Sant Ambroeus

30 Main Street Southampton

631-283-1233

Thursday through Monday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

The village of Southampton feels different. The streets are wider, the houses are bigger, the inhabitants smooth and groomed. The shops on Main Street are predictably peppered with high-end real estate offices that have glowing, interactive features in the windows. Press a button and stare at your Water Mill McMansion pipe dream. There are still pockets of charm, the Village Cheese Shop, Silvers, and the Japanese antique store that never seems to be open.

Dining options are few and far between and woefully bereft of ethnic choices. There are now three or four restaurants transplanted from the big city so you can comfortably dine on the same agnolotti that you had on Thursday night on the Upper East Side. You could say that Sant Ambroeus is the pa- tron saint of these European outposts.

Sant Ambroeus plays different roles throughout the day. In the late morning pastries and coffee drinks are available in the front of the long, railroad-car-like building. It is as sleek and glossy and shiny as the glistening gelato in the front cases. Walk toward the back for lunch or dinner and you enter a carpeted dining room divided in half. There is a lot of polished wood, comfortable button-tufted, cream-colored leather banquettes, and cafe chairs. You do not feel like you are in a beach town anymore.

On a recent visit we were greeted warmly, from the young ladies behind the gelato counter to the hostess who accommodated our request for a more comfortable table. I would suggest, however, that the employees probably shouldn’t be idly playing with an electric fly zapper in front of guests coming in for dinner. This gave us a start.

Diners are offered a wide array of breads in a basket after taking their

seats: crusty baguettes, earthy olive bread, and chewy focaccia, all delicious and fresh.

We began our meal with arugula salad, artichoke salad, and a caramelized onion tart with Parmesan gelato. The salads were simple and straightforward, super fresh and light. The arugula was barely dressed, so my guest asked for a bit of lemon. Within 30 seconds our waiter,

Jorge, brought out a plate with a generous amount of lemon and lime slices and a bottle of olive oil. Very nice. The artichoke salad had paperthin slices of raw baby artichokes sprinkled with lemon and olive oil and shavings of aged Parmesan cheese. It was absolutely delicious.

The caramelized onion tart appetizer was a delightful surprise. A large, sweet onion half was baked into a thin crisp pate brisee shell. On the side was a baked Parmesan cup filled with Parmesan gelato, which sounded a bit weird to me but worked. The tart was warm, salty, sweet, and crunchy. The gelato was creamy, moderately salty, and perfectly smooth, not gritty from the cheese. It was pretty darned soigné.

Next we sampled some pastas — the agnolotti Bolognese and ravioli stuffed with spinach. These are the kinds of food you don’t even need teeth for. The agnolotti was filled with a delicate veal mousse and topped with a mild tomato veal ragout. Dainty and delicious. The spinach raviolis were five paperthin

house-made pasta pillows filled with spinach puree. They were swimming in a rich, brown butter sage sauce.

For entrees we ordered veal scallopini with polenta, and a filet mignon with pink and green peppercorn sauce. So old school, right? The veal scallopini was pounded into tenderness and well seasoned. It was served with a mercifully mild Gorgonzola sauce. The polenta was a little grilled disc of deliciousness. The filet mignon was a generous portion — two thick slices cooked to order and topped with a creamy cognac sauce. There were a few token vegetables on the plate — little roasted potatoes, three charred Brussels sprouts halves, and two broccoli florets. The vegetables had a whisper of gas grill flavor to them.

The service on the night of our visit started off exceptionally, but dwindled in attention once the place filled up with larger tables of regulars requiring some serious coddling.

Prices at Sant Ambroeus are high, like Dynasty TV show, 1980s high. Appetizers are $22 to $30, pastas are $25 to $32, entrees are $38 to $48, sides are $9, and desserts are $12.

Since we were in a hurry to get home and see the super moon lunar eclipse, not to mention that there was some serious syzygy going on that night, we ordered a few desserts and gelato to go. Here is where the truly European flair kicks in. The two desserts, chocolate mousse cake and lemon tart, were placed on golden paper trays, covered with wide bands of stiff paper to pre- vent crushing, and then wrapped in thick, apricot-colored paper illustrated with the Sant Ambroeus performing various tasks: blessing babies, preaching, riding horses with angels, having visions, and traveling from Milan to Liguria for some tasty sorbet. Okay, I’m not sure about that last one; my Italian isn’t very good.

