For months, boarded-up windows have prevented passers-by in pizza withdrawal from taking a peek at the emerging restaurant that will replace the beloved Conca D’Oro in Sag Harbor. Michael Cinque and his business partner, Laurent Tourondel, who own LT Burger, purchased the restaurant last July and have been in construction mode for most of this year. When asked about a grand opening date for the space, Mr. Cinque would only narrow things down to “when it’s done,” but promised, “it’s going to be amazing.”

Restaurant Week Continues

A reminder for those who may have missed it here last week: East End Restaurant Week continues through Sunday, with three-course prix fixe menus offered for $28.95 at participating eateries. On the South Fork, restaurants taking part are 668 the Gigshack in Montauk; Fresno, Nick and Toni’s, the 1770 House, and the Maidstone in East Hampton; Lulu Kitchen and Bar, Page at 63 Main, Bell and Anchor, and Wolffer Kitchen in Sag Harbor; Union Cantina, Shippy’s Pumpernickels, and Red Bar Brasserie in Southampton, and Wolffer Kitchen in Amagansett. 

Fish Recipes

Stephanie Villani, a Mattituck resident who’s married to a commercial fisherman, will be at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton at 5:30 this evening to talk about her new cookbook, “The Fisherman’s Wife: Sustainable Recipes and Salty Stories.” Ms. Villani will take a smoked fish dip for attendees to sample. 

South Edison Returns

South Edison in Montauk is open for the 2018 season. The restaurant is serving dinner Wednesday through Sunday starting at 5 p.m., and will return to its full daily schedule in June. 

Meet the Author

Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor will serve cosmopolitans and complimentary cupcakes at a reading by Candace Bushnell this evening from 6 to 8. Ms. Bushnell, whose columns in The New York Observer inspired the HBO series “Sex and the City,” will read an excerpt from her upcoming book. 

This Week at the Eagle

The featured speaker at Wednesday’s A Night Out With event — a collaboration between the Golden Eagle Studio and Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton — will be Barbara Thomas, a painter and multimedia artist. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Golden Eagle on North Main Street in East Hampton and will be followed by a two-course dinner at the restaurant next door. The cost is $75 and includes the class, dinner, tax, and tip. Advance registration is on the store’s website. 

Artist at Almond

The next in a series of artists and writers dinners at Almond in Bridgehampton will be on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The event will be hosted by Paton Miller, a painter and curator, and will feature a family style three-course menu. The cost is $45 and includes a glass of local wine or craft beer plus tax but not gratuity. Reservations are required and can be made by calling the restaurant.

Wine Class

Erica Sigler, the brand manager at Verity Wine Partners in Manhattan, will lead a class focused on burgundy wines on Wednesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits. Advance registration for the $10 class can be made by calling the store. 

On Mushrooms

David Falkowski, the owner of the Open Minded Organics mushroom farm, will discuss the medicinal and culinary uses of mushrooms on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Provisions in Sag Harbor. Light refreshments will be served. Advance registration is by calling the store. 

A tanker truck filled with potato mash was parked outside the Sagg Farm Distillery, a new business venture on Foster Farm in Sagaponack that is turning produce into Sagaponacka Vodka. The truck was rhythmically pumping its contents through a hose leading indoors to what looked like a mad scientist’s lair: a network of pipes, vats, and valves all connected to a computerized control panel. As a steady stream of the mash thumped its way into one of the vats, Dean Foster, the man in charge of the farm, talked about why he decided to throw the potatoes he grows into a brand-new enterprise. 

“I look at the distillery as a vehicle that will get us through the bad times, because the potato industry really has taken a hit due to free trade,” said Mr. Foster, adding that he was also keen to “be part of an industry that has some excitement with it.” 

The initial kick in the pants for Mr. Foster’s brand extension was the 2014 New York Craft Act, which eased the state’s restrictions on the production of craft spirits. As it happened, Mr. Foster already had an alcohol craftsman in his family: Matt Beamer, who is married to Mr. Foster’s cousin. He was a master brewer in Utah’s burgeoning craft beer scene in the 1990s and is now a partner in Sagg Farm Distillery. 

