A fall menu at 75 Main in Southampton is centered on local produce and includes dishes such as truffle-crumb stuffed breast of chicken served with polenta, garlic, and broccoli rabe; marinated skirt steak, and blue crab-crusted halibut.

On Mondays at 75 Main, pasta entrees, served with a soup or salad to start, are $16, and on Sundays there are steak specials: a burger, flatiron steak, marinated skirt steak, or hanger steak served with soup or salad for $18.  In addition, the restaurant offers a three-course prix fixe Tuesdays through Fridays for $29.95.

Fall at Pierre’s

The seasonal changes at Pierre’s in Bridgehampton include the addition of onion soup, escargot flambé, and beef pot au feu to the menu, and a $30 prix fixe served all night on weeknights and on weekends until 6:30 p.m. Entrées include beef bourguignon with spaetzle, roasted organic chicken with ratatouille and potato puree, and pan-seared salmon with cauliflower gratin.

On Wednesdays

Also in Bridgehampton, Fresh Hamptons has added another nightly promotion. This one, on Wednesdays, will bring half-price discounts on bottles of wine originally priced at or under $100.

The mid-week draw at little/red in Southampton is a burger night on Wednesdays from 5:30 to 10 p.m. The restaurant’s bistro burger platter, with a burger and fries, lettuce, tomato, Vidalia onion, and pickles, is offered for $10, plus tax and gratuity. Cheese and other add-ons are available at an extra cost.

Winter Farm Shares

Single and family shares at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett are available for the coming season, with vegetables offered for pickup every two weeks from Nov. 21 through February. Fall produce that will be offered includes carrots, beets, potatoes, cabbage, squash, wheatberries, and more. Those interested may call Robin Harris at the Peconic Land Trust office in Southampton.

At Wolffer Winery

An apple-tasting, led by John Halsey of the Halsey apple orchard and the Milk Pail farm stand in Water Mill, will take place on Wednesday from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Wolffer Estate Winery in Sagaponack. The cost is $10.

Every Tuesday, the winery has wine-tasting events for $15. On the coming Tuesday, Andrew Harris of Montauk, who owns the Stonecrop Wines vineyard in New Zealand, will discuss his experiences and present the Stonecrop sauvignon blanc and pinot noir.

Living Room Specials

Those looking to unwind after work will find happy hour specials at the Living Room restaurant’s bar at c/o the Maidstone inn in East Hampton. From 5 to 9 p.m., cocktails and food from the bar menu are half price, selected beers are $5, and house wines are $9. On Friday nights, Alfredo Merat performs with friends, and the popular Swedish meatball dish made by Mathias Brogie, the chef, with mashed potatoes, lingonberry jam, and creamy gravy, is $20.

Happy in Sag

Happy hour gets started at 4 p.m. from Sunday through Friday at Page, at 63 Main Street in Sag Harbor. It runs till 6:30 and features food specials, including mussels meuniere for $10 and grilled vegetable and hummus flatbread for $7, as well as drinks at discounted prices — beer for $5, house wine for $7, and specialty cocktails for $8. Varieties of the restaurant’s “Back Page” brick-oven pizza are $12.

The festival is coming, the festival is coming, the Hamptons International Film Festival is coming! By Thursday the swarm of over 18,000 black-leather clad cinephiles will begin descending upon our lovely villages. They know where the films are being shown, East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Southampton, Montauk, and Westhampton, but do they know where to eat? Have no fear, I am here to “direct.”

When the festival began 22 years ago, it was a modest endeavor. There would be a superfamous actor or director interviewed on the last day of the festival, and it would be kept secret until that day. It became a guessing game among locals. If we happened to see Isabella Rossellini strolling through town, but she wasn’t in any of the films being shown, we would guess correctly she was that year’s “A Conversation With . . .” surprise guest. One year, young filmmakers were given a movie scavenger-hunt project. They had to find and shoot various things, one being “a famous person.” The results were hilarious because Alec Baldwin (one of our more known and visible men about town) ended up appearing in most of them.

The local newspapers and magazines have published some excellent and comprehensive guides to the film fest, but none give you the lowdown on where to dine. Let’s start in East Hampton. Probably the most obvious and closest to the theater is Rowdy Hall. This is the place where you can get the best burgers, mussels, and fish and chips in town. There are wonderful and creative salads and excellent beers on tap. John Papas Cafe is great for diner-style breakfast and lunch items. Try the Greek salad with grilled chicken and the milkshakes.