The chocolate mousse cake was light as a feather, the cake moistened with simple syrup and the mousse fluffy. The lemon tart had an excellent cookie crust and tart lemon curd filling. The two gelatos, chocolate and coffee, were both delicious, especially the coffee.

Overall, our experience was wonderful, the food refined, the room polished. If you don’t mind spending a pretty penny, then this cocoon is for you.

Barbecue and Football

Lovers of both barbecue and football might want to earmark Townline BBQ in Sagaponack as well as the Smokin’ Wolf barbecue takeout shop in East Hampton as places to go for football watching victuals.

Smokin’ Wolf’s Sunday football specials include trays of chicken wings, quesadillas, hush puppies, ribs, nachos, and sliders with pork, chicken, or brisket, at various prices. The shop also has daily lunch specials starting at $8.75 and is selling candy to benefit the East Hampton High School football team.

At Townline BBQ, happy hour and football game specials will be offered at the bar on Thursdays and Fridays from 3 to 8 p.m. and all day on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. Among the items on special are chicken wings, warm pretzels, and hush puppies.

Fall at Almond

Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton has introduced new daily specials for the fall. On Meatless Mondays, a three- course meatless menu will be served for $35. Steak frites are served for $19 on Tuesdays, and Montauk Pearl oysters are offered for $1 each on Thursdays. On Sundays, a burger and beer special is available at the bar for $15.

In addition, a $29, three-course prix fixe is available between 5:30 and 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, with a choice among three dishes at each course, changing nightly.

At Navy Road

Navy Road restaurant in Montauk, tapering down its hours in the fall season, will be open this weekend on Saturday and Sunday for lunch and dinner. After that, the restaurant will reopen next Saturday.

Oktoberfest Specials

The special German cuisine dinner featured at Rowdy Hall in East Hamp- ton for its Oktoberfest will be sauerbraten with braised red cabbage, turnip potato puree, and black forest trifle for dessert. It will be available today through Sunday.

Watermill Center Eats

The second in a series of brunches featuring international cuisine from the home countries of its artists in residence will take place Sunday at the Watermill Center from noon to 2:30 p.m. Reservations can be made on the center’s website, which features the weekly menu. The cost is $75.

Sicilian Supper Sunday

Osteria Salina in Wainscott has a Sunday supper special each week from 4 to 8 p.m. Featuring a family-style menu, it costs $45 per adult and $25 for children age 10 and up (kids under 10 can eat free) and offers a choice among two antipasti and other dishes, including salad, main courses, and vegetables. Watermelon is served as dessert. Reservations have been recommended.

International Brunch

The Watermill Center, in concert with the Topping Rose House restaurant in Bridgehampton, will host a series of Sunday brunches this fall. Each one will reflect the cuisine of one of the center’s artists-in-residence.

The events begin this week from noon to 2:30 p.m. at the art center in Water Mill, featuring a meal focused on fare typical of the United Kingdom, where Oliver Beer, one of the artists, is from. The cost of each brunch is $75; proceeds will support the Watermill Center’s artist residency, education, and International Summer programs. Advance registration is required.

Oktoberfest Specials

Oktoberfest continues at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton with German fare specials. Today through Sunday, the special will be kassler rippchen with braised red cabbage and grilled apples, and Black Forest trifle for dessert. Monday through Wednesday, the Oktoberfest dinner will consist of wienerschnitzel with herbed spaetzle and gold beets, and bienenstich for dessert. Next Thursday, sauerbraten will be served.

Navy Road

Navy Road restaurant in Montauk will remain open on weekends through Oct. 11. On Saturdays and Sundays, lunch and dinner will be served.

Learn to Ferment

The Amagansett Food Institute is taking reservations for an Oct. 4 workshop on making fermented foods, to be presented by Nadia Ernestus of Hamptons Brine. The session will take place at the Amagansett Farmers Market at 11 a.m. and cost $30. Ms. Ernestus will demonstrate how to make sauerkraut and honey ferments and will discuss the health benefits of eating fermented foods. Reservations can be made by emailing [email protected].

