It’s time for Super Bowl LI (that’s 51 for those of you who failed Roman numerals in school). The Atlanta Falcons vs. the New England Patriots! Brady vs. Ryan, chowdah vs. frogmore stew! Lady Gaga will be performing at the halftime show. Again.

Super Bowl Sunday is a great excuse to make lots and lots of food, from easy-to-pick-up finger foods to big pots of chili or stew. Since the game will be played in Houston, I’m thinking chili.

If you’re rooting for the Patriots, some foods to consider serving are the aforementioned New England clam chowder, baked beans, brown bread, lobster roll sliders, and Moxie soda. (Atlanta is the home of Coca Cola so Moxie could be your anti-Falcons beverage.) Like many other soft drinks, Moxie began life as a “medicinal” drink. It was invented around 1876 by a doctor in Massachusetts named Augustin Thompson. It was called “Moxie Nerve Food,” and was sold as a syrup to be diluted with water or seltzer. The primary ingredient is gentian root, which gives it a somewhat bitter taste.

If your team is the Falcons, then your theme food could be a frogmore stew, full of shrimp, potatoes, and corn, biscuits or cornbread served with butter and honey or muscadine grape jelly, black-eyed peas, and anything peachy. Atlanta doesn’t really have any of its own regional foods so pretty much any Southern dishes will do. I am either making a big pot of chili with all the fixin’s or a lazy version of barbecued Texas brisket with spoonbread. The brisket has a dry rub and is baked all day with a homemade barbecue sauce.

True Texas chili does not contain beans or tomatoes, and the beef is cubed, not ground. It is called a “bowl of red,” the color coming from the array of dried chiles used to make it. I like beans with chili so I serve them on the side.

For the weenies in your crowd, you could make Cincinnati-style chili, a milder version with cinnamon, allspice, and a whisper of cocoa powder. This chili was created in 1922 by Tom Kiradjieff, a Macedonian immigrant. He and his brother opened the Empress Diner in Cincinnati, but business was bad. He created a concoction of mild chili with Middle Eastern spices, put it on spaghetti (gasp!), and called it “spaghetti chili.” 

Guests flocked to his restaurant. To make it with the works or “five way,” as it’s called, you serve the chili over spaghetti and top it with shredded cheese, chopped onions, kidney beans, and oyster crackers. There are now close to 200 chili parlors throughout Cincinnati serving Mr. Kiradjieff’s invention.

If you have vegetarian guests (do vegetarians enjoy this brutish sport?), you could make vegetarian chili with lots of vegetables and beans, along with some barley or tempeh or chopped up veggie burgers for texture.

My favorite chili parlor, Hard Times Chili is in Alexandria, Va. It makes all three of these versions, all excellent, and also sells spice packets to make your own version of Texas, Cincinnati, or vegetarian. At the parlor you can order the Texas chili “wet” or “dry.” “Wet” means you get plenty of the red-oil slick, which some believe contains a lot of the flavor. The chilies are served with huge onion rings and moist cornbread along with a variety of vinegary pepper sauces. I always come home with boxes of the spice mix for gifts.

Enjoy the game, have a humongous Super Bowl party, and try some of these crowd-pleasing recipes.

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Super Bowl Sunday this weekend will bring food and drink specials at Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett beginning at 6 p.m. while the game is shown on five TVs and through a large projector. There will be free appetizers served during the game and giveaways each quarter, with a chance to win a smart TV. 

Artists and Writers Night

At Almond in Bridgehampton, the next Artists and Writers Night on Tuesday at 7 will feature Scott and Megan Chaskey, both poets. Mr. Chaskey is also a farmer who oversees the Peconic Land Trust’s community supported agriculture farm at Quail Hill in Amagansett and the author of the book “Seedtime.” Ms. Chaskey is a yoga teacher, musician, educator, healing practitioner, and holistic life coach. Her book of poetry and memoir pieces, “Birdsong Under the Wisdom Tree: A Book of Hours in the Life of a Poet,” was released in 2015. A $45 fee for the evening includes a three-course family-style meal with a glass of craft beer or wine. A tip is included. Reservations are a must.