“I’ve been in the alcohol game a long time,” said Mr. Beamer, who is in charge of the hands-on process of creating Sagaponacka vodka, overseeing the mash, the fermentation, and the distillation. He also sets the agenda for which produce Mr. Foster needs to plant and harvest in order to meet vodka-production demands. 

“There are 20 pounds of potatoes in each bottle,” said Mr. Foster, who has had to adapt his usual farming routine to accommodate the new business. “Now I get up in the morning and know that I’m not going to go wrangle with 100 acres. Now I have to be more zoned in on Matt’s needs.”

So far, Mr. Beamer has concocted a potato and a wheat version of Sagaponacka vodka, but he has even more exotic beverages in the works for later this year. “I’m going to do a rhubarb liqueur and a cucumber vodka using fresh cucumbers,” he said. 

The duo are also in the midst of creating a liquor that technically does not even exist. “I was thinking, ‘Lets do something that no one’s ever done and make a potato whiskey,’ ” said Mr. Beamer. “We did, and we tasted it, and we were like, ‘Holy cow, we’re actually on to something here.’ But we can’t call it whiskey because whiskey is made from grain.”  

As they experiment with different spirits, the duo are sticking to one overarching game plan: to source all the ingredients directly from Foster Farm (from “seed to glass” as Mr. Beamer dubbed it) and to showcase the unique taste of the crops that emanate from East End soil. “If you take a potato that’s grown in Sagaponack and compare it to one that’s grown in Idaho, the Idaho one is cardboard and the Sagaponack one has this sweetness and silkiness — that’s what blows my mind,” said Mr. Foster. 

And although vodka is generally thought of as colorless and flavorless, Mr. Beamer has been throttling back a bit on the distillation “to leave a little bit of the produce’s character in the vodka, so you remember it,” he said.

Sagaponacka vodka — which is carried in most East End liquor stores and will soon be infiltrating the New York City market as well — is crafted to be a sipping vodka, and starting this summer, visitors to the distillery will be able to sample the goods on site. A tasting room, built adjacent to the distillery and with a window looking directly onto a mammoth copper Bavarian Holstein still, will give patrons an up-close look at an East End milestone.

“We’re the first distillery in the Hamptons,” said Mr. Foster proudly. “And it’s all coming from this ground right here. Nobody else can say that.”

Soup Fest

The annual Empty Bowls soup sampling extravaganza will take place on Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett. More than 30 local chefs and restaurants will participate in this year’s event. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children 13 and under. Kids under 5 get in free. Participants, who are encouraged to take their own bowls, will be allowed an unlimited number of refills. Proceeds will benefit Project Most, the nonprofit that provides after-school programs for students at the Springs School and John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton. 

Domestic Wines

Park Place Wines and Liquors in East Hampton will offer the next in its free Discovery Wednesday classes on Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Kevin Tunney, a member of the sales team at David Bowler Wine, a New York City importer and distributor, will introduce participants to some wines from Oregon and Washington. Advance registration is in person at the store, or via its website.

Happy Hour 

Townline BBQ in Sagaponack will be offering happy hour specials on Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. Discounted bites include $6 wings and $3 warm pretzels with mustard. Drink specials include fresh lime margaritas for $8.

Dine and Discuss

The featured speaker at Wednesday’s A Night Out With event — a collaboration between the Golden Eagle Studio and Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton — is Jane Martin, a multimedia artist, who will talk about the business side of being a professional artist. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Golden Eagle on North Main Street in East Hampton and will be followed by a two-course dinner at the restaurant next door. The cost is $75 and includes the class, dinner, tax, and tip. Register in advance on the store’s website.

Dine and Discuss

Almond in Bridgehampton will hold an Artists and Writers Night on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Taylor Berry, the owner of Harbor Books in Sag Harbor, will be the host of the evening, which features a family style three-course dinner. The cost is $45 per person and includes a glass of wine or craft beer, plus tax but not gratuity. Reservations are required and can be made by calling the restaurant. 