Football and Snacks

The fall football season brings not only games on the TVs in the bar at Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett, but a lineup of specials served during Sunday football games. They include a $5 order of wings, mussels and fries for $7.50, crispy calamari or Caprese salad for $6, and special pricing on varieties of nachos and quesadillas. Also on special will be chili, onion soup, clam chowder, and more.

There will be drink specials as well on Sundays, and on Monday nights during football games.

At Cittanuova in East Hampton during football games there will be $4 draft beers at the bar and free wings served at halftime.

New at the Helm

The Topping Rose House has a new chef. Ryan Murphy, a native of Ireland, where he was executive chef at Ballfin, a luxury mansion, took over in midsummer and has changed the restaurant menu. It now reflects his Irish roots and French culinary influence and is centered on seasonal produce, much of which is grown on the Topping Rose site.

How does Spam tonkatsu sound to you? Would you like to try a tasty paleo breakfast burrito with ham and not much else? Let’s find a recipe for Cowboy Casserole; this is a mixture of Tater Tots, canned soup, canned vegetables, and cheeeeeese. Christmas will be upon us before you know it, so why not perfect your Christmas crack now, your dentist will thank you! This is a mixture of Saltine crackers, lotsa sugar, a cup of butter, and melted chocolate.

And who doesn’t appreciate a culinary mash-up like butter chicken poutine? This would be a combination of a wonderful Indian dish poured on top of one of the more disgraceful Canadian national dishes — French fries with gravy and cheese curds.

For a while I have been thinking that the Internet could be the best/worst thing to happen to medicine (self-diagnoses) and online dating (self-doubt and lies). I have recently come to the conclusion that it is also the best/worst thing to happen to cooking.

This frustration usually takes place when I am attempting recipes using coconut oil instead of butter, or cauliflower in lieu of pizza dough (see frustration episode # 1067 in last week’s column on cauliflower). Don’t get me wrong, there are a gazillion great food websites and blogs. They may even test the recipes for you and illustrate them with actual photographs of that recipe. But then there are the doozies, the sprawling petabytes of bandwidth extolling the virtues of family, hearth, frugality, comfort food, and some of the worst, without-a-doubt-untested recipes you will ever waste your time on.

I think if you stick with the good ones — Food 52, Epicurious, Smitten Kit­chen, David Lebovitz, Saveur, and many more — you’ll be okay. But when you venture into Pinterest territory, all bets are off.

First of all, when I look at Pinterest, I feel like I’m watching Japanese anime cartoons. It’s so busy, I think I’m going to have a seizure. Then there are the blogs/websites that get all personal and say things like “this recipe will make you sit down and reminisce.” No, it won’t, it will make me sit down in front of reruns of “Real Housewives of the Hamptons” and wonder why I tried your recipe for porcinis, foie gras, and Douglas fir.

Another recipe claims to “ground you in that okay place.” I ponder what could be my okay place. Perhaps the bathroom after I’ve indulged in Sandra Lee’s Kwanzaa cake (pre-made angel food cake, canned frosting, canned apple pie filling, and corn nuts — gack).

There are “homesick” cooks, “prairie” cooks, “pioneer women” cooks, and “detoxinistas.” I like the last one because she admits that the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe for mac’n’cheese is her favorite.

There are entertaining names for many of these cooking websites: Offalgood, Meathenge (“this Kaliflornia kid kan kook kewl”), Punchfork, Shiksainthekitchen, Veggienumnum.

The Food Network is for sure guilty of posting some nonsense recipes. How about Ellie Krieger’s “recipe” for “Dark Chocolate as a Snack.” Ingredients: one ounce dark chocolate. Brilliant!

From there, let’s try Rachael Ray’s “Late Night Bacon.” Basically, you just nuke eight slices of bacon in the microwave.

Paula Deen shares her scintillating recipe for English peas: one can of peas heated up with half a stick of butter. Robin Miller’s Carrot Ginger Salad is a bag of shredded carrots and bottled dressing. No doubt about it, these inspiring recipes transport me to my okay place.