For those who like organic, Babette’s is a great choice with primo people watching. Cittanuova is the place to go for thin pizzas, light salads, and the best calamari and zucchini fritto misto. Off the beaten path but still within the village is Fresno, a charming spot with a pretty patio and sophisticated food. For those with Founder’s passes, i.e., $$$, there’s 1770 House. Upstairs is grand; the tavern downstairs is cozy and warm. Try the famous meatloaf! You also can’t beat Nick & Toni’s, one of our most famous and enduring restaurants and well worth a visit. I assure you, you will be treated just as graciously as Messrs. Balaban and Spielberg. The headquarters and press office of the film festival, c/o the Maidstone, is quirky and pretty with one of the best restaurants in town — the Living Room. It is Swedish-lite, and your doggies are welcome as well. You didn’t actually bring your dog to the festival, did you? If you have a barbecue craving, check out Smokin’ Wolf in East Hampton or Townline BBQ in Sagaponack. Bostwick’s, located on Route 27, is the place to go for simple seafood and great local clams.

For those heading to Sag Harbor, the American Hotel is a highlight, serving continental cuisine in a series of beautiful rooms. LT Burger is the place for, you guessed it, burgers. Sen has the best sushi in town. If you’re craving old school Italian fare (think garlic knots and raffia-clad Chianti bottles), try Il Cappuccino. For more high-end Italian, Tutto Il Giorno, down by the water, is tiny, beautiful, and serves some of the best homemade pasta dishes around. Start with the pan carasau, paper-thin flat breads grilled with rosemary and garlic oil, paired with burrata cheese and tomatoes. Hubba hubba!

Dockside in Sag Harbor is a popular place with a great variety of healthy choices and is across from the water as well.

Passing through Bridgehampton between theaters? Within a few blocks of each other are some of the best restaurants out here. Almond and Pierre’s both serve superb bistro fare.

The fairly new Bridgehampton Inn is one of my favorite restaurants. Think Ottolenghi meets River Cafe, with the menu changing weekly. Tom Colicchio’s Topping Rose House is grand, with impeccable food served in a lovely setting. World Pie has your pizzas and Yama Q vegetarian food and sushi.

In Southampton try red/bar brasserie or little/red. Red/bar has awesome and refreshing fluke crudo and hearty Long Island duck with lentils and butternut squash. La Parmagiana, a restaurant within an Italian market, is great for big family-style feasts.

There are plenty of places to eat between movies, from high end to low, and we can’t fit all of them in here. Welcome to our beautiful villages. Enjoy the beaches, the over 125 films being shown, and our fine restaurants.

I shall now get up on my little soapbox. Wouldn’t it make sense to forgo the two-hour parking limit for the mere five days of the festival? Just sayin’.

Restaurants will be lively this weekend, with the Hamptons International Film Festival in town and Montauk’s Fall Festival taking place, but for some it will be a last hurrah before they scale back or shut down for the season.

On Three Mile Harbor, Bay Kitchen Bar at the Harbor Marina will remain open in its waterfront spot through this month, but will be available through the winter for holiday parties and other private events. Through Food & Co., the catering company run by Eric Miller, the chef, orders may be placed for catering at off-site spots as well. Bay Kitchen Bar is currently open from Wednesday through Sunday. During a 5 to 7 p.m. sunset happy hour, oysters or clams on the half shell are offered for $1 each, and glasses of muscadet for $5.

Fall Festival

Solé East restaurant in Montauk will have its own lineup of fall festival-style activities tomorrow through Sunday, with live music, pumpkin decorating, pony rides, hay rides, and face painting. On Saturday night a special fall menu will be offered, and s’mores, the traditional campfire dessert treat, will be prepared on the patio over a fire pit. This time of year, Solé offers dinner Thursdays through Sundays, and lunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

Moby-Dick at Almond

Next Tuesday, Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton will kick off another of its series of Artists and Writers Nights with a third annual reading of “Moby-Dick.” Beginning at 7 p.m., readers will take turns reading aloud from the Melville tome while a three-course dinner is served family style. It will include a glass of wine or a local craft beer and cost $45, including tax and gratuity. Reservations are required.

Wine Education Wednesdays

This week’s tasting and talk on wine at Wainscott Main Wine & Spirits, on Montauk Highway in Wainscott, will feature Cliff Batuello, a master sommelier with Michael Skurnik Wines, with “What’s in the Bottle? Decoding Spain.”

The class starts at 5:30 p.m. and costs $10. Those interested can register by calling the store or sending an email to [email protected]. The Oct. 22 session will center on sake.  

November Deals

Next up on the red-letter-date list for foodies may be Long Island Restaurant Week from Nov. 2 to 9. All across the island, participating eateries will offer $27.95 prix fixes.