Highway Restaurant and Bar

The Highway Restaurant and Bar in East Hampton is serving brunch on Sundays beginning at 11 a.m. On the menu are avocado toast with chili, frisee salad with lardoons, poached egg, and parmesan, and a 16-ounce ribeye steak with eggs, among other dishes. On Mondays, the restaurant serves chicken pot pies, a specialty of Anand Sastry, the chef, and Thursdays are Thai nights, when a three-course menu is available for $42.

No D’Canela

D’Canela restaurant in Amagansett has closed up shop, and the Main Street space is for rent. 

About Sparkling Wine

Park Place Wines is presenting a free weekly class on wine with its sommeliers, Lisa Schock and Chris Miller, starting next week. Each will focus on a particular topic and include a tasting of up to five wines. The first session, on Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., will be about Champagne and other sparkling wines. Reservations are required; cancellations must be made a day in advance.

If you are what you eat, then Donald Trump is a basket of, I mean, bucket of, deplorable K.F.C. chicken, washed down with Diet Coke.   “If he had any class, he’d eat Popeye’s,” grumbled my gourmet offspring when he heard this revealing tidbit.

The eating habits of presidents and presidential hopefuls has been a fascination of mine for many decades. If Dukakis had beaten Bush in 1988, would there have been glorious Greek dishes served at the White House state dinners? Perhaps, but instead we got Barbara Bush’s ultra-WASP-y layered pea salad, redolent with mayonnaise and iceberg lettuce petals. Dubyah and Laura enjoyed Blue Bell ice cream, Richard Nixon ate cottage cheese with ketchup, the Clintons tried to emphasize American foods and wines, and the Obamas brought a little bit of Chicago and Hawaii to the table. More importantly, Michelle Obama tried to improve American children’s eating habits with her “Let’s Move” campaign, and installed a kitchen garden and beehives at the White House. 

White House chefs do not necessarily change with administrations. Many chefs have overlapped between Democratic and Republican presidents. Cristeta Comerford, Sam Kass, Walter Scheib, and more have worked through many First Family’s tastebuds.

I fear the White House kitchen garden will be turned into a putting green with gold-plated markers. Mr. Trump has already declared he’d like to do away with state dinners. “We should be eating a hamburger at a conference table.” He likes his hamburgers well done and his steaks so overcooked they “rock on the plate,” according to a former butler. 

Perhaps none of this should be a surprise. A lot of super busy, hugely successful businessmen can’t be bothered with micro greens and farm-to-table stuff and meals with the family and those things called “vegetables.” If you attempt to research Donald Trump’s favorite vegetables you are led to a site showing corn silk and its resemblance to his mysteriously fascinating hair job.

So here are some favorite foods of Trump’s: See’s Candies, cherry vanilla ice cream, burgers, pizza without the crust, bacon with overcooked eggs, the Trump Grill taco bowl, Cornflakes, Caesar salad, spaghetti, his mother’s meatloaf, the aforementioned K.F.C. chicken, and McDonald’s “fish delight,” as he calls it. He eschews tea, coffee, and alcohol and drinks Diet Coke with everything. He said once: “I’ve never seen a skinny person drinking Diet Coke.” Neither have we, sir, neither have we. 

He prefers individually wrapped butter pats because, “I don’t like those little flower butters, there’s always a fingerprint on them.” He is known to be germaphobic and insists that fast food is cleaner than other foods. “I think you’re better off going there than maybe someplace that you have no idea where the food’s coming from. It’s a certain standard.” Ingredients of the McDonald’s Filet O’ Fish, a.k.a. “fish delight,” 390 calories, 19 grams of fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 590 milligrams of sodium: pollock, American cheese, tartar sauce, and too many preservatives and flavor enhancers to list here.

What about the rest of the family? His daughter Ivanka keeps a kosher kitchen at home and says she enjoys a pastrami sandwich from the Second Avenue Deli. She offered up a recipe for broccoli kugel for a glossy magazine. It is made with frozen broccoli. 

