcut for flavoring grilled vegetables.

You can marinate some vegetables before cooking but be careful with oils; vegetables such as eggplant and portobello mushrooms will absorb oils like sponges.

Have you ever tried grilling lettuces like romaine, endive, and radicchio? The latter two are favorites in Italy, often finished with a sweet and sour dressing with currants, pine nuts, and garlic. Grilled romaine wedges are a great base for an interesting Caesar salad. Grilled onions and garlic are enjoyed by many cultures; there’s Japanese negi, leeks, and Spanish calcots, giant spring onions. The high water content of onions keeps them moist, and the sugars acquire a caramelized toffee flavor from the high heat.

If you are concerned about the possibility of carcinogens from grilling, Harold McGee in his book “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen” recommends using marinades because the added moisture and acidity can reduce carcinogen production. Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are produced by meats cooked at high temperatures, especially when the fat drips down into the fire. So that’s another good reason to have more vegetables than meat on your grill!

Before beginning, it is important to make sure your grill is clean. If you don’t have one of those brush scrapers, a good cheat is a big wad of crumpled aluminum foil to clean the grill. Follow this with a wipe-down with paper towel. You can then brush some oil on it (neutral or olive) or spray Pam on it to prevent the vegetables from sticking.

Methods for grilling corn are varied. Some people say grill them in their husks with silk removed. Steven Raichlen, in his book “How to Grill,” says to pull the husk back completely and tie it with string to make a handle. Brush the corn with seasoned melted butter and protect the husks from burning by either extending them over the edge of the grill grate or laying a piece of tin foil beneath them. They don’t take long to cook; just get a little char on them.

Asparagus is not in season locally (duh) but is always available year round. When I was shopping for vegetables at the Sag Harbor farmers market, I stopped to talk to Mario Pecoraro of Arlotta Food Studios. He always has good suggestions and Arlotta’s array of flavored oils (basil, rosemary, lemon, garlic, blood orange) are ideal for pairing with vegetables. He suggested blood orange oil on asparagus and it was outstanding. Along with a variety of pepper and fennel from Quail Hill, eggplant and mushrooms from Open Minded Organics, and zucchini and squash from Regina’s farm stand, I had a varied and tasty all-vegetarian grilled feast. A sprinkling of fresh herbs from the garden, chives, basil, parsley, lemon thyme, an extra drizzle of olive oil, and a few drops of mild vinegar made all of them taste sooooo much better than the pedestrian offerings we have seen too much of.

There are so many other vegetables you can grill. Try okra, cabbage, and cauliflower. I’m going to try Japanese sweet potato wedges with a miso glaze next. The possibilities and flavors are endless. Here are some recipes to inspire you to go beyond the mundane grilled vegetable platter.

Click for recipes

Sag Pizza

103 Main Street, Sag Harbor

631-725-3167

Lunch and dinner daily

Remember when Espresso closed and Harbor Market took its place on Division Street in Sag Harbor? The outcry was vociferous. Neighbors tried to stop it, citing the ventilation system mostly. Parents of Pierson students protested. Where will our kids get their affordable lunches? 

Long story short, Harbor Market serves the neighborhood and the students and teachers well, with healthy, affordable food. The vents are neither noisy nor smelly. Oh, and Espresso reopened a short while later in the heart of the village. Freakout resolved.

A similar outcry occurred when the Venesina family sold Conca D’Oro (Golden Basin) to Laurent Tourondel and Michael Cinque, business partners in LT Burger across the street. “There goes the neighborhood.” “Sag Harbor is changing.” “Now there’s no place where kids can get pizza by the slice!” The last patron on closing day reportedly froze the final pizza put out at Conca D’Oro. For Pete’s sake, shouldn’t Frank Venesina and his family get a chance to relax after over 40 years at Conca D’Oro? If you really miss their food, their relatives still own and run La Parmagiana in Southampton, Edgewater in Hampton Bays, and Baby Moon in Westhampton Beach. So there’s that. And if you just want some old-school Italian food, hearty portions, and garlic knots, don’t forget the charming Il Capuccino, blocks away on Madison Street.

I loved Conca D’Oro too, but as the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr once said “plus ca change, plus c’est la même chose,” roughly translated to “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” You can get pizza by the slice at Sag Pizza. Garlic knots! They deliver! The food is excellent! And, the prices at Sag Pizza are very close to what Conca D’Oro’s prices were when I reviewed it five years ago.

To recap: We now have Tutto Il Giorno, Dopo La Spiaggia, and Il Capuccino, serving Southern and Northern Italian food within blocks of each other. We also now have three places that serve wood-oven pizzas: Lulu’s, Harbor Market, and Sag Pizza. Abbondanza! Mangia! Lulu’s pizza is good and more expensive than the others, between $21 and $24. Harbor Market’s pizzas are excellent, priced at $14.95 to $17.95. Sag Pizza pizzas are $15 to $19, slices are $3.75 to $4.50. In 2013, Conca D’Oro’s pizzas were $14 to $24, albeit for larger pies. Crikey, what an intro.

