An interesting offshoot of the well-established craft-beer movement is growing at Rowdy Hall.

   Theo Foscolo, a manager of the East Hampton restaurant, made a batch of root beer for Rowdy Hall’s annual beer dinner in March. The reaction was positive, and Miss Lady Small Batch Root Beer was born.

    This summer, the Miss Lady brand — the namesake, Mr. Foscolo’s dog, also modeled for the label — was sold at the farmers market at Ashawagh Hall in Springs, and can also be found locally at Round Swamp Farm and Old Stone Market (formerly Marty’s), and at Brewtopia in Port Jefferson. It is used to make root beer floats at Rowdy Hall — Mr. Foscolo did the same at the farmers market, using Joe & Liza’s Ice Cream of Sag Harbor in both instances — and, he added, goes well with rum.

    With the summer behind him, Mr. Foscolo can point to modest but encouraging results. He sold more than 600 of the 22-ounce bottles, each sealed with a bottling wax reminiscent of that found on Maker’s Mark bourbon, and is receiving inquiries from, and shipping orders to, points across the country.

    Sarsaparilla, licorice root, and anise are the primary ingredients, said Mr. Foscolo, “and I use honey, brown sugar and raw sugar, and a little bit of molasses. I keep it as healthy as I can. People don’t realize that aspartame, high-fructose corn syrup — people are poisoning themselves every day they open up a soft drink. When people look at the ingredients, they say, ‘Wow, this is simple, you don’t have to sound out the words.’ That’s what people enjoy, especially in an area like this where people are a little more health-conscious. It is soda, but not like Coca-Cola or Dr. Pepper. It’s a nice alternative, a good, sweet treat that’s not going to poison you.”

    For those accustomed to mass-produced root beer, Miss Lady is certainly different, characterized by a smoothness lacking in its larger competitors. While certainly sweet, it provides a sharp and welcome contrast to the hyper-sugary soft drinks of larger producers. Children and, especially, parents have taken to it, Mr. Foscolo said.

    “People don’t want to drink bad beer anymore. People are opening their minds more to the craft-brewing process, whether it be soda, which is a completely untapped market. It’s really fun to see people’s reaction to it. It doesn’t taste the way root beer, in their minds, should taste, but this is the way root beer tasted 50 years ago. A lot of older people that come to the markets love it. You can see it in their eyes; it’s taking them back to the days of soda shops in Brooklyn. And the kids love it, it’s something different.”

    Miss Lady root beer is made in five-gallon soda kegs. The process, said Mr. Foscolo, who home-brews beer, is mostly about cleaning. “With any brewing, the majority of it is janitorial work. You don’t want to have any contamination with the product, the bottles, the packaging,” he said. “To brew it takes a half-hour to an hour. You put it in the keg, hook it up to a CO2 tank, and let it force-carbonate for about a week. The bottling and labeling is the hardest part. Many a night I was up until 3 or 4 in the morning the day before the market, getting everything ready for the next day.” Over the summer, Mr. Foscolo brewed about 30 gallons per week.

    He is contemplating more products based on the fruits of his labor. Speaking of fruit, a batch of raspberry soda he made last summer, using raspberries from Wesnofske Farms in Peconic, was a hit. “I’m going to continue to do that, especially with the seasonal fruits,” he said. While the sarsaparilla he uses comes from India, by way of an organic spice company based in Oregon, he is considering use of locally sourced honey for the root beer.

    He hopes to add 12-ounce bottles next summer and sell four-packs of Miss Lady in that more manageable size. But in the meantime, he said, “I’m looking forward to the winter so I can focus on expanding the company. I have a lot of ideas, a lot of things I want to be able to bring to the table next summer. This is really just the tip of the iceberg.”

    A taste of Miss Lady Small Batch Root Beer can be had at Rowdy Hall or by e-mailing Mr. Foscolo at [email protected].

      The annual fall Long Island Restaurant Week begins on Sunday. Diners will be offered a three-course prix fixe for $24.95 per person at participating restaurants across Long Island. The special, however, will only be available until 7 p.m. on Saturday. East End eateries that are offering the deal include Almond and Osteria Salina in Bridgehampton, Muse in Harbor in Sag Harbor, Nick & Toni’s, the 1770 House, and the Living Room in East Hampton, Gulf Coast Kitchen in Montauk, and Redbar Brasserie and the Plaza Cafe in Southampton. A full list of all the Nassau and Suffolk restaurants that are participating can be found at longislandrestaurant.com.

Slow Food Events

    Reservations are being taken for two upcoming events sponsored by the local Slow Food chapter.