One of the salads at Trump Grill is named after her, so let’s assume she likes that too. It is a chopped mixture of tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, feta, cured olives, and romaine lettuce with Greek dressing. It is somewhat reminiscent of the Palm’s Monday Night Chop Chop salad or, dare I say, Rowdy Hall’s Mr. Smith’s salad!

Melania Trump, whippet thin like all the ladies in his life, obviously eats a different diet from her husband’s. She eats seven portions of fruit every day and says she enjoys chocolate and ice cream in moderation. She claims to also only drink Diet Coke with meals but methinks that’s just the geisha girl in her speaking.

Eric Trump is said to be the real cook in the family, and he reportedly makes many dishes he learned from his grandmother, Ivana’s mother, Marie Zelnickova. Chicken paprikash, borscht, and strawberry dumplings are some of his Czech specialties. 

The Trump family may or may not install its own kitchen staff at the White House. Some chefs rumored to be in the running are David Burke, a talented man with a significant restaurant empire who cooked on the Trump Princess in 1988. Joe Isidori, who was a chef at Southfork Kitchen on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, is another possibility. He cooked for Trump from 2003 to 2008 and specializes in burgers and milkshakes. Awesome. Perfect.

So don’t expect any soigné state soirees serving extraordinary or even interesting foods. It could be more like the Hamburglar, Papa John, Wendy, and Colonel Sanders at the First Table.

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Restaurant Week

The first-ever wintertime Long Island Restaurant Week lasts a few more days, through Sunday. A three-course prix fixe meal is being offered for $27.95 at more than 100 restaurants across the island, which are listed online at longislandrestaurantweek.com. On the East End, they include Le Charlot, Union Cantina, and Saaz Indian Cuisine in Southampton, Page at 63 Main in Sag Harbor, and the Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton. The special is offered nightly during the promotional week, though only until 7 p.m. on Saturday. 

A springtime Long Island Restaurant Week takes place in April, and a fall one in November. The 15th annual Hamptons Restaurant Week is scheduled for March 26 to April 2.

Homemade Pasta

Slow Food East End will sponsor a pasta-making class on Feb. 9. Pierre Friedrichs, a chef and vice-president of the group, will lead the session at his own house, along with Laura Luciano, a food writer, photographer, and recipe developer for Edible East End whose blog, Out East Foodie, focuses on growing, cooking, and eating locally on the East End. In the fall, the two represented the East End’s Slow Food chapter at Terra Madre, the Slow Food international gathering in Italy. 

The pasta class will focus on the fundamentals of making fresh pasta using different flours, including flour made locally with grain from Amber Waves Farm in Amagansett. Traditional Italian flour and everyday flour that can be obtained from the supermarket will also be used. Traditional hand-shaping methods will be taught as well as the use of a pasta machine. 

The class is limited to 10 students who will share a pasta dinner made from the fruits of their labor. The cost is $95, or $75 for Slow Food East End members. Proceeds will support the group’s projects. Reservations may be made at the Slow Food website. 

Every time I travel I take copious notes, mostly about food and regional dishes, and wonder how I can adapt these discoveries once I get home.   The similarities between Key West, Fla., and Montauk cannot be missed.  They both claim the clever title of “a drinking town with a fishing problem,” and each calls itself “The End.” Key West, a.k.a. Cayo Hueso or Bone Islet, has the air of a place people travel to and then just end up staying in. It’s closer to Cuba than to Miami (90 miles), and the influence of Cuban culture can be found in the bread, coffee, and numerous cigar shops. Cuban cigars are not yet legal, but Cuban “seed” cigars are sold everywhere. Cuban bread is generally pretty bland and white, with a soft interior and, hopefully, a lightly crisp crust, making it the perfect bookend for a sandwich of roast pork or fried fish. Cuban coffee is a dark, lively, afternoon pick-me-up, served in tiny specimen cups, thick with sediment and syrupy with sugar.

