Celebrate 2017

Whether it’s celebrating the end of 2016 or the start of 2017, there are a number of options for those who want to go out, eat, and party.

At Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett, chef specials will be offered from 5 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, and $5 glasses of prosecco will be available all day on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. A New Year’s Eve party will feature $5 blood orange champagne cocktails, half-price bottles of prosecco, and a 10-foot projector playing music videos all night long, until the ball-drop at midnight is shown on TVs throughout the restaurant. 

Tasting Menu

The 1770 House will serve a $110 holiday four-course tasting menu from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. For a first course, diners can choose from ceviche or meat dishes such as Wagyu beef with caviar, fluke tartare, and cured Scottish salmon. Second-course choices could include crab chowder, winter truffle risotto, and seared Montauk sea scallops. Sample entree choices are roasted rack of lamb, braised veal cheek, seared tuna steak, or duck breast. The chef will choose the fourth course, and there will be an optional cheese course for an extra fee. 

On New Year’s Day, beginning at 5 p.m., dinner will be served a la carte in the 1770 House dining room, and in the downstairs tavern, where chicken parmigiana, lamb and chickpea curry, and Korean barbecue Berkshire ribs will be added to the classic tavern choices of burgers and meatloaf.

Party at Almond

A New Year’s Eve prix fixe dinner at Almond in Bridgehampton will include four courses created with local ingredients. Service will begin at 9 p.m., and guests will receive party favors and a glass of champagne for a toast. The cost is $105 per person plus tax and gratuity. The menu, subject to change, includes appetizer choices such as Peconic Bay scallop hash, spicy tuna tartare, house-cured wild boar prosciutto, and shrimp cocktail, followed by chestnut soup and a choice of duck, surf and turf with lobster ravioli and braised short ribs, and roast salmon as entrees. 

Almond will offer a la carte dining, including a choice among holiday specials, earlier in the evening, prior to the prix fixe dinner, and bar snacks and specialty cocktails will be served at the bar. 

Gatsby Style

The New Year’s Eve dinner party at the Living Room restaurant at c/o the Maidstone inn in East Hampton will have a Gatsby theme, with a “toast to new beginnings” at midnight. Dinner — a three-course prix fixe for $95 per person plus tax and tip — will be served from 5 to 10 p.m., with the after-party, with dancing, going until 1 a.m. The menu includes a choice of curried butternut squash soup, farro salad, kale Caesar salad, baked oysters, scallop crudo, or crispy braised veal followed by entree choices of filet mignon, poached lobster, roasted halibut, kale and mushroom lasagna, and duck breast. A glass of champagne will be included as well. 

At Rowdy

At Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, the New Year’s specials will begin at lunchtime on Saturday, with potato leek soup, a short rib grilled cheese special, and an omelette with smoked trout and crème fraiche added to the menu. Dinner specials will include a smoked trout salad, a rack of lamb entree, and chocolate tart for dessert. On the first day of 2017, Rowdy will be open for lunch but closed for dinner, serving “hair of the dog soup” along with a special of a poached egg with hollandaise sauce served with Balsam Farms sweet potato and brisket hash.

Nick and Toni’s

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton will feature a la carte specials. The restaurant will be open for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and for New Year’s Day brunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sample menu items for Saturday night include Peconic Bay scallop salad, a wood-grilled veal chop, and a chocolate and champagne Napolean for dessert. A special brunch entree will be lobster benedict with crispy prosciutto.

Mexican in 2017

All-day specials at La Fondita in Amagansett on New Year’s Day include chilaquiles, lamb consommé, tacos with steamed lamb, tripe soup, and barbacoa de borrego, or steamed chile-rubbed lamb served with beans, rice, salad, tortillas, and avocado salsa.