Restaurateurs who wish to sign up, or diners who want to see which restaurants are participating, can find more information at longislandrestaurantweek.com.

Tuesdays for Tacos

Fresh Hamptons in Bridgehampton, is tapping Tuesdays as taco night, and offering a family-style taco dinner for $22 per adult, $12 for kids under 12, plus tax and gratuity.

If you spend an hour with Nadia Ernestus, you will learn that sauerkraut is more than the base for choucroute garnie or something you put on a hot dog. Ms. Ernestus is the force behind Hamptons Brine, the producer of three kinds of raw sauerkraut and two versions of kvass, or sauerkraut juice.

Ms. Ernestus, a Sag Harbor resident who came to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1981, traces the beginning of her interest in fermented foods to a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes. “I wasn’t overweight, and the doctors didn’t offer anything but drugs,” she said.

Having cooked all her life, she made vegetables and fiber the mainstays of her diet and regained her health. When her youngest child left home three years ago, she enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition’s health coach training program, a yearlong online course in the healing properties of food.

“We learned about 102 different dietetic theories,” Ms. Ernestus said. When she graduated, she began running workshops with programs provided by the school. “I discovered that when I was in front of 40 people I loved it.”

She conducts regular workshops at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton and has given classes at other East End locations as well as Up­Island. Not long after she started teaching fermentation and making sauerkraut and kombucha, local stores contacted her with requests to carry her products.

Peter Garnham, a writer and chairman of the EECO Farm in East Hampton, told her she would need a food handler’s certificate if she wanted to sell her sauerkraut commercially. That led her to the Calverton Business Incubator, a part of Stony Brook University, where she was able to take the required course.

“The incubator is an amazing facility,” she said. “Its goal is to help all kinds of businesses to grow, not just food service, by removing the financial cost of infrastructure.” The incubator’s food-production facility is a state-of-the-art, 8,400-square-foot kitchen shared by people unable to afford their own professional kitchens.

Every step of production, from chopping the cabbage to putting it in jars to applying the labels to preparing it for shipment, is done by hand by Ms. Ernestus, with help from five part-time assistants. The cabbage, all of it organic, is grown in different locations, most of them in New York State. Ms. Ernestus even designed the company’s website and online store, with help from GoDaddy’s website-building tools.

Keeping up with the demand is daunting. During the past summer, she sold her products at three farmers markets, leaving her little time to travel to Calverton. “I was out of product all the time.” At the moment, she isn’t producing enough to sell to local stores. She makes four times as much money online as selling wholesale, but hopes eventually to be able to do both.

The production process is simple. Her “classic” sauerkraut consists of organic green cabbage, organic carrots, sea salt, Himalayan salt, and water. The first stage is to mix cabbage with salt. This kills many of the pathogens but doesn’t kill the lactobacillus. “They like the salt,” she laughed, referring to the “friendly” bacteria that live in our digestive systems without causing disease. The bacteria begin to digest the sugar from the cabbage, creating a byproduct of lactic acid, which makes the cabbage sour. The more salt, the more sour.

Canned, pasteurized, or cooked sauer­kraut doesn’t have the same benefits, because extended exposure to high heat kills the probiotic microorganisms. “Raw sauerkraut has 200 times as much vitamin C as cabbage,” according to Ms. Ernestus. “When something becomes bioavailable, the body can capture nutrition from it.” Heat treatment of raw cabbage is unnecessary because it is still alive. “It contains live bacteria. If you leave a bottle in a hot car it will explode.”

There is no question as to the product’s vitality. A bottle of her spicy kraut was bubbling when opened.

Eating raw sauerkraut on a regular basis, said Ms. Ernestus, can benefit the immune system, lower LDL cholesterol, assist in managing Type 2 diabetes, improve digestive function, and decrease allergies. A number of scientific studies, including one published in the journal Nutrition Cancer two years ago, have found that consumption of cabbage and sauerkraut is connected with significant reduction of breast cancer incidences.

The word “artisanal” is applied today to a vast range of products. In the magazine Inc., which targets owners of small businesses, the writer Tim Donnelly asked, “With  Tostitos, Dominos, and Sargento adopting the adjective, what’s a genuine hand-crafter to do?”

You can’t get much more hand-crafted than Hamptons Brine. And the weight of evidence says it’s good for you. Ms. Ernestus’s sauerkraut and kvass can be ordered at hamptonsbrine.com.