Wine Tasting

The Baker House 1650 in East Hampton will be having a rosé tasting event led by a representative of Domaine Select Wine and Spirits on Saturday at 4 p.m. Six rosés will be sampled and light snacks will be served. The cost is $50 per person, payable in advance by searching “drink pink” on eventbrite.com.

A Moveable Feast

Slow Food East End and the Joshua Levine Memorial Foundation will hold their annual Moveable Feast food-tasting fund-raiser at the Dodds and Eder landscape design showroom in Sag Harbor on March 25 from 4 to 7 p.m. A roster of the East End’s most notable chefs will create dishes for the event, which will feature a keynote address by Sam Kass, a White House chef during the Obama administration. Wine and beer from local vineyards and craft brewers will also be offered, and there will be a silent auction of items donated by farms, fishermen, and other members of the food community. Tickets are $100 per person for Slow Food members and $150 for nonmembers. Proceeds will help support more than 25 local school gardens. Advance purchase online at slowfoodeastend.org has been strongly recommended. 

A Meal With Memories

The featured speaker at Wednesday’s A Night Out With event — a collaboration between the Golden Eagle Studio and Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton — will be Darlene Charneco, a mixed-media artist who will lead a memory mapping workshop. Participants will create three-dimensional works of art that depict their memories of a favorite place. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Golden Eagle on North Main Street in East Hampton and will be followed by a two-course dinner at the restaurant next door. The cost is $75 and includes the class, supplies, dinner, tax, and tip. Advance registration is on the store’s website.

As I scribble this, snow is flurrying (think winter), a northeaster just passed through (think fall), and the snowdrops and crocuses are up (think spring)!

Daylight saving time begins Sunday, and even Easter is coming early this year.

We may delude ourselves into thinking winter is over and the early nights of hearty stews and creamy soups are done. Of course we would be wrong, but the promise of warmer and longer days is in the air, like a premature spring fever.

What kind of foods do we like to eat this time of year? I am still roasting whole chickens and assembling rich vegetable gratins, but the thought of lightening things up is becoming more appealing.

I found a novel at an airport recently called “Topped Chef” by Lucy Burdette, described on the cover as “a Key West food critic mystery” that includes recipes. Hot dog, I thought, right up my alley! Turning to the back of the book to see just how worthwhile the recipes were, I was a little disheartened to see a recipe for a Provencal-style fish soup that called for granulated garlic and dried basil. I can fix this with fresher ingredients, I thought, and bought the silly book. 

The recipe was delicious after I “MacGyvered” it with loads of fresh basil and garlic and added some Pernod for that fennel-tarragon accent traditional in bouillabaisse. Topped with some toasted baguette slices smeared with a shortcut rouille, it was light as a feather yet warming at the same time.

“Spring fever” is a genuinely scientific phenomenon, just as SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is. It is a physiological response to the increased intensity and duration of sunlight as measured by the brain.

 According to Dr. Michael Terman, director of the Light Therapy Unit at New York/Columbia University Medical Center, spring fever (which affects 50 percent of the population) can cause higher energy levels, decreased sleep, reduced eating (!), and an alleviation of depression.

Of course, some of us just want to eat lighter this time of year to rid ourselves of a bit of hibernation fat.

“Come March, it’s no longer possible to be inspired by root vegetables,” Michael Lata, a chef, told Food and Wine magazine. “You’ve done everything you can.” Actually, this is the time of year that I start to think about creative and different uses for root vegetables, like making celery remoulade out of that knobby celery root. When making pasta dishes like broccoli rabe with orecchiette, I bump up the amount of broccoli and reduce the amount of pasta. In the mood for cheesy enchiladas recently, I made them with chopped onions and chicken in lieu of the massive quantities of Monterey jack cheese, and topped it all with fresh pico de gallo and Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Semivirtuous.