    Foody’s restaurant in Water Mill will host a harvest dinner and author’s night on Nov. 10, with two seatings, at 6 and 8:30 p.m. The evening will feature Leann Lavin, the author of the newly published “Hamptons and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook,” who will discuss her book, which explores the farm to table movement, and the people who inspired her to write it.

    Bryan Futerman, the chef and owner of Foody’s, will prepare a dinner of duck liver mousse crostini, exotic-spiced Long Island cheese pumpkin soup, Falkowski farm oyster mushrooms, caramelized Peconic Bay scallops, Halsey Farm cauliflower, Long Island duck, rutabaga mash and local Brussels sprouts, and a dessert made with apples from the Milk Pail. Wines from Paumanok Vineyards and Thunder Island organic coffee will be served.

    The five-course dinner will cost $75 per person plus tax and gratuity and benefit Slow Food East End. Other donations will be collected for the Edible School Garden group’s Kickstarter.com campaign to pay for the publication of a book. Slow Food members and their guests, as well as donors, will receive a $10 discount. Reservations are required.

    Slow Food will also sponsor a “healthy families potluck” on Nov. 11 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton.

    Nadia Ernestus, a Slow Food member who is a health coach specializing in raw food, will be the host of the evening, which will focus on how to incorporate healthy eating habits into everyday meals.

    The potluck is free. Those who attend have been asked to take a healthy dish, and their own beverages. A dessert of “surprise smoothies” will be served to top it off.

New Cupcake Flavor

    The Hamptons Cupcake Lounge has announced a new cupcake flavor just in time for fall. Called Sweet Pot, it is made with organic sweet potato puree and crushed pineapple and topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. The cupcakes can be ordered online at hamptonscupcakelounge.com.

Boa Thai

129 Noyac Road

North Sea

488-4422

Dinner nightly, closed Tuesdays

   The charming Boa Thai restaurant is a bit of a hidden gem.

    Remotely situated on Noyac Road in North Sea, it occupies the location that previously housed the excellent Wild Thyme. Upon entering, you face a bar with the ubiquitous large flat-screen TV, but that does not interfere with the atmosphere. The decor is simple and pretty, some traditional Thai embroidered and sequined wall hangings and a carved wood serene Buddha adorn the walls of the small dining room to the right. There is a long comfortable banquette on one side, along with some simple wooden tables and chairs.

    Service on the night of our visit was warm and welcoming. Alas, we were the only customers there, but this evening was in the wake of Frankenstorm Sandy and the fear of using up gas driving around had gripped all of us. As a matter of fact we felt downright giddy having the nerve to be out on the roads, and compared gas tank levels and service station horror stories over dinner.

    We began our meal with chicken satay, spring rolls, roti, tom ka kai, tao huu soup, and a special of the evening, steamed buns with pork belly. The appetizer portions were dainty, which was a good thing because the entrees were quite generous in size.

    The chicken satay was very nice, tender pieces of white meat on bamboo skewers with a mild, slightly sweet peanut sauce on them. Served alongside was the traditional garnish of cucumbers and red onion in a sweetened vinegar sauce. The spring rolls were okay, not memorable. They may have been a commercial frozen brand. They were filled with chicken, cabbage, glass noodles, and mushrooms and served with a sweet chili sauce. The roti, a traditional Indian flat bread, were more similar to Chinese scallion pancakes. They were tasty and chewy, a bit oily, served with a mild curry sauce.

    The two soups ordered, tom ka kai and tao huu, were excellent. The tom ka kai, a popular coconut milk-based soup with chicken, was rich and slightly sweet and tart. The tao huu was a lighter broth, fragrant with garlic and filled with chopped scallions, silky cubes of tofu, and ground chicken.

    The pork belly special was also very good, two steamed buns were filled with chunks of tender-crisp pork belly, arugula, and an odd but appropriate surprise, slices of hard boiled egg which added a nice texture and contrast to the rich meat and squishy bun. This was served with a sauce that tasted like a mixture between Sriracha (hot chili paste) and sweet chili sauce.

    For entrees we ordered the green curry with chicken, mussamun curry, pad thai kai, pad thai goong, and tofu stir fry. The green curry was very good, full of red and green peppers, slivers of tender bamboo shoots, sliced zucchini, and tender chicken. Best of all, it was full of Thai basil leaves which gave it a slight anise flavor. The mussamun curry was another winner. This was a generous piece of New York strip or sirloin steak cooked to the tenderness of short ribs, and full of spices like cardamom, turmeric, tamarind, and coriander. The coconut milk-based sauce contained cubes of potatoes and onions and the dish was garnished with peanuts and a drizzle of hot chili oil.