Some of the fish I have tried are strictly regional and seasonal, stone crab claws and Florida pink shrimp being examples. Nothing compares to either of those two — not Jonah, Dungeness, King, or snow when it comes to crab flavor, or brown, white, or rock when it comes to shrimp. 

The pink shrimp are more tender and sweet. Stone crab claws are prohibitively expensive, and the sizes are no longer small, medium, or large. They are now classified as large, jumbo, or colossal. At the only seafood market in Old Town, Eaton Street Seafood Market, the claws range from $33 per pound to $47, and you are mostly paying for the heavy shells. The best ways to eat this, in my opinion, are, first, unadorned, so you can savor the pure and delicate flavor; then with a few spritzes of fresh lime juice, and lastly with a mustard dipping sauce.

Smoked fish is a popular snack in the Keys and seems to be made with random varieties of fish — mahimahi, wahoo, or whatever. These are good on plain water crackers or Cuban crackers, which resemble the hardtack crackers of yore but have a little bit more give to them. Again, have some lime slices to squeeze on the dip. It brings out the smoky flavor, saltiness, and gives it some zip.

Red snapper and grouper are everywhere here, and these two are as close to our flounder, fluke, and striped bass as fish can get. They are mild, white, low-fat, and vary in texture once cooked. I have had amazing fish tacos prepared with both, and have had a fish sandwich so banal it could have come from McDonald’s. Some places use a seasoning mix (Old Bay is popular here); some just throw on some unseasoned bread crumbs.

There are 17 types of snapper around the world. Red, blackfin, and yellowtail are the most common in the west and south Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Grouper, whether red, black, or gag (also called gray or grass grouper), tastes like a cross between halibut and bass and cooks up firm. Both these types of fish can be fried, broiled, grilled, stewed, and souped. They are somewhat pricey, averaging $23 per pound. The 2016 Seafood Watch report classifies both as “good alternatives,” but warns that grouper has an elevated level of mercury, so don’t eat too much!

Key lime pie can be found everywhere. It ranges from the show-off slice at Blue Heaven, with a towering pile of meringue, to chocolate-dipped (can’t bring myself to try this yet), to the best piece I’ve sampled, layered with a thin sliver of guava paste in the middle.

When my brother Sherman arrived from Key Biscayne for a few days, he kept remarking on how much Key West reminded him of Sag Harbor: the closely spaced old conch and “eyebrow” houses, similar to saltboxes, the waterfront with schooners and yachts, and the eclectic restaurants. We explored the lighthouse, Hemingway’s house, and took a sunset sail on the America 2.0, a replica of the original America’s Cup winner of 1851. Fun fact: This schooner won the race because it was modeled after the fastest crafts of the time — New York Harbor pilot boats! 

By his second day, partly spent wandering the streets alone, Sherman admitted that there were some creepy, rundown aspects of the island that are not so charming. He was ready to go home. It is indeed a sunny place for shady people . . .

January in Key West is windy and bug-free, with temperatures ranging from 60 to 80. It was pure luck that my trip coincided with pink shrimp and stone crab season. 

There were also two noteworthy events taking place. The Key West Literary Seminar focused on “Revealing Power: The Literature of Politics.” What could be a better and more timely subject as our current political climate is leading us down the road to perdition? Also, the Key West Seafood Festival was held over the weekend, offering a chance to sample yet more shrimp, stone crab claws, and conch fritters. (Conch fritters are just a way to make tough, relatively tasteless conch meat palatable by beating the heck out of it and turning it into hushpuppies.)

I have yet to go to the Mallory Square sunset celebration or ride the conch trolley or lazily observe reefs from a glass-bottomed boat. But I have met some characters, made new friends, gotten some recipes and the family discount from my favorite haunt, Nine One Five, and helped create a spicy new cocktail at the Orchid Bar. These are worthy little accomplishments here in tiny Key West.