Another recipe I pulled out recently and made for a few friends is Glazed Chicken Germaine’s, from a now-defunct but once hugely popular Vietnamese restaurant in Washington, D.C. It is chunks of breast meat dusted in cornstarch and quickly fried, then served in a sweet, spicy glaze along with a shredded carrot salad, rice, and tomato slices. Yeah, I know this is not the time of year for tomatoes, but they make the dish pretty.

While moderating the Peconic Land Trust’s Long Island Grown series this past weekend, I asked the panelists, Sean Magnussen of Greenport Oyster Company, Eric Bilka of Pindar Winery, and George Hirsch of George Hirsch Lifestyle cooking show on PBS, what their favorite seasons and food and beverage pairings were. Eric said Peconic Bay scallops with a sparkling wine. Sean said his own oysters with a citrusy I.P.A. from Greenport Brewery. George held out his hands as if holding a pearl and exclaimed, “Spring! When things start to grow. I found six little chives popping out of the ground this morning and I snipped them and brought them inside.” 

We never found out what he used them for, but his spring fever was palpable, and contagious.

So now when I drive by the Milk Pail in Water Mill I think “Meh, I’m done with apples.” It’s time to look forward to the first asparagus, pea tendrils, and rhubarb. Is it too early for these spring treats? Yes, but there are plenty of good reasons to start lightening up our cooking, moving past the stew meats, potatoes with Gruyere, and risottos, and dusting off the Weber grill and keeping our eyes out for the first soft-shell crabs.

Happy early spring

Click for recipes

Stefanie Sacks, a culinary nutritionist and the author of “What the Fork are You Eating?”, will hold a series of workshops in the coming weeks at Sang Lee Farms in Peconic. 

On Tuesday from 5:30 to 8 p.m., Ms. Sacks will teach a cooking class that focuses on making one-pot meals such as butternut minestrone, Indian spiced potatoes with lentils, and vegetable paella. On March 27 at 6 p.m., she will lead a group discussion on ways to make healthy food choices. Another cooking class will take place on April 10 at 5:30 p.m., during which Ms. Sacks will teach participants how to create innovative salads. Tickets, which are $125 per person for the cooking classes and $25 for the discussion group, can be purchased on the farm’s website.

St. Patrick’s Day Specials

At Rowdy Hall on Saturday, a two-course prix fixe lunch and dinner menu will feature Irish fare such as corned beef and cabbage and shepherd’s pie. The special, which costs $25, will also be available on March 25, in honor of the St. Patrick’s Day festivities in Montauk.

Sammy’s Restaurant and Bar in Montauk reopens today with an Irish prix fixe dinner special for $24.95. The special will be offered through March 25. 

Smokin’ Wolf BBQ in East Hampton will be serving Irish dinners all day Saturday. Featured dishes include homemade corned beef, cabbage, and house-made soda bread.

On Saturday, add one more restaurant into the mix celebrating Celtic pride. The 1770 House will feature corned beef from Oregon, which will be slow-cooked for several hours and served with cabbage, fingerling potatoes, and heirloom carrots with house-made Irish soda bread. 

If you’re cooking at home, a stop by Sam’s Beverage Place in East Hampton may help complete the meal. The shop is offering a 15-percent discount on all zIrish beers from Saturday through March 25. Starting on Tuesday, the first day of spring, all winter-themed beers will be 20 percent off. 

March Madness

Throughout the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament, Townline BBQ in Sagaponack will have food and drink specials. Among them, an order of wings for $6, a pork or chicken slider for $3, and $5 pints of beer. The restaurant’s six large TVs will be turned to the games. 

Prix Fixe Every Night

Tauk at Trail’s End in Montauk has a daily three-course prix fixe dinner menu for $28.95. Choices from one recent menu included French onion soup, New England clam chowder, house salad or a Caesar salad to start, a second course of either fried calamari, crab cake, baked clams, mussels, zucchini chips or buffalo chicken wings, and, for the main course, shrimp scampi or marinara, chicken Parmesan or Frances, eggplant Parmesan, penne a la vodka, flounder, or grilled pork chop.