A series of classes at Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits, to be held on Wednesdays through November, offers an education for aspiring oenophiles. Each begins at 5:30 p.m. and costs $10. On tap for Wednesday is “First Person: The Case for Stewardship. Taste — Why It Matters,” to be presented by Liz Willette Danneels of Grand Cru Selections and Jordan Salcito, the wine director at Momofuku Restaurant Group.

Montauk Yacht Club

October specials at the Montauk Yacht Club include an Oktoberfest beer, Warsteiner, for $5 every day, and happy hour Sundays through Thursdays from 4 to 7 p.m., with drink specials as well as orders of fried calamari and crispy chicken wings for $5, and peel-and-eat shrimp for $7. A three-course prix fixe menu is offered for $29.95 Sundays through Thursdays; prime rib is a Thursday-night special, and Friday is clambake night. Local residents who have obtained a Montauk Yacht Club keychain signifying that status will be offered a 10-percent discount.

Fall Brunch

Cafe Max has a fall brunch special on Sundays from noon to 2:30 p.m. The East Hampton restaurant will offer diners three courses, with choices including eggs Benedict, French toast, omelettes, crab cakes, flounder, and mussels, for $20.

Hamptons Wine Club

An online wine club, based at thehamptonswineclub.com, focuses exclusively on Long Island wines. Members receive a variety of wines — red, white, and rosé — each month, delivered to home or office addresses. Three, six, or 12-month memberships are available and can be purchased as gifts.

The club, formerly the North Fork Wine Club, was purchased recently by the B and D Wine Company, a New York City-based business.

Happy Hour Apps at Gig Shack

Appetizers are half price, along with the drinks, at 668 the Gig Shack’s happy hour from 5:30 to 7 p.m. from Mondays through Fridays. The Montauk restaurant continues to serve dinner daily beginning at 5:30 p.m., and also serves lunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

Chef’s Tasting Menu

The restaurant at c/o the Maidstone inn in East Hampton, called the Living Room, is offering a tasting menu prepared by Mathias Brogie, the executive chef, from Thursdays through Sundays. The six-course special must be ordered by an entire dining party, and costs $100 per person. Among the items are grilled oysters, foie gras tacos, duck confit, grilled halibut, filet mignon, and peach tartine.

Nosh and Compete

Townline BBQ in Sagaponack is restarting its quiz night trivia games beginning tonight at 7. Teams of five may be formed in advance, or will be formed at the event. The entry fee of $10 per person will create a grand-prize pot. Additional prizes will be awarded throughout the games, and participants will receive a 10-percent discount on menu items not already on special.

New at Sen

New menu items at Sen in Sag Harbor have been added to reflect the changing season. Among them are a number of ramen soups — chili chicken, double pork, and vegetarian — and steamed buns filled with pork, chicken, or crispy cod. Also new are chicken lemongrass dumplings, crispy panko calamari, ginger-scallion skirt steak, miso salmon, and garlic-miso mussels.

Oktoberfest Finale

The final German Oktoberfest special at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, to be served from tomorrow through Sunday, includes an entrée of currywurst with hand-cut French fries and house-made sauerkraut, with bienenstich (almond cake) for dessert. The prix fixe dinner is $24. German bar snacks and beers are also available. 

Football Victuals

Victuals for noshing while watching Sunday football games are available at Smokin’ Wolf, a barbecue takeout shop in East Hampton. Choices include a bucket of wings for $50, which includes celery, carrots, and blue cheese, nachos for six or eight for $25, with a choice of brisket, chicken, or black beans, and 24 bite-size chicken, brisket, or pork sliders for $24. Quesadillas are on special, with one free for every three purchased.

It began, as no doubt many wonderful things do, At the Common Table. This is the annual dinner served out in the orchard at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett. The food grown at the farm is transformed by local chefs into a feast for 200 people. There is music; there is no tent. Mother Nature, the senior partner in all growing endeavors, almost always cooperates. Along with various other items for auction was lunch for two prepared by and shared with the Quail Hill farm team. My college friend Mallory won the lunch and invited me along on a late September Wednesday.

It could have been June, July, or August, Mother Nature cooperating again. The Quail Hill apprentices had an extra challenge, besides showing off their culinary skills to someone who had paid for this: Mallory eats a raw vegan diet. This delighted them no end.