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AbEx Symposium

“Abstract Expressionism: Works on Paper,” a full-day symposium organized by the Clyfford Still Museum Research Center and the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, will take place at Stony Brook Manhattan on Tuesday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The conference speakers are David Acton, William C. Agee, Eileen Costello, Charles Duncan, Jennifer Field, Helen A. Harrison, Robert Hobbs, Katy Rogers, and Richard Schiff. There is no charge to attend, but advance registration is required at clyffordstillmuseum. org/nyc. 

Two at Ashawagh

“Two Visions,” an exhibition of photographs by Joel Lefkowitz and paintings by Haim Mizrahi, will be on view at Ashawagh Hall in Springs tomorrow from 5 to 8 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 5. A reception will take place Saturday from 4 to 8, and a poetry reading will happen Sunday at 2.

The show will include 40 photographs made in 13 countries over the past 50 years by Mr. Lefkowitz, who lives in East Hampton and New York City. Mr. Mizrahi, who lives in Springs, will show a selection of his “Music Sheets,” paintings that express his passions for music and poetry as well as visual art.

More Small Works

“Small Works (Part Two),” an exhibition organized by Folioeast, an online gallery founded by Coco Myers to showcase the work of East End artists, will take place at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in Bridgehampton from tomorrow through Jan. 30. An opening will be held tomorrow from 5 to 8 p.m.

Participating artists are Roisin Bateman, Perry Burns, Philippe Cheng, Maeve D’Arcy, Francine Fleischer, Denise Gale, Sue Heatley, Christine Matthai, Janice Stanton, Rosario Varela, and Mark Webber.

Nightingale Relocates

The Sara Nightingale Gallery, formerly in Water Mill, has relocated to 26 Main Street in Sag Harbor with “Namibia: Exploring Endangered Species Through Photography,” which will be on view through Feb. 8.

The exhibition is the senior project of Aaron Kresberg, a student at the Ross School in East Hampton who volunteered in Africa for the Rare and Endangered Species Trust last summer. All proceeds from sales will be given to that organization.

Open Call for the Retreat

The RJD Gallery, which will reopen in its new space on Main Street in Bridgehampton in March, has issued an open call to artists for submissions to the eighth annual Hamptons Juried Art Show to benefit the Retreat. The show will open at the gallery on April 22.

Artists can submit a minimum of two and a maximum of five images to [email protected] or art@rjd­gallery.com no later than March 17. The entire submission fee of $50 per entry will be donated to the Retreat. Checks payable to the Retreat can be mailed to RJD Gallery, P.O. Box 1994, Sag Harbor 11963, with “Art Show Submission” in the memo line. Credit card payments can be made by calling 631-329-4398.

Two dining deals are available at the 1770 House in East Hampton from now through March. A weekday prix fixe in the dining room of the inn as well as in its downstairs tavern features three courses for $35, with choices from the a la carte menu. There are also selections of wine for $9 per glass and beers for $5. The special is offered Sundays through Thursdays, excluding holidays. Downstairs in the tavern, dishes for $17.70 include burgers, meatloaf, Korean barbecue ribs, lamb and chickpea curry, and parmigiana-style chicken. 

On the standing winter menu, among the appetizer choices are spicy fluke tartare, oxtail consommé, and salads with shaved Brussels sprouts, roasted cauliflower, or roasted beets. Entree choices can include marinated Atlantic swordfish, roasted Scottish salmon, duck breast, dry-rubbed pork filet, braised short ribs, and roasted rack of lamb, all accompanied by vegetables and other side dishes that highlight local ingredients. Winter cheese selections are focused on selections from Ireland and the United Kingdom. 

At Shagwong

Montauk’s Main Street mainstay, the Shagwong, has a new chef. Darren Boyle, who cooked at Salt on Shelter Island, is offering a three-course early-bird menu for $19.95 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays. It includes soup of the day, a house salad, and a choice of entrees such as pasta Bolognese, a gyro, sweet potato and spinach burger, fish and chips, or meatloaf.

Wednesday at Shagwong is prime-rib night, when the main dish will be served with soup or salad, mashed potatoes, and a vegetable for $24, and on Friday night, “date night,” a $70 meal for two includes roast chicken, grilled salmon, or a 12-ounce strip steak, an appetizer, soup, salad, and a shared dessert. Shagwong is open daily during the winter for lunch and dinner from noon to 9 p.m. 