New Year’s at Pierre’s

Dinner reservations are being taken at Pierre’s in Bridgehampton for seating between 8:30 and 10 p.m., with a three-course prix fixe to be served for $135 per person. After dinner, patrons can retire to the restaurant’s upstairs lounge. The menu will include appetizers such as lobster bisque, vegetable terrine, chicken soup en croute with curry and coconut milk, lobster risotto, and oysters on the half shell. Among the entree choices will be Chilean sea bass, Maine lobster fricasee flambé, mixed seafood, veal tenderloin, beef filet, and rack of lamb. The dessert course will bring a choice of French meringue with raspberry ice cream, coconut custard, and chestnut mousseline, or ice cream.

Even though the ground is hard, the trees are bare, and most farmers markets are closed for the winter, locally sourced and produced food items are still available for last-minute holiday gifts. The list of artisanal purveyors on the East End seems to grow every year, and one of the newest is Two Jammin’ Chicks.

Liz Zaccaria and Renee Akkala, old friends who live in Montauk, had enjoyed picking beach plums and foraging for other local fruit together for many years. The idea for a business began to take shape two summers ago, when Ms. Zaccaria was getting married. “Renee and I were putting together my wedding favors,” she said, “and we decided to use her grandmother’s recipes for beach plum jelly and rosehip jelly. We made tons and tons of each.” 

 Ms. Akkala’s family came to Montauk from Canada in the early 1900s. Ms. Zaccaria referred to her family, which arrived there in the 1950s, as “newcomers.” The transition from hobby to business came when several of their friends asked if they could assemble some gift baskets. “They wanted to pay us, but we said ‘no,’ ” said Ms. Zaccaria. “We like doing it. So we decided to make a business of it, and it’s been great.”

Their first batch was made in Ms. Zaccaria’s kitchen, which is certified by the Department of Agriculture, and they continue to cook there as well as in the kitchen of Barnes Country Market in Springs, which is owned by Ms. Zaccaria’s sister and brother-in-law. Their products are available at that store as well as from their website. They settled on the name while whipping up a batch of jam, drinking pina coladas, and listening to Bob Marley’s “Jammin’ ”.

While their long-term goal is to open a shop, for now the rents on the East End are prohibitive. “We love being able to pass on edible traditions that were passed down to us by our grandparents,” said Ms. Zaccaria. “The traditional ones, like fig, beach plum, and rosehip, have been on the East End for nearly 100 years.”

Still, they are not bound by tradition. “We do brainstorm to come up with new ideas. Renee said that I’m creative chaos and she’s science. We were on the North Fork last year, and as we passed the lavender farm, we decided to see what we could do with that.” Lavender-infused blueberry jam has become one of their most popular flavors.

Among the other offerings, which change depending on demand and available ingredients, are cranberry-habanero jelly, tomato jam, bread and butter pickles, beach plum syrup, and candied jalapenos. “I just sold 15 jars of the jalapenos to one lady, who loves them.” Good news for them, not so good for one shopper who looked in vain for a jar at the Barnes Market.

While they do not sell gift baskets through their website, they are happy to customize baskets for anybody who requests them by telephone at 631-668-6780 or email at [email protected]. They will deliver from Montauk to East Hampton and ship to more distant locations.

Holiday Meals

December holidays are about many things, both secular and spiritual, but breaking bread together and enjoying a special meal is always a centerpiece.

On Christmas Eve, Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton will offer visitors a chance to both dine and to give, as a portion of the revenue from meals that night will be donated to the Pajama Program, which gives warm pjs and brand-new books to children in need. A prix fixe featuring roast suckling pig served with cabbage, caramelized apples, and spaetzle — a Christmas Eve tradition at Almond — will be offered for $31. The regular a la carte menu will also be available. Service on Saturday will be from 5 to 9:30 p.m.; the restaurant will be closed on Christmas Day. 

A la carte holiday specials for Christmas Eve at Red/Bar Brasserie in Southampton include grilled Montauk oysters, Hudson Valley foie gras, Maine lobster, smoked Long Island duck breast, angus rib steak, and cedar plank-roasted Scottish salmon. The regular menu will be available as well. The restaurant will be closed on Christmas Day. 