Lastly, back to Sandra Lee. I enjoy wondering if she captured the heart of Andrew Cuomo with her recipe for white chocolate polenta?

Often the problem with these online recipes is that they haven’t been tested, tested, and retested. Sometimes the viewer/reader making the recipe is not terribly adept in the kitchen. As a professional chef, I am confident in my abilities with just about any moderately simple recipe. Read it through first, do your prep, and follow to the letter. Even the most reliable and foolproof recipes can be flubbed by a careless cook.

While it’s fun doing a bit of recipe-bashing, even I have been the recipient of some online bullying. I have contributed several recipes to the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and TV show, most notably sticky toffee date cake. One day I read the comments section for this recipe. Most were positive, but one person wrote “supposedly Laura Donnelly writes about food for The East Hampton Star and she’s a pastry chef.” The next comment was “she sounds like a moron!” I’m not sure which of these two occupations makes me a moron, but I was thrilled to have evoked such a visceral response. Now let’s try some “recipes!”

Click for recipes

A series of dinners featuring local wines and beer will begin at East by Northeast restaurant in Montauk next Thursday. Jeremy Blutstein, the restaurant’s chef, will prepare a menu to complement wines by Macari Vineyards. The meal, for which reservations have been suggested, is $70 per person plus tax and tip.

Oktoberfest Begins

It’s that time of year again: Rowdy Hall will kick off its annual Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday with a festival from 3 to 5 p.m. featuring an outdoor German beer garden setup with picnic tables in the restaurant courtyard and communal dining tables inside. German bar snacks will be on the menu, and there will be Bavarian music from 4 to 6 p.m. outdoors, weather permitting, with a live broadcast on the radio station WEHM. Beer specials, including an Oktoberfest tasting flight, will be offered.

Rowdy will feature daily German fare specials through Oct. 4, with a $25 prix fixe starting nightly at 5. From Saturday through Wednesday, the special will feature knockwurst, bratwurst, and bockwurst as an entree, served with German potato salad, sauerkraut, and mustard, and apple strudel for dessert. Beginning next Thursday the special will be kassler rippchen with braised red cabbage and grilled apples.

Fall at Fondita

Fall hours at La Fondita in Amagansett begin at 11:30 a.m. Wednesdays through Mondays and continue till 8 p.m. Daily specials are as follows: tacos rancheros on Wednesday, tacos al pastor on Thursday, on Friday a choice of chipotle chicken tacos, tostadas, or quesadillas, and on Saturday tacos de cochinita pibil (orange-marinated pork tacos).

At Winston’s

At Winston’s Bar and Grill in East Hampton, complimentary appetizers will be served at the bar during Monday night football games. On Tuesdays from 5 to 7 p.m., Montauk Brewing Company draft beers will be on special, at two for one, and on Thursdays during the same hour a Red Stripe draft will be served with a plate of wings, any style, for $10.

On Thursdays between 5 and 6 p.m., a lucky table of diners will be selected for a surprise, such as a complimentary dish or bottle of wine. Every day from 5 to 7 p.m. at Winston’s there is a happy hour with two-for-one margaritas and a three-course prix fixe offered for $24.

Wine Wednesdays

Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits is once again offering its series of workshops on wine, taking place on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. beginning on Oct. 7. The eight-week session will cost $10 per week and feature various experts leading tasting sessions and discussions on a range of wine-related topics. Details will be provided on the shop’s website, wainscottmain.com.

Sen Hours

In Sag Harbor, Sen, a Japanese restaurant, is now serving dinner from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and until 10:30 on Fridays and Saturdays. Lunch is also served on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 2:30 p.m.

Momi Ramen

Momi Ramen in East Hampton has a daily happy hour from 5 to 7 p.m. at the bar. The restaurant is open for dinner daily, except Tuesdays, and for lunch as well on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Other Bay Kitchen Bar

An item last week about Bay Kitchen Bar on Three Mile Harbor was included in error. The specials and other events referred to are taking place at Bay Kitchen Bar’s Manhattan location.