A Moveable Feast

Tickets are on sale for the annual event hosted by Slow Food East End and the Joshua Levine Memorial Foundation. It will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on April 2 at the Dodds and Eder Landscape Design showroom in Sag Harbor and feature food and drink by many East End chefs. 

Tickets are $150, or $100 for Slow Food East End members, and can be purchased online at slowfoodeastend. org. Teachers and school administrators who are part of the Edible School Garden group on the East End, which benefits from the fund-raiser, can purchase tickets at the members’ price before March 15. Tickets sold at the door will cost $25 more. 

To East Hampton?

Word is that Vine Street Cafe on Shelter Island is planning a springtime opening of an East Hampton outpost in the Montauk Highway building long occupied by Cafe Max. 

Also coming down the pike, reportedly, is a new organic-foods cafe featuring vegan dishes, to open in Montauk. 

New Gastropub

The Tuscan House in Southampton will reopen soon as the Job’s Lane Gastro Pub. The menu, with William Oster, the restaurant’s chef and owner, still at the helm, will include selections from the Tuscan House menu as well as “Euro-American pub fare,” including cuts of dry-aged beef and wild-game meats. 

I thought driving to Islip at 3 a.m. on Friday in a snowstorm was white-knuckle harrowing. Little did I know that several hours later I would have just missed dodging a bullet at the Fort Lauderdale airport.

I’d been wanting to go to Key West for an extended time for years. Eight months ago I finally booked a tiny house in Old Town with a dipping pool. Key West, the Conch Republic, is “close to perfect, far from normal” as the ad campaign cleverly claims. It is one mile by four miles, easily traversed on foot, bicycle, golf cart, scooter, or Harley-Davidson without a helmet. 

Within this area there are between 350 and 700 restaurants, depending on whom you ask. Of those hundreds, at least 75 are excellent, offering everything from Cuban to Caribbean to crepes to just plain, old seafood like hogfish, fresh Florida pink shrimp, grouper, red snapper, and stone crab. Conch fritters, key lime pie, Cuban cigars, and rum drinks can be found on every corner. It is a relaxing, crazy, laissez-faire tropical island. It is also trashy, filled with day-trippers off the cruise ships, tattooed drunks, and way too many skanky T-shirt shops. 

I love it so much I tell my friends not to come here.

I have always enjoyed solo travel and dining alone. I’ve never been one of those ladies who bring a novel to keep them company in a restaurant or the modern equivalent: the cellphone appendage. Watching people, listening to chatter, and engaging the waiters and chef in conversation is my idea of a good time. Having worked in restaurants for many years, I speak the language and frequently get a tour of the kitchen or a good recipe.

When I booked my visit, I checked websites to see if any fun festivals were happening. Sadly, I will be leaving before the food and wine festival takes place, but I discovered that there will be a literary seminar next week with the likes of the poet laureate Billy Collins and Joyce Carol Oates. It is fully booked, but stay tuned, I may find a way to break in. Regardless, I’m pretty sure I will bump into Robert Caro or Joe Klein or Curtis Sittenfeld sipping a Papa Doble at one of Key West’s many fine bars. A girl can dream. . . .

When I arrived in Key West and went to the real estate office they told me the house wasn’t ready yet. “There’s a wine bar to the left, a rum bar on the right, come back in an hour” they suggested. I opted for the rum bar, and that’s when I learned from the blaring TVs that a shooting had taken place at the Fort Lauderdale airport literally two minutes after I left. I spent the next 20 minutes frantically texting my son and friends to let them know that I was okay and safely ensconced on a pleasant porch on Duval Street sipping a dark rum. I was feeling very lucky indeed, and heartbroken for the victims, and then I discovered that the fine folks of the Transportation Security Administration had broken my computer. Day One was spent getting a new computer.