Christmas will be celebrated at the Living Room restaurant at c/o the Maidstone inn in East Hampton with a prix fixe meal offered from 1 to 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The cost is $75 per person plus tax and gratuity. Menu choices will include curried butternut squash soup, scallop crudo, farro salad, baked oysters, baby kale Caesar salad, and crisp braised veal to start, followed by a choice of filet mignon, poached lobster, roasted halibut, vegetable lasagna, or duck breast as an entree. Dessert choices will be red wine-poached pears, tiramisu, or salted pecan dark fudge.

Lunch specials will be served at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton on Christmas Eve, and the restaurant will be closed that evening and on Christmas Day. Menu items will include shrimp bisque, a smoked salmon and chives omelette, a lobster B.L.T. served with pickled vegetables, and, for dessert, espresso chocolate pot de creme. 

Beginning on Monday, Hanukkah specials will be on the Rowdy menu: borscht with creme fraiche and chives, and braised lamb shank with sweet potato puree and horseradish gremolata. 

A la carte holiday specials will be on the menu through Dec. 31, based on availability, at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton, which will serve dinner on Christmas Eve from 6 to 10 p.m. and be closed on Christmas. Though subject to change, the menu is slated to include grilled stuffed calamari with bitter greens and creamy lemon dressing, and wood-roasted brisket with local sweet potato and carrot tzimmes. 

Holidays at Home

The Art of Eating catering company in Amagansett is taking orders through tomorrow for dishes for a New Year’s Eve meal. The menu can be found online at hamptonsartofeating.com, but ranges from nibbles such as smoked almonds or spiced nuts to antipasto, dips and spreads, hors d’oeuvres, salads, main courses, side dishes, and desserts. Orders must be picked up by noon on New Year’s Eve.

Buche de Noel

A traditional Buche de Noel, or Yule log cake, can be found at the Pierre’s restaurant market in Bridgehampton. The traditional Christmas dessert comes in chocolate, coffee, chestnut, or fruit versions and costs $38 for a seven-inch cake, with six to eight portions, and $54 for an 11-inch dessert, which can serve 10 to 15 people.

The owners of Mary’s Marvelous on Amagansett’s Main Street plan to close their shop in that hamlet once a new tenant can be found for the space. Mary Schoenlein opened her takeout food shop there in 2002. The East Hampton Mary’s Marvelous location, on Newtown Lane in the former Bucket’s Deli space, will remain open. 

Sen Dinner

An eight-course dinner paired with wine, whiskey, and sake will be presented tonight at Sen in Sag Harbor. From 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Park Place Wines and Liquors of East Hampton will host a pre-dinner wine tasting. Dinner will follow. Among the menu items are slow-braised octopus with pickled papaya, yellowtail sashimi in a cucumber boat, seafood steamed rice, house-cured smoked salmon, and dry-aged steak served with mashed squash, asparagus, and foie gras butter. Sticky date cake will be served for dessert. The cost is $75 per person plus tax and gratuity.

Planning Ahead

If Christmas Eve dinner plans call for an evening out, one might already be thinking about the many options of where to go. At the 1770 House in East Hampton, Michael Rozzi, the chef, will add some holiday dishes to the restaurant’s a la carte menu. They include appetizers such as spicy Montauk fluke tartare, wild mushroom soup, and a salad of shaved Brussels sprouts and roasted cauliflower or beet, fennel, and apple. Entrees include marinated Atlantic swordfish, roasted Scottish salmon, duck breast, and Berkshire pork filet. New to the dessert menu are an iron skillet apple crisp and chocolate brioche bread pudding. 

At the Manor

La Fine, an Italian restaurant at the Montauk Manor, will be open on weekends throughout the winter, and offers dining in a fireside lounge. There are also specialty cocktails and nightly chef’s specials. Dinner is served on Friday and Saturday nights, and on Saturdays and Sundays breakfast and lunch are also served, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Why in the world would you attempt a spectacular, complicated dessert when you’ve already got so much to do during this holiday season? Because it is an accomplishment, it shows how much you care about your friends and family, and sometimes it’s just cool to create a whopper of a showstopper!