Wine Class

The next in a series of free wine classes at Park Place Wines and Liquors in East Hampton, on Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., will focus on wines from the South of France. Advance registration is required and can be done online or at the store.

This Week at the Eagle

The featured speaker at Wednesday's A Night Out With event -- a collaboration between the Golden Eagle Studio and Nick and Toni's restaurant in East Hampton -- will be Michele Dragonetti. The photographer will discuss her artistic inspiration and methods of composing photos. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Golden Eagle on North Main Street in East Hampton and will be followed by a two-course dinner at the restaurant next door. The cost is $75 and includes the class, dinner, tax, and tip. Advance registration is on the store's website.

I’ve been noticing lately, well, actually, for the last couple of years, that almost every day, week, or month is National This or National That Day, usually food-related, and even more frequently, junk-food-related. Potato Chip Day, Frozen Food Month, Peanut Butter Week, Tater Tot Day, and so on. Where did all these seemingly ambiguous and arbitrary “holidays” come from?

First of all, there are only 10 national holidays recognized by the United States, like Christmas and Independence Day. Then there are the government-sanctioned holidays like Mother’s Day and Flag Day; there are 44 of these. Some national days are created by presidential proclamation or a resolution in the House or Senate. In July of 1984, president Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation marking the 15th National Ice Cream Day. He called it a “nutritious and wholesome food.” His favorite flavor was coconut. He also created National Frozen Food Day in 1984 (this is confusing because March is Frozen Food Month). June 25, 1987, was Catfish Day. These proclamations are actually a one-time-only deal, so there hasn’t been a National Ice Cream Day since 1984, but plenty of ice cream shops celebrate annually, nonetheless.

F.Y.I., today is Peanut Lovers Day and Pears Helene day. The month of March includes celebrations of frozen food, pig, popcorn, potato chips, submarines, poultry, tea for two, Melba toast, chocolate covered raisins, pecans, waffles, flour, noodles, crown roast of pork, and many more. The few healthy days are March 26, spinach day, and the 31st, clams on the half shell day.

When you hear on the news or read on social media that it is National Doughnut Day or Guacamole Week, does this put a subliminal bee in your bonnet and make you dash out to the nearest Krispy Kreme or Mexican restaurant? I confess that when I hear that it’s National Chocolate Day — Oct. 28, 2018, mark your calendar! — I might indulge in a molten lava cake.

Obviously, a lot of these are just invented by companies trying to drum up business. For instance, National Drive-Thru Day was made up by Jack in the Box, and National Underwear Day was created by Freshpair, an online underwear company. Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray, and Bon Appetit magazine are known to use these faux holidays to promote their products. 

Who decides these things, who keeps track? And how can I make a date in November for Peconic Bay Scallop Day? Several organizations keep track: National Day Calendar, based in North Dakota, was founded in 2013 and has noted close to 2,000 special days per year. They receive around 18,000 submissions each year. To create a holiday, you submit your idea to a committee and have to pay between $2,300 and $4,000 once the idea is approved unanimously by said committee. Chase’s Calendar of Events has been published annually since 1958 and in 1959 merged with another publication called “Special Days, Weeks, and Months.”

Foodimentary is a food day blog started by John-Bryan Hopkins of Alabama. When he discovered he had only compiled 200 actual food holidays, he started making them up. You can credit him for Tater Tot Day, Feb. 2, 2018, and World Whiskey Day, May 19, 2018, bless his little heart!

It’s a no-brainer that the restaurant industry would keep track of, and seek to capitalize on, food holidays such as National Chocolate Cake Day, Jan. 27, National Pizza Day, Feb. 9, and on and on with margaritas, shrimp, wine, eggs, onion rings, French fries, cheeseburgers, tacos, coffee, nachos, cookies, and lager. Again, I’m seeing a lot of junky foods here.