My friend Steven said he just had to come along on our review because he had had a dreadful experience at Sag Pizza when it had just opened. Food took too long, they had to leave before being served, etc. “It is for that exact reason, your predisposition to be prejudiced against them, that I shouldn’t include you,” I said. 

“No, that’s why you should bring me, to change my mind.” Touché. I did. He did.

The space looks bigger than before, ceiling higher, walls blown out of the back, and white, white wood and tile everywhere, similar to LT Burger. Takeout, slices, and more are available at the front. There is a small bar on the left and the back wall is filled with firewood, big cans of San Marzano tomatoes, and bags of flour. 

We began our meal with the raw zucchini salad, meatballs, and calamari. The raw zucchini salad was delicious, a combination of shredded yellow squash and zucchini, sliced, toasted almonds, and pecorino cheese in a light, very lemony dressing. The meatballs — three big ones — are made with veal and mortadella (hubba, hubba!). The tomato sauce they were served in is superb. They were topped with two chunky slices of toasted rustic bread slathered with pesto. The calamari fritti was another winner. Plenty of tender tentacles and rings that were crispy crunchy and not oily. Matchstick-sized pieces of zucchini were interspersed with the calamari, and it was served with one of the best aioli I’ve ever had. It was hot and vinegary, made with Calabrian chiles.

For entrees we ordered rigatoni with Bolognese sauce, mushroom pizza, pepperoni pizza (teenager!), and clam pizza. Steven, becoming a Sag Pizza convert, loved his rigatoni. The pasta was cooked al dente, the sauce rich and meaty. All three of the pizzas were great. The mushroom was covered with paper-thin slices of a variety of mushrooms, slivers of fresh garlic, truffle paste, Taleggio cheese (but not so much that the odor could be offensive to nearby diners), and sage. The pepperoni pizza got high marks from young Harry Reiner. The clam was our favorite. It had plenty of chopped clams, guanciale (similar to bacon), a thin layer of garlic scallion butter, and a scattering of Manila clams in their shells on top.

Everyone has different preferences about pizza crusts. Some like them thick and chewy, some like them thin and crisp. I am in the thin and crisp category. This pizza dough was a good compromise, somewhat thin, very flavorful, and marked with black, blistered spots from the hot, hot, hot wood-burning oven. It was reminiscent of one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had, from BAR in New Haven.

The waiter on the night of our visit was a delight. If Jake Gyllenhaal and Justin Long had a baby, it would look like James, our waiter. He was thrilled with this observation because he is currently studying at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. That being said, the place does get very crowded by 6:30, so runners were delivering food out of order, plates were not cleared to make room for more food, and utensils had to be requested before dessert. 

Prices are reasonable. Starters and salads are $14 to $21, pastas and pizzas are $15 to $27, takeout pizza slices (from 18-inch pies) are $3.75 to $4.50, and two “scoops” of soft serve ice cream are $8.

Sadly the original menu says there is a variety of gelato and sorbets offered for dessert and the flavor choices are (were) tantalizing. We never found out why they are no longer available, but the only desserts now being offered are variations of stuff on soft serve ice cream. We tried two: affogato and a chocolate hazelnut crumb-topped chocolate ice cream. Affogato is vanilla ice cream topped with hot espresso. It was good. The chocolate hazelnut crumb topping on the chocolate ice cream was made even better by an amazingly good hot chocolate sauce poured over it at the table.

By the time you read this, the hordes of summer visitors will have departed. You will have a chance to see for yourself that indeed, the more things change, the more they stay the same. There may be a plethora of pizza now in Sag Harbor, but there’s nothing wrong with more, good, affordable food.

So Long, H.M.P.

The Hampton Market Place food store in East Hampton will be closing, confirmed Robert Tillinghast, the owner of the shop’s Race Lane building. Although an exact closing date could not be determined, many of the market’s shelves were empty late last week. Mr. Tillinghast said that Goldberg’s Famous Bagels had expressed interest in taking over the space, but Paul Wayne, the owner of Goldberg’s, said on Friday that the restaurant’s East Hampton branch would remain in its current Pantigo Place location. 

Oyster Specials

Bell and Anchor in Noyac will offer Montauk pearl oysters for $1 each on Sundays from 5:30 p.m. until closing. Its sister restaurant Fresno in East Hampton will have the same deal on Monday nights.

The Food Lab will return to Stony Brook Southampton on Friday, Sept. 14, much later in the year than its earlier iterations, which have been in June. Although the U.S. Open at the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in June this year was a factor, the organizers realized that holding a conference about local food during harvest time and when the fish are running made much more sense, according to Andrew Botsford, a representative of the college.