The buche de Noel or Yule log, is a traditional French Christmas cake shaped and decorated to look like a log. It begins with a simple genoise or sponge cake (this can be chocolate, plain, mocha, chestnut, whatever you wish) spread with buttercream or whipped cream and rolled. The ends can be trimmed off and used as additional branch stumps on the log, which is covered with more buttercream and decorated. The simplest decorating can be accomplished by raking the tines of a fork over the log to give it a bark-like texture. You can also sprinkle some confectioner’s sugar to look like snow, plop a few random meringue mushrooms (homemade or store-bought) on top, and use some crushed pistachios to resemble moss.

Croquembouche is another fancy and ancient French dessert that is traditionally served at weddings, baptisms, and first communions, but I have gotten it into my head that it is a marvelous and fun New Year’s Eve dessert. It consists of little profiteroles filled with pastry cream or whipped cream (again, you can flavor this with Grand Marnier, coffee, or chocolate, but I am loyal to vanilla). They are then  stacked and glued together with caramel, usually in a pyramid or other towering form. Mine usually just look like a bunch of molecules and atoms meeting for the first time. Think more gangster house in Arkhangelsk, Russia, than the Shard in London. Bottom line: If you like eclairs, you will love croquembouche; if you like cake, you will love buche de Noel.

Croquembouche translates literally to “crunch in mouth,” because of the hardened caramel coating. This dessert enjoyed its heyday in the 1800s thanks to Antoine Careme, a pastry chef who had also studied architecture. His original shape was a Turkish fez, which then evolved into towering, unwieldy pyramids and cones. Versions of this dessert go back as far as the 1500s, and some were in in the shapes of Gothic towers, Persian pavilions, and Turkish mosques. By the beginning of the 20th century, the favorite croquembouche form was conical.

It is not clear exactly when the Yule log as a dessert came about, but it was possibly around 1615. The symbolism of the log goes back to the Iron Age, before the medieval era. Celtic Brits and Gaelic Europeans would celebrate the winter solstice at December’s end. The days were about to get longer, so a log decorated with holly, pinecones, and ivy would be burned in the hearth. Sometimes the log would be anointed with wine and salt before burning, and it was believed that saving the ashes would protect your house from lightning.

It would take up too much room to give full recipes for both of these dessert’s components so I am only going to give recipes for the pate a choux dough of the croquembouche, pastry cream, caramel, and the genoise or sponge cake for the buche de Noel. You can make your own buttercream, fill it with whipped cream, or cheat and buy the Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker canned frosting. What the heck!

So if you’ve got the time and the inclination, be a showoff this holiday season, flex your culinary muscles, and build a spectacular showstopper of a dessert for your loved ones. After all, Christmas comes but once a year. 

Click for recipes

It began with the invitation that couldn’t be refused: “Would you and your friends like to come to Paris for Thanksgiving?” Hot diggity dog, yes, please!

There would be five in our traveling group — my childhood friend Dicky, his wife, Beth, their daughter, Alice, my son, and myself. We all sprang for the extra legroom in coach class. To me this was to be a historical family trip. Dicky’s grandparents and my grandparents had lived in Paris and were the best of friends. Dicky’s mother and my mother had also lived in Paris and were best friends throughout their lives. Dicky is one of my best friends, and now here we were, taking our children to Paris, a fourth-generation pilgrimage. We went equipped with video cameras and the addresses of our ancestors. We never used the former, nor sought out the latter. But, boy, did we eat!

The terrorism alert from Homeland Security for Americans traveling abroad over Thanksgiving was somewhere between high and severe, so traveling with the most precious of cargos, our children, may have seemed foolhardy, but this was Paris.

We arrived on Wednesday morning in a jet-lagged stupor. After stumbling around the perimetere of the Pompidou Center, we took our chances for lunch at a tiny bistro called Le Chat Zen. It was pretty good. We got omelettes and lentils with sausage. We returned to our friend’s house for an afternoon of serious napping before we ventured out for one of the best meals we were to enjoy on the whole trip.