To some extent, all holidays are made up, including Christmas. Is it so bad that these food holidays make us giggle, give the newspapers and TV shows something silly to highlight? Even The New York Times gave National Meatball Day a few inches. They can bring us together to celebrate certain foods. It’s fun, if a bit out of control. 

Fruits are fairly well represented, as are meat and mollusks, but as I mentioned before, there aren’t a lot of healthy items being feted. Where are the granola, tempeh, and quinoa days? The “make kale palatable” month? Wheat grass, spirulina, flax seed weeks? Maybe they’re just not fun enough, like the California Dried Plum Digestive Month. You can thank former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for that gem.

So celebrate today with some peanuts if you like, and if you don’t have the chance, tomorrow is National Artichoke Heart Day, yum! You’ve got the rest of the month to whoop it up with Something on a Stick Day (March 28; think kebabs), poultry (March 19), and sauce (March is National Sauce Month).

Happy National Anything You Want It to Be Day!

Click for recipes

Fred Bollaci, the author of the “The Restaurant Diet: How to Eat Out Every Night and Still Lose Weight,” will be at BookHampton in East Hampton on Saturday at 4 p.m. Mr. Bollaci, who is a lawyer, sommelier, columnist for the journal Appetite, and a self-proclaimed compulsive eater who has lost 150 pounds (down from 330), will discuss how to make the best menu choices at a restaurant. The book dissects the menus of local restaurants such as 1770 House, Red/Bar Brasserie, and 75 Main. Advance registration for the free event can be done on the BookHampton website. 

Valentine’s Day

A few more eateries should be added to the list of restaurants mentioned in last week’s paper that are offering Valentine’s Day specials.

Along with its regular menu on Wednesday night, Red/Bar will serve a few dishes inspired by the holiday or meant to be shared. Among them are warm poached oysters with leek fondue, lobster and forest mushroom croustade, whole roasted rosemary chicken for two with sautéed vegetables and garlic whipped potatoes, and pan-roasted garlic-crusted black Angus rib steak for two with broccoli rabe and creamy corn polenta. 

Lulu Kitchen and Bar in Sag Harbor is offering a three-course prix fixe Valentine’s Day menu for $65 per person and a four-course prix fixe menu for $85. Featured dishes include grilled marinated quail, olive oil-poached codfish, and, for dessert, molten chocolate cake. Reservations are recommended.

Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton is adding a few special a la carte items — including a beet-cured wild salmon appetizer ($22) and a wood-roasted one-and-a-half-pound lobster entree ($60) — to its menu.

At Rowdy Hall in East Hampton specials that night will include an appetizer of crispy oysters on the half shell and a branzino fillet entree. 

Stuart’s Seafood Market in Amagansett is celebrating by taking 10 percent off cooked lobsters and lobster dinners. It is also offering a $35 per person dinner menu, which features a choice of stuffed flounder or cedar-planked salmon, twice baked potatoes or rice pilaf, green beans or asparagus, and Key lime pie, carrot cake, or chocolate cake for dessert. Orders must be placed before 2 p.m. and picked up before 6 on Valentine’s Day.

Greek Night

Elaia Estiatorio, a Greek restaurant in Bridgehampton, will offer a three-course prix fixe menu for $32 per person on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. A glass of Greek wine with dinner is $6.

It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your shipments of iced-down, black sea bass are? Or perhaps you want to check on the status of the longline boat that is catching your carton of golden tilefish from the 500-foot depths of the Hudson Canyon, located about 80 miles south of Montauk? For those who demand the freshest, most sustainable seafood, and partake in the increasingly popular and expanding Montauk-headquartered Dock to Dish community-supported fishery program, keeping an eye on your seafood order is a simple mouse click away. 

“More and more people want to know where, when, and how their fish are caught,” explained Sean Barrett, a fisherman and restaurateur who founded the cooperative fishery program in 2012. “Our motto is ‘know your fisherman’ and that has not changed. Members of Dock to Dish can check in real time the status of their catch from the beginning of the fishing trip all the way until it is delivered by hand right to their doorstep. It’s just one of the many enhancements we have made since we started.”