We were led out to the orchard where a huge grill had been set up and a table was decorated with late season zinnias. A truck trundled down the hill with platters of every imaginable combination of vegetables, legumes, seeds, and juices. Oh, and there was freshly caught striped bass for fish tacos for the rest of us. The juices were a combination of beets, cantaloupe, peaches, and ginger. There was gazpacho to begin. There were two green salads, one with tatsoi, sweet peppers, and red onion, another with romaine, summer crisp lettuce, fennel, and Swiss chard. A mason jar of Jesse’s wicked good hot pepper sauce waited for those who dared to partake. There was a delicata squash dish with sauteed leeks, caraway, and nutmeg. Spaghetti squash with sunflower nut butter, honey, coriander, cilantro, and ginger. There were more salads, one of shredded beets with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a carrot slaw, and hemp seeds with brazil nuts, grated squash, and sweet peppers. For dessert, fresh many-hued watermelon slices with Thai basil, lime juice, and honey, along with slices of MacIntosh apples from the trees over our heads, for dipping into the farm’s honey. To say the late season wasps hovering around us were having a drunken bacchanal would be an understatement.

Our talented cooks that day were this year’s farm apprentices, some new, some returning — Layton Guenther, Jesse Schaffer, Morgan Lynn, Ella Fleming, Nick Berini, Brendan McMullan, and Matt Dell. I asked whose idea it was to offer this wonderful lunch as an auction item. “Everyone’s” they said together. Who does most of the cooking each day? “Everyone” came the reply again. This is a good-looking, whip-smart group, and the camaraderie is obvious. One of the Quail Hill members described their work as “glarming,” a clever portmanteau of “glamorous farming.” These kids came up with their own triple portmanteau and call themselves “glarmets,” “glamorous-farmer-gourmets.”

I began to wonder what kind of meals they cooked up for themselves on a regular day, what would be akin to “family meals” in the restaurant world. These are the often slapdash, thrown-together meals eaten quickly before lunch or dinner service begins. They can be anything from dubious leftover fish to pasta, pasta, pasta to more creative international dishes, thanks to always having a great variety of nationalities in our restaurant’s kitchens.

“Could I come back for one of your everyday meals?” I asked. “If you give me some of your apples, I’ll bring a galette for dessert.” Mallory joined in and offered to bring some of her vegan chipotle ice cream with chocolate sauce.

So there we were again, back at Quail Hill a few days later, about to enjoy another freshly harvested, made up on the fly, mostly vegetarian feast. The kitchen is tiny, perched on the top floor of the shop. It is messy, yet organized. The crew moves around each other like professional chefs, performing a little ballet with hot dishes, sharp knives, questions, and tastes, never bumping into each other.

This day’s meal was another wonder. Shakshuka, an Israeli-Tunisian dish of tomatoes, peppers, onions, and spices topped with eggs, is bubbling on the stove. Some recently caught bluefish has been smoked and turned into a salad to go on bread made with Quail Hill wheat. There is a black bean salsa, a gratin of purple and sweet potatoes spiced with curry and cardamom, and more green salads whipped up by Morgan, the free-spirited sprite of the group. It was another warm day and we sat outside the shop. This time we were fortunate to have Scott Chaskey, the grand poobah of Quail Hill, godfather of soul, seeds, poetry, and all things botanical, joining us.

“What is your favorite season?” I ask them. This time of year is the unanimous answer. “What are your favorite foods to make?” Eggplant Parmesan is a favorite. They also love using the farm eggs every which way, there are a lot of frittatas and Spanish omelettes. “What do you do for each other’s birthdays?” Ella is the baker, creating profiteroles and chocolate cakes with salted caramel icing and lemon lavender cakes.

We all agree that these fine young apprentices should write their own cookbook, and they already have a title: “Farmers Forks.”

Some may be back next year, some may not. Brendan originally came to record work songs, Matt is moving upstate to farm, Jesse is going to farm school at University of California Santa Cruz, and Ella hopes to teach farming.

At the end of each meal, as cleanup begins, they spontaneously break into song, “Shake These Bones” being a favorite. Brendan and Layton seem to remember most of the words, but other voices float in and out, as compost is gathered and dishes are washed.

We all enjoyed the apple galette, but Mallory’s ice cream was a revelation of what you can do with raw vegan ingredients. Here are some recipes from the young farmers of Quail Hill, with thanks to them for letting us be a part of what is, truly, a family meal.

Click for recipes

A prix fixe for fall at Almond in Bridgehampton is offered Tuesdays through Thursdays, and on Sundays, between 5:30 and 7 p.m. Three courses, with different choices nightly for each course, are offered for $29. Among the entrees are whole roasted dorado, marinated Sagaponack beefsteaks, and roast chicken. An appetizer and dessert are included as well.

Manly Mondays

“Manly Mondays” at Fresh Hamptons bring specials at the bar, with sports on the TV. A dinner special featuring a grass-fed beef burger or a grilled veggie burger includes a draft beer or glass of house wine and costs $14 plus tax and gratuity.