Chez George is one of the oldest and best bistros and was beloved by Julia Child. Framed mirrors all around, brass railings, lacy curtains, uniformed waiters, and tables so tightly strung together they have to be pulled out for patrons to slip through to sit against the wall. I began my meal with one of my favorite salads, celery remoulade — simply julienned celery root bound in a mustardy, creamy vinaigrette. The most memorable dish of the evening (and the whole trip) was a smoked herring salad ordered by our host. I’ve had many variations of herring (creamed, pickled, you name it) and care for none of them. But this was a mellow, warm, and slightly oily assemblage of a few fillets with potatoes, onions, and carrots. As at many bistros and brasseries, the servers simply put a huge dish down in front of you and you serve yourself as much as you like. Beware this generosity when the chocolate mousse comes around! We continued the meal with beef filets in brandy sauce, sole meuniere, frisée salad, and more. A glorious tarte tatin (upside-down apple tart) completed the meal before we trekked the mile or so home.

On Thursday morning I pitched in by stringing beans for our evening feast for 16 people. But not before gorging on a special pastry called praluline, basically a brioche studded with hot pink candied almonds and hazelnuts. After wandering the streets for hours we had lunch at Le Bouledogue, another tiny, charming cafe-brasserie in the neighborhood. Named for a family of bulldogs that lived on the premises, Le Bouledogue now has one last dog standing, or more like snoozing and snuffling, with the occasional indignant bark at his owner. This is another delightful aspect of Parisian restaurants, dogs are welcome inside, health department concerns be damned. Here we ate salmon tartare, steak tartare, poached leeks, cod on a bed of buttery smashed potatoes, and another version of that ethereal smoked herring salad. 

The cheap and cheerful Beaujolais Nouveau had just come out, so for about $4 we were able to enjoy a few glasses of hat. Which brings me to the prices. Without a doubt, every single meal was cheaper than a cheap meal where we live. I mean, even cheaper than a burger at LT Burger or ribs from Townline BBQ or a sandwich from Mary’s Marvelous. Granted, we weren’t dining at any fancy restaurants, but the reverse sticker shock was heartening.

After an afternoon of more walking (we averaged six to eight miles a day, thank goodness, because I consumed every frite in sight), we required a little snack of street crepes, prepared on a huge cast-iron disc and customized with fillings like Nutella, strawberry jam, or just some good French butter.

Our Thanksgiving meal was another memorable feast prepared by Tom in a kitchen so small you couldn’t even fit two people in it. A turkey ballotine had been stuffed with bread and paté de campagne, the string beans were adorned with sautéed chanterelle mushrooms, Brussels sprouts were dotted with lardons, and a mysterious and silky puree turned out to be a combination of carrots, potatoes, celery root, and creme fraiche. For dessert Tom had made pumpkin pie and his partner, Mike, had gotten some merveilleux crunchy meringues filled with whipped cream and topped with chocolate shavings.

Early Friday morning we fortified ourselves with small baguettes filled with ham, cheese, and butter before we explored a once-a-year flea market-brocante looking for bits and bobs to take home. I found a sterling silver cocktail shaker for a mere $25, not discovering a crack in the lid until I got home. That’s cool; it still works. An aged hippie who knew Jim Morrison during his brief time living in Paris sold me some brass flatware. Lunch was another classic spot, Chez Janou, where we had a risotto made with farro and sea scallops, fish soup, octopus salad with roasted peppers, head-on shrimp with a basil-flecked rice, and an intriguing salad of tomatoes, green beans, a poached egg, and roasted chestnuts.

For dinner at Brasserie Balzar we indulged in foie gras, choucroute garnie, roast chicken, crabmeat with avocado and grapefruit salad, bone marrow, and onion soup.