On the first night, I dined at a place called Blackfin. I had fried hogfish in a mild curry sauce with rice and string beans. Hogfish is delicious! It’s a mild fish that tastes like a cross between flounder and striped bass.

I have only been here three days and the grocery store is half a mile away, so every day I buy as much as I can carry home. My mode of transpo is known as the “10-toe turbo” in Jamaican patois. (Note to self: Flip-flops are not good for walking many miles a day.) On each trip I stock up on more supplies: coffee, lemons, limes, garlic, lettuce, bread, eggs, butter, just enough for simple meals at home. 

In the morning I make a pilgrimage to a bakery that has been in Key West since the 1970s, called Croissants de France. The chef is from Brittany and makes the most glorious buttery, crunchy, sugary, flaky version of kouign- amann I have ever had. It is as good as I remember, but the croissants look large and pale and sad and they are filled with coconut cream and other tropical nonsense, so I wouldn’t recommend those.

For lunch, in a torrential downpour, I went to Nine One Five for one of the best meals I’ve had so far: Brussels sprouts with preserved lemon, Szechuan tofu with eggplant, and fish tacos made with grouper. I spent a few hours chatting with Justin, the waiter from Lithuania, and Zach Moses, the chef who came to Key West from Blue Hill and Flex Mussels in New York City. He shared his recipe for spiny lobster ravioli filling, and they gave me a garbage bag/poncho for the walk home. 

I confess that I was so tired and lazy that night that I bought a Five Guys burger with fries and ate it on my patio. The fries were excellent. I think they put Old Bay seasoning on them.

On Sunday morning (59 degrees with 25-mile-per-hour winds) I went bright and early to Blue Heaven for shrimp and grits and banana bread and a slice of its famous Key lime pie. The shrimp and grits were superb — buttery with scallions and a sprinkle of shredded white cheddar cheese. After that it was a tour through the Hemingway house, which is always fun, but the tour guide was a simpleton. He suggested we tell all of our friends that the house is available for weddings in the garden. He pointed to a structure and said, “Here is our outdoor chapel,” but it was pretty obviously a chuppah for that day’s ceremony. Whatever. There are 53 six-toed cats in residence, all descendants of the original cats belonging to Ernest himself.

For lunch I waddled to Santiago’s Bodega in Bahama Village, another place that was highly recommended. It’s okay. I had more shrimp, this time grilled with chorizo and bathed in garlic sauce. For dinner I had a rum drink with Jimmy Fallon and the Golden Globes.

I haven’t been to the beach yet, haven’t snorkeled or grilled at home, and haven’t been on a glass-bottomed boat, but I will be doing all these and more. Tomorrow I meet friends of friends, and for the rest of my stay, I have occasional houseguests. There is a farmer’s market on Thursday, and I think I found a good source for fresh fish to cook at home. I might get a tan and do some “day drinking.” Nine One Five will be my hangout. I plan to stalk the famous writers arriving in a few days and attempt to gain access to the literary seminar.

In the meantime, I will swat away the palmetto bugs, a.k.a. cockroaches, a.k.a. Bombay canaries, that have found their way into my conch house, try to sleep through the rooster-crowing that begins outside my window at 2:30 a.m., find as much good food as possible, make new friends, and count my blessings that my timing was lucky in Fort Lauderdale. 

Key West, you are indeed close to perfect and far from normal.

If you haven’t yet made it to Zigmund’s, the bar and small-bites venue in Bridgehampton opened in mid-2016 by the restaurateurs behind Almond, this weekend will be the last chance to do so: It is closing after a karaoke night from 8 p.m. Sunday to 1 a.m. the next morning.

Zigmund’s was a pop-up, its owners, Jason Weiner and Eric Lemonides, recently explained, designed to temporarily fill the empty Bridgehampton Turnpike space after Fresh, a vegan-centric restaurant and music venue, closed. Zigmund’s followed suit with a music lineup and added a late-night menu. The Almond locations in Bridgehampton and in Manhattan’s Flatiron district remain open year-round.