Cauliflower is one of Long Island’s best-known crops. Our climate, with cool evenings and moist air, is perfect for growing firm, sweet, Brassica oleracea var. botrytis.

I love cauliflower. It is one of the most versatile and healthy vegetables. You can eat it raw, pickle it, roast, steam, stew, bake, puree, and grill it. There are even some vegan and vegetarian recipes using cauliflower as a substitute for pizza crust and risottos with cauliflower in place of Arborio rice. More on those later. . . .

Cauliflower is a member of the cabbage family, along with kale, Brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi. Other family members are mustard greens, cresses and arugula, turnips, horseradish, and Asian greens such as tatsoi and mizuna. There are also accidental hybrids such as rutabaga and the intentional hybrid broccolini. If you are one of those people who can’t stand the smell of any cabbage-y vegetable cooking, you should be happy to know that cauliflower is very low in the amount of “sulphur pungency precursors,” rating a mere 2 compared to 35 for Brussels sprouts, according to Harold McGee in his “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.” It is interesting and ironic that these vegetables, which nowadays are so revered for their health benefits, were also used during World War I to formulate poisonous mustard gas.

My favorite methods of cooking cauliflower are roasting and pureeing. To roast, I simply toss the florets with olive oil, sliced onion, salt and pepper, and a bit of curry powder. Easy peasy! My favorite puree is Daniel Boulud’s recipe, which has apples and onions and pairs beautifully with duck and pork.

In India a different variety of cauliflower that can tolerate the less hospitable growing conditions is extremely popular and is incorporated into all kinds of curries and bharwan gobhi, gobhi masaleder, tandoori gobhi, and more.

The health benefits of cauliflower are impressive: It is full of vitamin C, antioxidants, essential micro-nutrients, and fiber. The sulfuraphane in it is a cancer-killing compound and helps lower blood pressure.

It is popular as a pizza crust substitute, rice substitute in risotto, and roasted whole with mustard and spices and then sliced like a big albino steak.

In my dreadful attempt at cauliflower pizza crust I came upon an abominable recipe on a paleo diet website. First it suggested mixing it with a “healthy” fat, such as butter or lard. Then it recommended topping it with pepperoni, Canadian bacon, chicken sausage, and prosciutto. Apparently, these are all acceptable foods on the stupidest and most dangerous diet fad since the Atkins diet. Other recipes for the crust, such as Rachael Ray’s, are a wee bit better. Unfortunately, if you are going to try this, be prepared to spend a lot of time and toil and a lot of your kitchen equipment because it is labor intensive.

First you grind up the cauliflower in your food processor, then steam or microwave it, then cool it and wring it out in several dish towels, then mix it with eggs, cheese, and spices, then bake anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes depending on which recipe you believe, then add toppings, bake some more, and nap, ’cause that’s what I had to do after three hours of this. My guinea pig son described the final product as tasting like the inside of a vegetable lasagna. I am definitely going to try the cauliflower risotto, because that sounds like a lot less work and quite delicious.

When buying cauliflower, look for creamy white heads with no little black spots. The green leaves enveloping the head should look fresh as well, not yellow or wilting. Cauliflower keeps well in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, and once cooked, about two to three days. And by all means, seek out the beautiful green, orange, and purple cauliflowers at the markets.

Maybe cauliflower is “nothing but cabbage with a college education” as Mark Twain wrote in “The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson and the Comedy of Extraordinary Twins,” but that is probably what makes it the most feisty and versatile of all the cruciferous vegetables.

Click for recipes

The calendar may say it’s the end of summer, but it’s really not. We still have a good four to six weeks of glorious weather, warm ocean and bays, fewer tourists, and plenty of fruits and vegetables still growing. So before you resignedly trudge through an apple orchard thinking this is the only fruit you have to work with this time of year, think again.

For starters, this has been one of the best years for beach plums; I’m assuming the relentless sunshine and very little rain had something to do with it. If you don’t mind the amount of labor for not much yield, beach plums can be a versatile, free, and delicious addition to sweet or savory dishes. I have already picked about four quarts from a few bushes in Amagansett, and they still have plenty more ripening. I have made chutney, Dutch baby pancakes, cros­tadas, and infused the fruit in vodka, turning it a bright, hot pink.