Saturday was our last day and you may be wondering, “No museums? D’Orsay? Louvre? Picasso?” Well, we walked around all of them but couldn’t bear the long waiting lines. And besides, museum time would have cut into our grazing activities. To me, every pastry shop and fish store and even grocery stores were worthy of oohing and aaahing and photo taking. We lunched at Le Procope, one of the oldest restaurants in Paris, where we enjoyed oysters, smoked salmon with blinis, creamy spinach raviolis, chicken, and sole.

For our last supper we opted for a brand-new Vietnamese restaurant in the Marais called Hanoi. We were ready for crunchy vegetables, highly spiced food, and less cream. We had spring and summer rolls, mushroom dumplings, chicken with lemongrass and chiles, and pho. 

The only mementos and gifts I came home with are all food related: small jars of Amora mustard for my brothers, flaky cookies and chive crackers for friends, a few small tins of duck and goose foie gras for whomever.

We killed time at the airport by gorging on our last croissants at Fauchon. I slipped the butter pats into my bag so I’d have a little breakfast-treat memory upon our return. 

The first thing I did when I got home was trot over to Harbor Market in Sag Harbor to visit Paul Del Favero. He gets a delivery from Russ and Daughters every week and I asked him to include some smoked herring in the next shipment. I promised that if my experimentation with a recipe for that exquisite salad is a success I would share it with him.

Four full days in Paris was enough. Our children enjoyed and appreciated every aspect of it, especially the food and scenery. Every now and then we would toast our good fortune, give thanks, and remind ourselves of this historical trip, the fourth generation of dear family friends returning to the stomping grounds of our expat ancestors.

Click for recipes

Wintertime Market

Despite the season, fresh foods and items made by East End purveyors are not a thing of the past. All manner of produce, eggs, cheeses, baked goods, and other comestibles can be found at the Riverhead Farmers Market, an indoor affair that takes place on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 117 East Main Street. 

The market will run through the end of April.

Sake and Wine

Sen restaurant in Sag Harbor will present a sake and wine dinner next Thursday, starting at 5:30 p.m. with a complimentary wine tasting by Park Place Wine and Liquors of East Hampton. An eight-course dinner, each course paired with sake, wine, or Japanese whiskey, will follow at 6:30.

The menu includes yellowtail sashimi in a cucumber boat, slow-braised octopus and pickled papaya, panko calamari, house-cured salmon, and dry aged steak with mashed squash, asparagus, and foie gras butter. 

The cost is $75 plus tax and gratuity. The dinner is expected to sell out quickly. Reservations can be made by calling 631-725-1774.

Paint and Eat

Barbecue and creativity go hand in hand on Monday nights at Townline BBQ in Sagaponack this month, with visits by Nikki Payne of the Salty Canvas, who will host paint parties from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Monday and Dec. 19. The $45 fee includes a free happy hour drink, step-by-step instructions, and painting materials. 

Food can be ordered from the happy hour or regular menu. Those who wish to attend have been asked to register at least 24 hours in advance at saltycanvashamptons.com.

Christmas Suckling Pig

Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton will have its 16th annual Christmas Eve dinner this year with a menu of roast suckling pig, cabbage, caramelized apples, and spaetzle. The cost is $31, and a portion of the revenue will be donated to the Pajama Program, which provides new, warm pajamas and books to needy children. Almond’s regular a la carte menu will also be available on Christmas Eve. 

Gift Certificates

Smokin’ Wolf BBQ & More in East Hampton has a tempting holiday offer for barbecue lovers. Patrons who purchase five $20 gift certificates before Dec. 25 will receive a sixth one free. The restaurant also offers off-site holiday catering.

How did a meatball from Staten Island with a 45-year pedigree wind up with a shrine to itself in Bridgehampton? The journey of Tony Meatball began in 1971, when Anthony and Joanne D’Andrea, first-generation Italians, opened the RoadHouse, a restaurant some three miles west of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Over the years, several items stood out from its huge menu as signature dishes: clam pizza, chicken Parmigiana with baked rigatoni, escarole and beans, and meatballs. Mark D’Andrea took over the restaurant from his parents in 1990, and it is still going strong. “My executive chef, Dina, started at 40,” he said. “She’s 87, and she’s still there.”