Cafe Closes

The Manhattan offshoot of East Hampton’s well-regarded Nick and Toni’s, a North Main Street restaurant that draws high-profile diners as well as dedicated locals, closed its doors last weekend. Nick and Toni’s Cafe opened two decades ago on the Upper West Side, near Lincoln Center. Along with Nick and Toni’s here, Rowdy Hall, Townline BBQ, and La Fondita, it was among the restaurants operated by Mark Smith and partners in the Honest Man Restaurant Group, and the only one in New York City.

Art of Eating Moves

Art of Eating Catering and Event Planning, which has used the former Honest Diner in Amagansett as home base for years, is moving to Bridgehampton. New headquarters with a larger kitchen and offices, tasting room, and commissary, will open next month on Butter Lane in a building partially occupied by Soul Cycle. The move, according to a press release, will accommodate both “a substantial growth in business” for the caterers and “a new vision” for the diner, which is owned by the aforementioned Honest Man Restaurant Group. 

With one restaurant in the group’s holdings newly closed, could there be a plan in mind for the diner? So far Mr. Smith is mum.

Half-Price Wine 

Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett is offering diners half-price bottles of wine with certain meals on Thursdays and Sundays. On Thursday, it is a $29 prime-rib special, which includes soup or salad and the entree served with baked potato and vegetables. On Sunday, the wine special is available to those who order the weekly a la carte chef special.

At Beard House

Damien O’Donnell, the chef and co-owner of East Hampton’s Harbor Bistro and Harbor Grill, has been invited to cook at the James Beard House in Manhattan, which honors guest chefs from around the world with the opportunity to present a five-course meal.

On Jan. 28, Mr. O’Donnell will present “East Meets East End,” a menu using local ingredients to create his signature Asian-style dishes. Each course will be paired with wines from the Wolffer Estate in Sagaponack. The dinner begins at 7 p.m. with passed hors d’oeuvres: yellowfin tuna poke, winter fluke ceviche, tandoori-spiced fried oysters, Bonac clams, and Mongolian beef short-rib lettuce wraps. 

Courses will include Maine lobster tail tempura, sea scallops, roasted duck breast, Kobe beef tataki, and a pistachio financier for dessert. The cost is $175 per person, or $135 for James Beard House members. Reservations with the James Beard House are required.

At D’Canela

D’Canela restaurant on Amagansett’s Main Street is open daily, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. On Mondays, margaritas are half price. Tuesday nights are fajita nights, with a $16 special, and on Wednesdays, burger nights, a $16 meal includes a glass of wine or beer. D’Canela also offers senior citizens, ages 60 and up, a 20-percent discount on Mondays through Fridays. 

Wise East End winter warriors are likely already scheming, making some plans to add highlights to the coming weeks in order to stave off cold-season boredom and ennui. 

One upcoming highlight could be the next Artists and Writers Night at Almond, when the Bridgehampton restaurant will have Laurie Lambrecht, a photographer whose work has been shown widely on the East End and in galleries nationwide, as host.

The gathering will feature a discussion as well as a family-style three-course meal created by Jason Weiner, Almond’s executive chef. The cost, excluding tax, is $45, which includes a glass of local wine or craft beer, and gratuity. Reservations are required. 

The fireplace has been crackling nightly at Dopo La Spiaggia, an Italian eatery with a Sag Harbor location that recently opened another restaurant at the former Race Lane in East Hampton. The East Hampton Dopo is open nightly at 5:30 and for lunch and/or brunch on Saturday and Sunday. Happy hours are Sunday through Friday at 6:30, with half-price cocktails, beer, and wine by the glass as well as complimentary bar snacks. 

For a regular old night, or lunch, out, Service Station in East Hampton, which opened this year on Montauk Highway where Winston’s was, is open every day year round from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays, brunch is served. 

Cozy Italian food is always a winter highlight, and can be found at Serafina on East Hampton’s North Main Street on Fridays through Sundays throughout the winter. Dinner hours on Friday and Saturday are 5 to 10 p.m., while service on Sunday begins at noon for lunch and continues until 9 p.m.