Peaches and berries are still around, but probably the stars of late summer are plums. The types we see often, and that are the most agreeable for eating out of hand or in cooking, are Damson, French prune, and Santa Rosa. Dam­sons are a more tart variety, French prunes are smaller and sweeter, and Santa Rosas are more reddish than purple. Plums are an excellent source of vitamin C, vitamin K, copper, dietary fiber, and potassium. If you purchase them unripe, leave them out until they soften a bit and become fragrant. After that, it is okay to refrigerate them.

Summer pudding is an old-fashioned British dessert that utilizes stale bread with any variety of berries you wish. You simply layer the bread (a Pullman loaf or Pepperidge Farm Very Thin bread are good for this) with sweetened fruit, press it into a bowl, and let it sop up the juices overnight. Unmold before serving and top with whipped cream.

Pavlova is another easy and inexpensive dessert, requiring only egg whites, sugar, and whatever fruit you wish. You can make the meringues in advance, store them airtight for up to three days, and serve whenever you want. The name came from the Russian ballerina Anna Matveyevna Pavlova, who performed throughout New Zealand and Australia in the 1920s. Both countries claim the recipe as their own, but it is most likely from a chef at a hotel in Wellington, New Zealand, who is said to have created the meringue to look like her tutu, layered it with kiwi fruit to mimic leaves, red fruit for roses, and topped it with whipped cream to give the illusion of tulle. If you want to make a sloppy version of this dish, go for Eton Mess, basically a mixture of all of the above, smashed up in a bowl, also English.

Another good dessert for the segue into fall is pound cake topped with whatever fruit you like, fresh and macerated, or cooked into a compote.

Lastly, why should late-summer fruits be the only stars for dessert? How about all that zucchini still growing in your garden? Make a zucchini bread and incorporate it into a bread pudding. Same for corn, it only gets better at this time of year, and I like to add fresh kernels to little corn cakes or financiers and top these with a slightly boozy berry sauce.

I love fall as much as the next person and enjoy spending more time by the stove than the barbecue. But I also cling to the end of summer and try to stretch its bounty to the very end.

Click for recipes

Weekly Springs Market

The Springs Farmers Market will continue through September, offering produce, fish, baked goods, flowers, and more — including music and a chance to view exhibits inside Ashawagh Hall — each Saturday from 9 a.m. till 1 p.m.

Best Tomatoes

The top five winning tomatoes from the taste-off last weekend at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett will be featured for sale at the Amagansett Farmers Market beginning today and for as long as the season lasts. The market is now run by the Amagansett Food Institute, a nonprofit formed to support East End farmers and food producers, and is expected to stay open until December.

At Momi

At Momi Ramen in East Hampton, Monday will bring the beginning of a new schedule. The restaurant will be open from 5 to 11 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, on Saturdays from noon to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. till midnight, and on Sundays from noon to 3 p.m. and again from 5 to 10. N.F.L. football games will be screened on Monday nights at Momi, with bar bites specials offered during some games.

Sunsets to Continue

At Bay Kitchen Bar overlooking Three Mile Harbor, happy hour will now take place twice per night. From 5 to 7 and again from 9 to 11, specials at the bar will include $10 glasses of rosé and oysters or clams on the half shell for $1 each. At an end-of-summer party with music on Saturday from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., Bay Kitchen Bar will serve complimentary champagne and light appetizers. Specialty cocktails will be $10. Those who make a reservation to dine at the restaurant at some point through Saturday will receive a 10-percent discount.

La Fondita Celebrates

Mexican Independence Day is Wednesday, and La Fondita in Amagansett will celebrate with specials: chiles en nogada, a traditional Independence Day dish, and pozole rojo. Chiles en nogada, which is poblano pepper filled with picadillo, with a walnut cream sauce and pomegranate seeds, served with rice and refried beans, puts on the plate the red, green, and white colors of the Mexican flag. La Fondita is now closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Brunch Plans

Beginning this weekend, Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton will reinstitute its Sunday brunch service from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Brunch will be served from an a la carte menu, which includes traditional breakfast and lunch-style items as well as the eatery’s wood-oven baked pizzas. Specialty brunch cocktails will also be served.