Mr. D’Andrea had never heard of the Hamptons until friends from Pennsylvania’s Valley Forge Military Academy invited him to visit during the summers. After a few visits, he fell in love with the area and has been coming back ever since, but to this day does not have a house here, although he has been actively looking. “I’ve long thought this would be a wonderful place to retire, but I would need to have a place to get my grandmother’s meatballs and sauce.”

Then, last summer, Mr. D’Andrea found and began construction at a space on Bridgehampton Main Street. At a fund-raiser for the Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue in Southampton, where his meatballs were among the attractions, he met Catalin (John) Jurim, who was working the catering end. By the end of the day, Mr. Jurim had signed on as manager of the new venture.

Tony Meatball opened Aug. 10. “We gave away thousands of meatballs,” Mr. D’Andrea said. “By Labor Day I had complete confidence I had made the right decision coming here.” Early on, Mr. Jurim, who commutes 60 miles to and from Babylon each working day, saw Pierre Weber, owner of the eponymous restaurant next door, driving by in his Citroen. “I flagged him down and thrust a meatball through his open window.” Soon after, Mr. Weber sent a bouquet of flowers to the shop.

The menu is simple, with two kinds of meatballs. The “Tony” meatball is made from pork, beef, and veal; the “skinny” meatball from grass-fed beef and chicken. Either can be served simply, with house-made tomato sauce and the addition of rigatoni or a house salad, or on a hero roll. The meatballs are baked, not fried. Each meatball is seven ounces, and plates are dusted with Pecorino Romano cheese and topped off with a dollop of ricotta.

The narrow, pristine space sparkles with white tile and wainscoting, red walls, an unpainted tin ceiling, and a long counter. The space doesn’t allow for much seating. There are a few stools, a miniature table and four chairs for kids, and a long counter for those willing to stand. Much of the business is takeout.

Mr. D’Andrea is pleased that he is not infringing on anybody else’s business. “I’m not selling steak, I’m not selling pizza. I’m selling my thing.” His thing is a piece of the RoadHouse. His brother Michael, who also worked at the Staten Island restaurant while growing up, now owns Macaluso’s restaurant on Miami’s South Beach, where the clam pizza and meatballs are just as popular as on Staten Island.

Tony Meatball is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m., Sunday from 11 to 8. On Friday evenings, Mr. Jurim said, they are willing to stay open later if telephoned from the road — within reason, that is.

South Edison restaurant in Montauk will remain open through the winter months on Thursdays through Sundays. On Thursdays there will be an all-night happy hour, and from 5 to 9 p.m. a $25 prix fixe will be offered. On Sundays, brunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. In addition, oysters will be served at half price.

Tavern Thursdays

The 1770 House is once again offering Thursday night specials in its downstairs tavern. Beginning at 5:30 p.m., a signature burger, meatloaf, or Korean barbecue ribs can be ordered for $17.70. House wine will be $9 a glass, and house beers $5.

At the Maidstone

The ladies night at the c/o the Maidstone lounge will take place on Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. Besides half off the bar menu, including half-price wine and cocktails, there will be an opportunity for shopping from local vendors. The half-price bar deal is also on Fridays, “teachers night,” from 3 to 6 p.m. In addition, the inn’s Living Room restaurant is offering a nightly prix fixe for $35.

Red Catering

Kirk Basnight of the Red/Bar Brasserie and Little/Red in Southampton has launched a catering service featuring menus and dishes by Red/Bar’s new executive chef, Todd Jacobs. 

Protest Prose

The next Artists and Writers Night at Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton gets underway at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, with a theme of “Protest Prose and Notes on Comfort.” It will feature artists sharing stories of resistance and protest, while a three-course family-style dinner is served. The cost, which includes a glass of local wine or craft beer, and gratuity, is $45. Reservations are a must. 