This year Mr. Barrett hopes to improve the fishery marketplace by having the world’s first live tracking dashboard so that end consumers on land can monitor hauls of wild seafood from individual fishermen at sea in near-real time. Named Dock to Dish 2.0, the new technology bundle was created in partnership with several fish tracking companies, including Pelagic Data Systems, Local Catch, and Fish Trax. Once completed, the bundle will be open-sourced, meaning it can be replicated and used by all independent small and medium-scale fisheries operations around the world. 

“Dock to Dish 2.0 is the first public-facing system to ever combine vessel and vehicle tracking with geospatial monitoring technologies on an interactive digital dashboard,” Mr. Barrett explained last month as he unloaded a catch of tilefish just outside the kitchen door of Nick and Toni’s, one of the first members of Dock to Dish’s restaurant-supported fisheries program. Fishing boats will be outfitted with solar-powered automatic data-collection monitors and application-specific wireless sensors. 

“The advancement represents a fulfillment of our vision to establish interoperability of traceability technologies in the seafood sector, and pioneer the most advanced electronic fishery database and information platform ever brought to market by an independent grassroots operation.” When up and running, Dock to Dish 2.0 will serve as a tool to provide clear, verifiable source and supply information, with tamper-proof digital assets to its members in near-real time.

Dock to Dish’s mission from the start was to make local, traceable, low-impact wild seafood accessible to organized groups of cooperative members through community and restaurant supported fishery programs. And those who are fortunate to be a member of the Dock to Dish program (there is a long waiting list to enter) are ensured they will receive the freshest, most local seafood possible. 

Since its founding, Dock to Dish has moved well beyond its foundation on the easternmost part of Long Island into an international network of small-scale fishermen, marine biologists, and sustainable seafood advocates working in teams from nearly 10 ports and harbors, including in Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Costa Rica, the Bahamas, and Washington, D.C. Participants from Fiji and Panama will join this year. 

The demand for fresh, sustainable seafood is soaring. According to Mr. Barrett, more than 90 percent of the seafood entering the United States marketplace is being imported from overseas, and more than 50 percent of it is farmed fish from foreign aquaculture sources.

“Of the wild-caught seafood that the U.S. imports, approximately 30 percent is sourced through illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing operations in countries that have little or no regulations,” he said. “To top it off, about 2 percent of all imports are inspected by the F.D.A. before they enter the domestic food supply. And of that percentage they actually check, 70 percent are rejected. The quality control overseas is very poor. Today, more and more people want to know where their seafood is harvested and by what method.”

“When I was growing up, we would catch our fish that morning and have it for dinner,” added Mr. Barrett, who is also an appointed member of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Marine Resource Advisory Council. “The concept of Dock to Dish is basically the same principle.”

Unlike the traditional fish-handling process driven by cash and credit cycles, which can involve more than half a dozen sources before it reaches the end consumer, Dock to Dish members enter into short-term futures contracts with their local fishermen, and pay their membership dues in advance. Members are then entitled to a set volume of premium local seafood or “shares” that are systematically distributed over the course of a given season. The shares are supplied exclusively from the freshest and most carefully handled hauls of the most local and most abundant seafood that is landing in whichever respective port or harbor has been designated for that region. At first, Dock to Dish also offered individual or family shares, but that part of the program was suspended.

Dock to Dish deals with about 25 fishing captains out of Montauk, of which about 10 secure some 70 percent of the catch, Mr. Barrett said. Participating fishermen include Capt. David Tuma of the tilefish boat Kimberly, Capt. Terry Wallace of the inshore dragger Night Moves, Capts. John Aldridge and Anthony Sosinski of the lobster and Jonah crab boat Anna Mary, and Capt. Ron Onorato of the Captain Ron, a pin-hooker who operates his own charter boat.