Personalized Prix Fixe

The Living Room restaurant at c/o the Maidstone inn in East Hampton will allow diners who order a $42 prix fixe to choose either three courses, or two  (appetizer and entree or entree and dessert) with a glass of wine included.  The special is available Sundays through Thursdays.

Winemakers’ Dinners

Noah’s restaurant in Greenport has invited local winemakers to discuss their vintages and choose wines to pair with a five-course tasting menu, at a series of dinners this fall. The first, on Sunday at 6 p.m., will feature Kelly Koch of Macari Vineyards and Winery. The dinner will include a first course of red crab and rock shrimp cake, followed by seared local sea scallops, roasted eggplant soup, pepper-crusted lamb loin, and a dessert of wine-poached pears with Mecox Bay Dairy cheeses and local honey. The cost is $95 per person plus tax and gratuity.

Oktoberfest Continues

This week at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, the Oktoberfest German special served today through Sunday will be kassler ripchen with pretzel spaetzle and apple mustard, along with apple strudel. Beginning on Sunday, and through next Thursday, sauerbraten with braised red cabbage and root vegetable puree will be served. The dinners are $24.

Sake at Sen

Sen restaurant in Sag Harbor will celebrate the start of the sake brewing season in Japan with an “all about sake” seminar on Wednesday at 7 p.m., when there will be a discussion about how the national drink of Japan is made and which types are best, as well as sake to taste. Also that night, diners will receive a complimentary sake sample.

On Oct. 7, Sen will have a sushi-making session. During the 90-minute class, participants will learn how to roll and cut sushi rolls, and more. The cost, $30 per person, includes four rolls and eda­mame, along with a glass of sake.

Space may be reserved by calling the restaurant or sending e-mail to info@ senrestaurant.com.

Sunday was a perfect Long Island day. For me it began at the Montauk Seafood Festival and ended on the North Fork, visiting Lenz Winery and the North Fork Table and Inn. It was sunny, but a tidbit chilly, with no wind, no traffic.

This year brought the second annual Montauk Seafood Festival, very smartly held in two locations, the Montauk Marine Basin and Uihlein’s Marina. You could walk from one tent to the other or take a quick water taxi between them. Sponsored by the East Hampton Kiwanis and Montauk Friends of Erin, the two-day event had some of the best Montauk restaurants participating. In addition there were beers from Montauk Brewing Company, wines from Pindar and Duckwalk, and four bands playing throughout the afternoon. There were raw bars and shucking contests, crab races and beanbag toss for the kids, cotton candy for all.

Unfortunately, I suffered a major embarrassment immediately upon arrival. I sat on a sopping wet seat on the water taxi and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around with a hugely visible, extremely soggy behind. So if any of you saw someone walking around looking like that, it was not some old biddy who forgot her Depends and imbibed too much Driftwood Ale, it was just me, trying to do my job, nonchalantly, discreetly, with a big, wet heinie.

Admission was free. You trade in your real money for funny money, and that’s what you could use to purchase beverages and food. The array of fish was staggering, lobster rolls and crab sliders, Jonah crab claws, swordfish kebobs, fluke tacos, sushi, clam chowder, and Montauk Pearl oysters. Oh, and hamburgers, hot dogs, and corn for the kiddies who don’t go for seafood.

First I sampled the swordfish kebobs from Gosman’s. The delicious little cubes were dressed in a basil vinaigrette and sat on slices of tomato and watermelon. This was a good beginning paired with Montauk Brewing Co.’s Offland I.P.A. Near one tent, a band was playing way too many Jimmy Buffett songs, so I waddled over to the other side where Liquid Phase was rocking out a little harder. Next up was the Szechuan tuna from Hambonetyme Catering. This was excellent, although as far from Szechuan as Montauk is. The slices of lightly seared tuna had a tangy sauce on them and sat on a cucumber wasabi salad. Hmmm, this calls for a Driftwood Ale. At this point I noticed how exceptionally attractive the young men dispensing beer were. All of them. At both tents. Staggeringly handsome. Time for another beer.

Trying to decide what to eat with the last of my funny money was hard. The sushi from Zakura was beautiful, pristine slices of tuna, shiny little sweet shrimp on sushi rice, and more. The chowder from Gurney’s was going fast, and people were full of compliments about it. There did seem to be a good number of vendors offering blackened fish, a trend I thought had died 20 years ago, but is still delicious when done properly.