At Baron’s Cove 

Food and drink specials will be on the menu tomorrow at Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor, which is throwing a tree-lighting party and ugly holiday sweater happy hour. The tree lighting will occur at 7:15, and there will be live music by the Lynn Blue Duo from 6 to 10 p.m. Those attending have been asked to take a donation of a warm hat, scarf, socks, or gloves for donation to the Maureen’s Haven homeless outreach program. 

Tauk at Trail’s End

63 South Euclid Avenue

Montauk

631-238-5527

Dinner, 5 p.m.

Lunch, Saturday and Sunday, noon. Closed Wednesday

It is especially hard to write a review of a place that you wanted to like, thought you should like, and hoped to like, but it ends up being a rather expensive disappointment. Such was the case with Tauk at Trail’s End.

Upon entering, one gets a sense of déja vu, as in “I think I’ve been to this recently renovated restaurant in Montauk.” The color scheme is white and blue, lots of wood, outdoor furniture indoors, metal chairs, a surfboard on the wall, and some artwork that is somewhere between Jackson Pollock’s dripped paint and a child’s spin art. 

Once seated, we got some warm Italian bread dotted with sesame seeds and some herbed olive oil. For starters we tried a fried calamari special, shrimp and crab wontons, and tuna poke. 

The tuna poke was fresh and delicious, small cubes of tuna lightly tossed in a ponzu dressing and served with some crisp wonton triangles and a dab of wakame (seaweed) salad. The calamari was okay — tender but pale and a bit oily. The marinara sauce was good, chunky, spicy, and garlicky, but needed salt. The five wontons were pretty good, and the dipping sauce was tasty with ginger, spice, and a hint of sweetness. The slaw served with it was a bit weird, kind of tan and purple, tasting mostly of sesame oil. 

For entrees we ordered the lobster linguini and two specials: Long Island duck breast and crisp tilefish. The lobster linguini dish was a huge platter of pink and creamy pasta. It had a bit of an off-smell, which we were pretty sure wasn’t the funky-odored pecorino served with it. We tried a few bites and left the rest. The duck dish was sliced duck served more medium than medium rare. The sauce, described as fig-raspberry-brandy, mostly tasted of  raspberry jam. One side dish was a vegetable medley of carrots, broccoli, red peppers, and zucchini, waaaaay overcooked and swathed with bits of garlic. It would have been tasty if the vegetables hadn’t been so soft. The additional accompaniment of cubes of roasted sweet potatoes lacked seasoning. 

The crisped-skin tilefish was also a whisper past its sale date. It also was not crisped. This dish was served with the aforementioned overly pliable vegetables and some lukewarm red-skin mashed potatoes.

The service on the night of our visit was very friendly. Our waiter, Sean, was knowledgeable and professional. The prices are moderate to expensive, way too expensive for the quality of the food. Appetizers are $14 to $36, salads $12 and $15, entrees are $18 to $44, sides are $8 to $16, and desserts are $12 to $14.

For dessert we tried the special of apple crisp and Tauk’s signature dessert “Snafflized” cheesecake. The apple crisp was no longer crisp; the topping had receded into the fruit a while ago. The flavors were good though, and the garnish of Granny Smith apple slices drizzled with caramel sauce was pretty. 

The Snafflized cheesecake is house-made cheesecake covered with Reddi-Wip, then branded with a brown sugar crust. Bruleed brown sugar usually tastes pretty darned good but this tasted like a cross between a marshmallow and gas from a blowtorch (or overheated salamander oven). We asked what “snafflized” meant and nobody knew, but one wag suggested checking the Urban Dictionary. Indeed, there it is: “The snaffles, obtained through smoking marijuana, are when you reach the stage where you feel physically bloated, and would, under sober circumstances, never continue eating, yet you do.” That sounds about right. Snaffle also has a few more definitions in this dictionary but this was the cleanest one I could share in this family newspaper.

Tauk at Trail’s End is a cute place with a charming and friendly staff, and God bless them for staying open in the winter; there aren’t a lot of choices in downtown Montauk this time of year. But for the quality of the food, the prices should be lower, and, no matter the price, the fish fresher.