Meal Prep Demo

Douglas Gee will give a demonstration at noon on Wednesday at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton, making a meal of vegetables from his garden. Mr. Gee oversees a new culinary program and tends the community garden at the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center. Those interested must register with the library by Sunday by calling or visiting myrml.org.

1770 House

143 Main Street

East Hampton

631-324-1770

Dinner, seven days

The first time I dined at the 1770 House it had only been open a few weeks. It wasn’t for a review; it was for a raucous birthday dinner. We were dressed to the nines, the gents wore ties, and we tried to behave ourselves, but we were noisy and happy and delighted to be in this marvelous new restaurant. Upon our departure we apologized to our waiter for being so “lively.” His response was “Oh, no, not at all. We want people to enjoy themselves here.” And that is the 1770 House in a nutshell. Classy, tolerant, and, most of all, delicious.

I reviewed the restaurant when Kevin Penner was at the helm, and now Michael Rozzi, his long ago chef de cuisine at Della Femina, is in charge and keeping this place in tip-top shape. This is one of the few restaurants I have reviewed twice.

My editors at the paper made the reservation for us under the name Larry Donaldson. I’ve never understood why people sometimes make up a fake name that is so close to the real name; it’s a dead giveaway. It’s kind of like a 2-year-old hiding under a blanket. She thinks she’s invisible, but all the grownups know she’s under there. When my cellphone lit up with the number 324-1770, the restaurant calling to confirm our reservation, I panicked and knew they would see my real name. Long story short, full disclosure, I’m pretty sure I was busted.

There are two dining options at the 1770 House. The upstairs is luxurious with comfortable cushioned chairs and a grandfather clock, botanical prints, orchids, and Oriental rugs on the dark wood floors. The tavern downstairs is tiny and cozy and has a more casual menu as an option. There is also a lovely garden dining area, but we opted for the upstairs, indoors.

When we arrived, we were greeted by two adorable, smiling hostesses, always a good sign. At the table we were offered a variety of breads. On this evening it was sourdough rolls and a light-as-a-feather house-made focaccia. Next some superbly fruity, green olive oil is poured into a little dish for dipping.

We began our meal with a special appetizer of fluke tartare and a peach salad with prosciutto. This place always has a fish tartare on the menu (often salmon), and it is the best on the East End. This version had a paper-thin layer of cucumber slices topped with hijiki seaweed, then the fluke tartare, then tobiko, and lastly some little matchstick pieces of magenta and pink radishes. The tartare was bound with a slightly spicy mayo. The cucumbers, hijiki, and tobiko introduced some crunch to the tender fish, and the presentation was as pretty as the dish was tasty: green topped with black, then pink, then green, then pink, with a sprinkling of chopped chives and drizzles of the mayo dressing.

The peach salad was also delightful. It was a tightly bound bundle of the best Balsam Farm arugula, super peppery, wrapped in prosciutto and drizzled with a mild vinaigrette made with Banyuls vinegar and a hint of vanilla. Perfectly ripe local peach chunks were scattered about the plate. Each bite was a bit salty, sweet, and peppery.

For entrees we ordered the striped bass, sea scallops, and a side dish of mushrooms. The striped bass was seasoned and cooked perfectly. The happy surprise was the presence of skin, crisped beautifully. Not every restaurant serves fish with the skin on; it makes some people freak out. The sauce had a generous amount of lobster meat, and the dish was topped with crisp shoestring potatoes. While this dish was wonderful, I think my guest’s sea scallops were even better.

Three plump, perfectly caramelized scallops were set upon a bed of black rice, dotted with tiny slices of crispy pork belly with a puddle of bright orange carrot ginger puree, and topped with slivered snow peas, radishes, and herbs. Again, the flavor, color, and texture combinations were inspired. Sweet scallops and sweet carrots, chewy black rice, rich, salty pork belly, and then the light crunch of snow peas in each bite, were simply divine.

The mushroom side dish was a mixture of sauteed wild mushrooms, rich and earthy, served in its own little black cast iron Le Creuset casserole.