The theme this year, “eat global, cook local,” seeks to underscore the diversity of the community and how it can be joined together at the table. “The conference captures that idea and the spirit of nourishing, diversity, and acceptance of all people in our special area,” Geoffrey Drummond, executive director of the Food Lab, said last Thursday. 

The conference will open officially on the evening of Friday, Sept. 14, at the windmill with Shane Weeks, a member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, who will offer a blessing to the four directions and a traditional song as a cultural ambassador for the event. “Then sitting at the table will be people from all different parts of the area and the world,” Mr. Drummond added.

That afternoon, Nicholas Poulmentis, a champion chef on the Food Network’s “Chopped” series, will give an intimate cooking demonstration on updated Greek classics. There will be live cooking and samples of the dishes created, including goat cheese gnocchi, spinach pie, vegetarian meatballs, and more. Chrisa Arcan, an assistant professor of nutrition at Stony Brook, will discuss the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet. The demonstration costs $50 and is likely to sell out, so preregistration is recommended.

Mr. Poulmentis will also participate in the panel “Nourishing Diversity: Our Social, Emotional, and Spiritual Relationships With Food.” The panel will bring together chefs along with Mohammad Modarres, the founder of Abe’s Meats, which processes meat that is both Kosher and Halal and is served at interfaith meals across the country. Josephine Smith, the director of cultural resources for the Shinnecock Indian Nation, will discuss foraging.

This year’s keynote speakers are Pati Jinich and Colin Ambrose, who will be in conversation with Biddle Duke. Ms. Jinich is the host of “Pati’s Mexican Table,” a PBS series. Mr. Ambrose is the chef and proprietor of Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor. Mr. Duke is the founding editor and a contributor to East magazine.

Panelists representing the global element of the conference include Sonya Kharas and Lisa Gross, the founders of League of Kitchens, who sponsor and teach recent immigrants how to give cooking demonstrations in their homes. Upcoming classes on their website offer looks at Argentinian, Nepali, Uzbek, and Lebanese cuisine. Florence Fabricant will moderate the panel, which also includes Kerry Brodie from Emma’s Torch. Her organization provides culinary training to refugees in its restaurant, preparing them for jobs in New York City kitchens, which are always in need of line cooks.

Participating in a panel titled “Diversity in the Bottle,” Maria Rivera Gonzales is from one of the original winemaking families in Mexico, according to Mr. Drummond. She is now the proprietor of Martha Clara Vineyards in Riverhead.

Fulfilling the conference’s theme and one of its subthemes of health and nutrition is Frank Lipman, a medical doctor from South Africa who practices in New York and has a house in East Hampton. He is an integrative medicine coach and the author of “The New Health Rules” and “How to Be Well.” He will be on a panel with Shawn Cannon, an osteopath who runs the residency program at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, and Seamus Mullin, one of Dr. Lipman’s patients. Mr. Mullin, once debilitated by rheumatoid arthritis, has been asymptomatic for several years. He is an award-winning chef at Tertulia, known for his interpretations of Spanish cuisine. He is also the author of “Hero Food” and “Real Food Heals.”

No Food Lab would be complete without a panel discussing locally harvested food. The Star’s food editor, Laura Donnelly, will moderate “Local Food — Really??” It will feature some of the familiar faces of the local slow food community including Scott Chaskey, Katie Baldwin, Asa Gosman, Dee Muma, and Brian Halweil discussing how to know when food is really from the East End.

The conference will be framed by two receptions featuring regional food and wine and a closing reception with food from the League of Kitchens. Tickets are $150, $75 for farmers and students.

Surf Lodge Prix Fixe

The restaurant at the Surf Lodge in Montauk will hold a prix fixe low-country boil on Saturday. The menu will feature seafood, steak, potatoes, corn on the cob, plus beer and specialty cocktails. The price is $65 per person. Email [email protected] for reservations. 

Goodbye, Bay Burger

Bay Burger in Sag Harbor will close on Oct. 8. Joe and Liza Tremblay, the owners of the restaurant as well as the Joe and Liza’s ice cream brand, announced via a Facebook post last Wednesday that they were selling the businesses to “shift to careers that allow us to spend more time with our family.” Mr. Tremblay said last Thursday that, although the couple had no firm plans as of yet, it was likely that they would transition out of the food service business. 

Artists’ Table

Jason Weiner, the executive chef at Almond in Bridgehampton, will prepare a farm-to-table meal for an Artists’ Table event at the Watermill Center on Sept. 30 at noon. The event will also include a presentation from the center’s artists-in-residence. Tickets are $100 per person and can be purchased on eventbrite.com.

Brunch Is Back

Now that Labor Day has passed, Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton has begun serving Sunday brunch again from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The a la carte menu changes from week to week but includes such dishes as wood-oven pizzas, French toast, zucchini and goat cheese frittatas, or smoked salmon toast with poached eggs.