“Other than golden tilefish, which is caught year-round, Montauk is considered a seasonal fishery, unlike other ports like we have in California, where more fish are available 12 months of the year.” Mr. Barrett also said that he purchases fish from those who fish pound traps from Shinnecock Bay all the way to Montauk. 

Many of the most discerning customers when it comes to seafood, its freshness, and its origins are restaurants. A number of high-end Manhattan establishments like Blue Hill, Le Bernardin, and Per Se have been dealing with Dock to Dish for several years. Google’s Manhattan headquarters in Chelsea has been a client of the cooperative for the past four years and serves its catch to employees. In addition, several South Fork restaurants, including Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton and Almond in Bridgehampton, have participated in the program from its inception. 

“The quality of the seafood we receive from Sean is unparalleled,” said Joe Realmuto, the executive chef of the Honest Man Restaurant Group, whose South Fork eateries include Nick and Toni’s and Rowdy Hall. Nick and Toni’s was the very first customer to get involved with Dock to Dish. “It’s important that we have the freshest product, and Dock to Dish ensures that we have the best, sustainable, quality seafood available. They have been a terrific, reliable partner for us.” 

“It was not easy getting started,” Mr. Barrett said. “If it wasn’t for the patient mentoring and steady guidance we have received from him from the very beginning and through the years, we could never have come so far.”

Mr. Barrett also owes inspiration to Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, one of the oldest community supported agriculture programs in the country. “Scott Chaskey, the farmer at Quail Hill, was a true inspiration to me,” recalls Mr. Barrett. “He wrote this amazing book called ‘This Common Ground,’ which was about the lifestyle of organic farms as well as community-supported agriculture.”

“His book really inspired me, and I went and I met with him, and we talked about whether it was possible to create a community-supported fishery,” added Mr. Barrett. “As we see the Dock to Dish model now flourish in so many places, it was Scott who told us from the beginning that ‘deep, strong roots are essential to growing long, strong branches.’ His words were so true.” 

“Over the past five years we have worked on the coastal local food movement, creating new alternatives to old industrialized seafood supply chains,” Mr. Barrett said. “Across this broad spectrum, our place-based sourcing initiatives have created new trails toward the restoration of transparency and sustainability in ocean-driven cuisine and the wild seafood marketplace at large.” 

“It has been very gratifying to see the progress we have made,” he smiled.

Click for recipes

East End farmers, winemakers, micro-brewers, and chefs will convene to share their insights into our regional food culture at the Peconic Land Trust’s fifth annual spring lecture series. Laura Donnelly, The Star’s food columnist, will moderate the talks, which will take place at Bridge Gardens, on Mitchell Lane in Bridgehampton, beginning at 2 p.m. on March 4, a Sunday, and then continuing on intermittent Sunday afternoons through the end of April. Tickets are $30 for each lecture or $100 for the full series.

On March 4, the featured speakers will be Sean Magnusson from the Greenport Oyster Company; Erik Bilka, a winemaker at Premium Wine Group, a Mattituck facility that provides custom wine production, and George Hirsch, a chef based in Sag Harbor and the host of the PBS television show “George Hirsch Lifestyle.”

On March 18, beer and wine will be the focus, with talks by Marcos Ribeiro, the co-owner of the North Fork hops farm Craft Master Hops, and Robin Epperson-McCarthy, the entrepreneur who launched the wine label Saltbird Cellars. Stephen Bogardus, the executive chef at the North Fork Table and Inn, will also be giving a presentation. 

On April 15, Peter Treiber Sr., the owner of the Trieber family farm in Southold, will be the featured speaker, as will Anthony Sannino of the Sannino Bella Vita Vineyards in Peconic. Chef Justin Finney of the Highway Restaurant and Bar in East Hampton is also on the slate.

On April 29, the final day of the series, the featured talks will be by Stephen Skrenta, a Wall Street businessman who moved to Amagansett and started a grass-fed beef company called Acabonac Farms; Melissa Daniels of the Jamesport Farm Brewery, and Stefanie Sacks, a culinary nutritionist and the author of “What the Fork Are You Eating?”