The service on the night of our visit was impeccable. Our waitress, Debbie, knew her stuff, was helpful with our wine selection, a reasonably priced and delicious Viognier, and was able to answer all of our questions, such as “What is that awesome olive oil?” It’s the Jewel of Tuscany. The ever-present manager was there, greeting and charming the guests.

Prices at the 1770 House are high, but worth every penny. Each entree has so many extra treats on the plate, one barely needs to order side dishes. Appetizers are $16 to $24, entrees are $33 to $55, sides are $9, cheese selections are $8, and desserts are $10 to $12.

For dessert we tried the Stella Pollock cherry upside down cake and ricotta cheesecake. Mr. Rozzi tested and tinkered with the recipes for Robyn Lea’s “Dinner With Jackson Pollock” cookbook, so I’m guessing he improved upon the original in the book, a recipe calling for canned cherries in syrup boiled down with cornstarch. Best of all, the plate looked like a Jackson Pollock painting. The cherry upside down cake had puddles of cherry sauce and artful drips and dashes of caramel sauce, crunchy toasted pistachios, and a house-made pistachio ice cream. The cake itself was moist and buttery, almost like a financier.

The ricotta cheesecake was also outstanding, simple, smooth, rich, and creamy with a blueberry compote on top and hazelnut crust.

There wasn’t a single thing about our dinner that could have been improved upon. Mr. Rozzi isn’t just a good chef, his food is innovative. He uses the best of local ingredients and combines them in downright awe-inspiring ways. Flawless would not be too strong a word.

It’s been quite the year for Shawn Christman and Courtney Fruin Christman. Not only did they open the Sea Bean, a gourmet food truck that does catering and sells from Montauk’s Lions Field and other prime spots, but they got married on June 6 and are expecting the birth of their first child in a few weeks.

Mr. Christman graduated from firefighter school and was officially inducted into the Montauk Fire Department on Sunday, and Ms. Christman just accepted a position teaching special education at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton.

The Sea Bean is really Mr. Christman’s baby, but it’s taken a family effort to get it started. His mother, Mary Jo Fuoco, helped fund it. He also launched a successful Kickstarter campaign in the spring that netted him a bit over the $15,000 he was looking for.

Mr. Christman grew up in Montauk and spent a lot of time at Christman’s restaurant and bar, his grandparents’ place in the harbor area. When his parents divorced he moved up UpIsland with his mother, but when she enrolled in a culinary school program, he returned to the hamlet to live with his father for awhile before leaving again to pursue a music career. “I wanted to be a rock star,” he said.

The pull of Montauk was too strong to resist, and he eventually moved back east. He worked at Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton and was then hired to work for Tom Colicchio at the Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton, where he stayed for two years, before moving on to the Crow’s Nest in Montauk under Jeremy Blutstein.

“I gained my confidence from working with all the great local chefs,” he said. Mr. Blutstein, he added, gave him the courage to offer only the best local and seasonal foods, which he sources from Balsam Farms, Bhumi Farms, Pantigo Farms, and other local farm stands.

His menu items include Montauk Brewery beer-battered fish and fish tacos, with all of the fish bought right from the docks in Montauk. A favorite item on his chalkboard menu are the short ribs that he serves on Blue Duck brioche. Most of his sandwich items are made with bread from Carissa’s Breads. When he gets a bread delivery, he orders limited amounts, as the weather isn’t kind to bread at this time of year.

The meat and chickens he uses are free range, grass fed, and humanely treated, he said, adding, “We want to live by a better set of standards.” He serves breakfast burritos, ranch beef burgers, gourmet hotdogs, green curry cheese fries, and salads. There are fresh-squeezed juices available and healthy snack items such as kale chips, curry chips, and spicy peanuts. The inside of his truck is all stainless steel that on Sunday was gleaming in the sun. The couple posts menu items and a schedule daily on Facebook, Instagram, and at theseabean.com, so fans of their food can find the truck, which under town rules can stay in one spot for only a limited amount of time.

“We don’t mind moving,” Mr. Christman said. “We’re just thrilled that we’re up and running.”