I opted for the fluke tacos from Gringo’s. As I watched the paper-thin fluke fillets being sauteed on a griddle, the nice lady assured me they would be ready in about five minutes. “No!” I wanted to cry, “they were done five minutes ago!” Flip, flip, flip, then chop, chop. Oh, no, I thought, that fluke has been murdered. Turns out, once you fry, fry, fry, and chop, chop fluke with the right seasonings and top it with some seriously good salsa, it’s damn good. Although, God forgive me, I allowed them to squirt some sour cream on it and it was even better.

 At this point, I had to stop eating, keeping in mind that a grand feast awaited us at the North Fork Table that evening. So I spent the next hour watching families with babies and dogs, motorcyclists and musicians, relaxing on the sand at Lynn’s Hula Hut. Yes, Sunday was a perfect Long Island day, wet bottom and all.

Duryea’s Lobster Deck in Montauk will remain open daily through the Columbus Day weekend for customers to order and eat on the Fort Pond Bay-front deck starting at noon. The takeout seafood market will be open through the Christmas holidays. Seafood can be pre-cooked for customers, upon request.

Champagne at Gig Shack

In Montauk, 668 the Gig Shack is continuing its “champagne campaign” through the fall. Every Sunday beginning at 5:30 p.m., various types of champagne will be offered at half price, while a bubble machine pumps out bubbles, a la “The Lawrence Welk Show.” Children will be given their own bubble wands to blow bubbles.

Mexican Specials

The lineup of Mexican takeout specials at La Fondita in Amagansett is as follows: tacos rancheros and huarache, a dish of layered meat, refried beans, cheese, and corn flour on Wednesdays, chicken chipotle tacos, tostadas, or quesadillas, or posole on Thursdays, and on Fridays, chiles rellenos and pork or steak tacos. On Saturdays, the special is marinated steak tacos or roasted marinated pork tacos al pastor. The takeout shop is closed on Monday and Tuesday.

Happy Hour

Specialty cocktails are offered at two-for-one prices, and complimentary pizzas served at the bar at Nick & Toni’s in East Hampton during a 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. happy hour on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

Oktoberfest Begins

Rowdy Hall restaurant in East Hampton starts its annual Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday with a festival from 3 to 5 p.m. featuring German bar snacks and a live radio broadcast from the eatery’s courtyard, which will be set up with picnic tables as a traditional German beer garden. Inside, there will be communal dining tables.

Each week through early October, Rowdy will offer a German prix fixe dinner special. The first, offered from Saturday through Wednesday, will be wienerschnitzel with sautéed black kale and lemon, with plum cake for dessert. Next Thursday, the new special entrée will be kassler rippchen, served with apple strudel, through Sept. 28.  The cost is $24. Oktoberfest beer specials will be available from Sunday through Oct. 5.

New in Sag Harbor

The Harbor Market & Kitchen will open early next year in Sag Harbor, in the Division Street space formerly occupied by Espresso’s.

Paul Del Favero, a chef, and his wife, Susana Plaza Del Favero, will offer takeout breakfast, lunch, and dinner items, as well as groceries.

Renovation of the building, which has been a market since the 1950s, including as Federico’s Superette, began during the summer and will continue through the fall.

A redesigned kitchen will include a wood-burning oven to be used to make pizza, sandwiches, and some Mediterranean-style specialties. The menu, which will change with the seasons, will also include daily soups, breakfast specials, and kid-friendly items.

The market will offer fresh produce, local eggs, and other staples.

Mr. Del Favero’s background on the East End includes stints at Nick & Toni’s and the Maidstone Arms. For the past decade or so, he has been chef de cuisine at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill in Las Vegas.

Beer and Bed in Montauk

The Montauk Blue hotel is offering a two-night stay special through October that includes a beer tasting at the Montauk Brewing Company. Rates begin at $249 a night.

Chefs Together

The American Culinary Federation’s Eastern Long Island Chefs chapter will host an event on Sept. 28 at the Westhampton Beach Country Club that will raise money for Slow Food’s Edible Garden project and the federation’s Chefs Move to School initiative. Both efforts involve local farmers and chefs in planting, harvesting, and cooking foods from gardens planted at East End schools.

More than two dozen chefs, farmers, and brewers will participate. Among the restaurants to be represented will be Noah’s, Fresh Hamptons, the Plaza Café, and the Jedediah Hawkins Inn. George Hirsch, a chef and TV host on PBS, will be the master of ceremonies.

Tickets are $75 for general admission and $125 for V.I.P. admission, which includes admission to a screening of the documentary “Shellshocked: Saving Oysters to Save Ourselves,” at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center. It will be followed by a reception featuring sparkling wine and oysters.

Tickets may be reserved at acfelichefs.org or be purchased at the door.