    Both versions of pad thai were very good, the pad thai kai full of chicken, fresh crunchy bean sprouts, and perfectly cooked rice noodles, not overdone. The pad thai goong had three jumbo shrimp, cooked just enough. F.Y.I., you can ask for your dishes to be made more spicy which we neglected to do. As in all good Thai restaurants you can also ask for additional condiments to doctor up your meal to your preferred heat level. In this case we got two little jars of condiments, one a delicious chunky sambal, the other some crushed dried chili peppers for maximum five-alarm hot, hot heat. The tofu stir fry was a less rich, somewhat virtuous dish of carrots, broccoli, tofu, cucumbers, and zucchini in a light garlic sauce. All of the curry courses came with steamed jasmine rice.

    Prices at Boa Thai are moderate. Appetizers, soups, and salads are $6 to $16, entrees are $18 to $26, and desserts are $3 to $6.

    For dessert we tried the green tea ice cream, mascarpone caramel ice cream, roti banana, and sticky rice with mango. The green tea and mascarpone ice creams were served in small scoops in martini glasses topped with whipped cream. Both were delicious. The roti banana was pretty good. Slices of banana were topped with the Indian flat bread, which had a layer of caramelized powdered sugar, giving it a bit of sweet crunch. The best dessert (and my favorite Thai dessert of all time) was the sticky rice with mango. Glutinous rice is cooked with coconut milk and sugar, then served in a warm mound with more warm coconut milk sauce and cool slices of ripe mango. This version was also topped with ground toasted sesame seeds.

    Boa Thai is an Asian fusion restaurant and the short menu does offer some Chinese and Vietnamese dishes, but the majority of dishes are Thai. The food is simple and fresh, served in a lovely atmosphere by a warm and friendly staff. It is worth seeking out.

   The very much anticipated Topping Rose House is finally open. The meticulously renovated and restored former Bull’s Head Inn is not completely finished but the restaurant is up and running, smoothly and beautifully.

    As the building itself is an interesting and significant part of the center of Bridgehampton, I believe a bit of historical information is warranted.  This stately Greek Revival house was originally built for Judge Abraham Topping Rose in 1842. His buddy Nathaniel Rogers had built an equally large house across the street, now owned and being restored by the Town of Southampton. After the judge’s death, the family sold the property and it was variously used as a restaurant, antiques shop, and even a pop-up store for Target a few years ago.

    Although the structure is large and imposing, the restaurant on the ground floor seats only a lucky 50, although there is also a large barn for bigger parties and a 25-seat bar area. There is a welcoming wraparound porch with dark wicker chairs, and on the night of our visit, a charmingly warm hostess to greet us outside the entrance.

    We lingered for a while at the door to admire the dark-aqua lacquered bar. There are two dining rooms behind the bar, all-white rooms with large pieces of art, wide plank floors, and black chairs. The rooms’ decor shows a respect for the bones of the house, with modern touches that add luxury to the whole atmosphere.  

    Can you tell where I’m going with this? Yes, this place is a “destination” restaurant, a special-occasion location.

    Whenever I review a restaurant that is newly opened, I am prepared to cut them some slack on service, computer glitches, long waits for food, whatever. But as I have also oft repeated: “if you are open and charging for food you are fair game for a review.” The Topping Rose House, a mere few weeks old on this particular evening, was impeccable from the greeting to the meal to the attentive management to the little after-dinner madeleines and the dainty baggies of granola bestowed upon our departure. More on that later.

    The menu is somewhat short and very imaginative. There are eight appetizers, six main courses, and six pastas. The vegetable accompaniments get star billing with the proteins listed below.

    We began our meal with the beet risotto, foie gras torchon, and a half order of gnocchi with braised lobster mushrooms. The beet risotto was as pretty and tasty as can be. It was a deep magenta with flashes of green from the leaves and neatly slivered stems adorning it. The arborio rice was cooked perfectly al dente and the sweet roasted beet flavor came through. There were bits of raw beet, giving it texture, and a few sprigs of fresh tarragon, a surprising and perfect addition. A dried goat cheese was grated tableside, adding some tang and richness to the dish. Catapano Farm is one of the many local farms and purveyors honored on a whole page of the menu, so perhaps this cheese was from there, but it was deliciously reminiscent of an aged crottin de Chavignol.

    The foie gras torchon was a generous slice of goosy-fatty heaven, accompanied by a tart, lemony dandelion salad. “Au torchon” is a traditional form of terrine (translates to “in a towel”) in which the whole lobe is wrapped, slow poached, pressed, and served cold in slices. One of the best parts was a warm, buttery brioche with a fig jam compote and a few drops of fig balsamic vinegar. This was a sweet, tart, rich, savory symphony on a plate.