At Cafe Max

At Cafe Max in East Hampton, two-for-one entrees are offered daily between 5:30 and 6 p.m. Cafe Max also offers a $22 prix fixe all night Sundays through Thursdays.

Java Nation in Bridgehampton, a coffee roastery that for 18 years had been in Sag Harbor, celebrated its 20th anniversary earlier this month.

More than two decades ago, Andres Bedini and his then girlfriend, Cheryl, had an idea while visiting her parents in Sag Harbor that led them to completely switch gears — she was in law school and he was working as a financial analyst — and start their own business. Living in California, where Mr. Bedini said the coffee movement really began, they drank a lot of coffee. “On one of our summer trips back here, we’re sitting in the Main Street Tavern in Sag Harbor, and we’re like, ‘Man, we’d love a cup of coffee right now. How could there be nowhere to get coffee?’ This was 1992 — there was nowhere to get coffee.” They said to each other, “ ‘What if we opened up a coffee shop?’ ”

At the time, Mr. Bedini said, they were thinking along the lines of a “funky coffee house” with poetry readings. On the advice of coffee shop owners on the West Coast, they decided to roast coffee so they could control the freshness and how dark they wanted the beans.

They weren’t exactly coffee connoisseurs yet. “We loved coffee, but we didn’t know anything — nothing. I’m still learning and it’s been 20 years,” Mr. Bedini said, adding that they immersed themselves in education over the years, from seminars on roasting and making espresso to traveling to coffee-growing regions, where they would see how coffee was picked, processed, and shipped.

Bridgehampton was actually supposed to be the roaster’s location to begin with. They had picked out a spot at the Bridgehampton Commons, only to be told after months of negotiations that they couldn’t locate there because of the competition it would pose for Rossano’s, which once occupied Panera Bread’s location. “I was crying in the kitchen, ‘I don’t want to practice law,’ ” Ms. Bedini recalled.

Mr. Bedini found a spot in the Shopping Cove in Sag Harbor, an alleyway off Main Street. They weren’t able to open until Labor Day weekend.

Back in 1994, roasteries were still somewhat of a new experience. “It was hard at first. No one was buying beans back then. There wasn’t a big brew-at-home market. It was something maybe you picked up at the market. People still wanted regular coffee,” he said. Starbucks had only just opened its first store in New York City. “Starbucks helped us a lot. It kind of converted people from the deli coffee to the specialty coffee.”

Java Nation serves up coffees by country of origin; you won’t find flavored coffees there. Instead, the Bedinis rotate different coffee beans based on the time of the year. “Coffee from Honduras is unbelievable right now. They’re having an incredible year. Colombia is having a big rebound year,” he said. “Brazil is having a bad year for them. They usually produce 60 million bags a year. This year it will be 50,” he said, referring to the drought that affected the crop and caused the price of coffee to double in 90 days over the winter.

Java Nation stayed open through the winters from the start, but didn’t get busy year round until 1998. “That was kind of the time when Sag Harbor really started booming,” Mr. Bedini said.

“It was a lot of hard work,” Ms. Bedini said. “It was exciting. We were always learning something new. We had mistakes and successes and we learned from those. That kept it stimulating.”

The store has always kept a narrow focus on being a roastery, as opposed to a coffee shop, and wholesale is a large part of their business, especially since moving to Bridgehampton. Java Nation’s coffee is sold at Provisions and served at the Altantic Golf Club, for example. The store also ships whole beans and ground coffee by mail.

The key to staying in business for two decades, Mr. Bedini said, is adapting. “That’s just life. It’s constantly throwing you curve balls. Change is constant,” he said.

The past few years have been especially difficult. In 2012, Java Nation had to leave its home of 18 years when the landlord rented the space to another coffee shop, angering longtime customers. In July of that year, it opened in its more industrial space on Maple Lane near the Bridgehampton train station.

The following year, Ms. Bedini’s father, Wesley Carrion, who was 90, died after his house caught fire in Sag Harbor Hills. Mr. Bedini said Mr. Carrion had always championed their business.

Java Nation’s reincarnation is showing promise. “It’s a lot busier than I thought. We’ve got a lot of new customers,” Mr. Bedini said, adding that he also has more wholesale customers now. Open 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week, with little help other than in the summer, Mr. Bedini said the shop has taken new shape. Customers don’t linger like they used to in Sag Harbor, and the weekdays are busier than the weekends, the opposite of what was true in Sag Harbor.

Mr. Bedini said while he had thought about calling it quits, he is proud, but modest, about surviving two decades in business. “Your customers make you. If they still want you, it’s worth it,” he said.