    The gnocchi was served with not-often-found lobster mushrooms. I don’t want to gross you out, because lobster “mushrooms” are truly delicious, but they are in fact a parasitic ascomycete that grow on mushrooms, covering them completely with a bright orange or coral or cinnamon-colored hue and deep, dense, almost seafood flavor. The gnocchi were soft pillows and the whole dish was buttery and divine.

    For entrees we ordered the lamb loin, roasted saddle of rabbit (when’s the last time you saw that on a menu?!), and striped bass. The lamb loin was served in neat, tender slices and lightly pink. Served with it were bright-red roasted sweet peppers and slices of eggplant that alternated fried crunchy discs with softer roasted slices. We loved all of it.

    The saddle of rabbit, my choice, was a good demonstration of fine cooking and attention to detail, with elements that were so subtle and sophisticated, I couldn’t decipher and deconstruct them. The saddle of the rabbit is the two loins from rib section to haunch, with small rabbits being preferable for tenderness and the cooking process just so much to maintain that tenderness. This was a dainty-but-just-enough portion. A tiny rabbit kidney topped the dish, speared with a sprig of fresh rosemary. There were tiny chanterelle mushroom embryos in the sauce, along with the surprising addition of pickled watermelon.  What made this addition so surprising and entertaining was the perfectly uniform way it was cut.  Each slice of pickled watermelon had a bit of pale rind and a bit of pink, making them look exactly like bacon lardons on the plate. Off to the side was a mysterious schmear of something resembling mustard or roasted garlic purée. We found it spectacular and had to ask what it was. It was a purée of chanterelles, shallots, and rosemary.

    Last but not least was the striped bass served to my friend Marilyn, who is a striped bass aficionado. The fish was beautifully cooked with a nicely crusted exterior. It was topped with finely julienned sugar snap peas, green and wax beans, and fava beans in a buttery sauce. There were a few fine slivers of summer truffle, adding a hint of earthiness.

    The service on the night of our visit was excellent. Our waitress, Elizabeth, was sweet and smart. We had made our reservation through my chef friend Paul, who alerted them to his profession. We were on a waiting list but were able to get in at 5:30 and were treated like kings and queens. This may have been out of respect for a fellow chef, but I suspect they treat all guests just as kindly. We were also given samples of granola, some cantaloupe jellies, and little chocolate chip cookies, all delicious.

    During our meal we spied Anna Pump (of Loaves and Fishes shop and books fame) and her family. I checked in with them after they had finished and all of them found their meals as delicious as we did, and these folks have discerning palates!

    Unless you live under a rock out here, you probably already know that Tom Colicchio of Craft, wichcraft, and “Top Chef” fame is the executive chef. Ty Kotz is chef-de-cuisine and he is doing a splendid job executing Mr. Colicchio’s menu.

    The Topping Rose House is expensive. As I said before, this is a fine-dining establishment, a destination. The portions are small, but you will not feel gypped. You can easily spend $100 per person but you will not regret it.  First courses are $13 to $28, pastas and main courses are $18 to $42, desserts are $10 and $12.

    For desserts we tried the warm chocolate tart, cardamom-spiced dough­­nuts, and peach tart tatin. The warm chocolate tart looked like a baby pie, only cuter. The crust was a dark chocolate cookie base, perhaps a sable, with a warm interior somewhere between melted ganache and baked chocolate pudding. The small oval of ice cream was delicious and creamy, but we couldn’t identify the flavor. It was made with ricotta. Two roasted figs were served with it, making this dessert virtuous and healthy. The cardamom-spiced doughnuts were light and not greasy at all. They were served peeking out of a pristine white napkin with a dish of lemon curd for dipping. 

    The peach tart tatin was the best of all. The caramelized peaches were nestled in the buttery, flaky shell and served with sweet corn ice cream. The pastry chef, Cassandra Shupp, also makes the wide variety of ice creams and sorbets, in flavors that sound so intriguing I look forward to trying them next time, milk chocolate and plum ice cream, concord grape and red pear sorbets, raspberry sherbet!

    Our Topping Rose House experience was a delight. They have embraced the East End’s local bounty of fruits and vegetables, cheeses, eggs, fish, and wines, but cook it all with the heft and gravitas of a big-city restaurant with money.

    There are future plans for a pool and a crabapple orchard and cottages on the property, but for now, there simply exists this stately inn with a fine restaurant. And that’s good enough for me.

   A three-course prix fixe at the Gulf Coast Kitchen, a restaurant at the Montauk Yacht Club in Montauk, has a Creole take. The menu for the $29.95 special changes weekly.

    At 668 The Gig Shack, also in Montauk, dinner is served nightly starting at 6, as well as lunch on the weekends, beginning at noon. On the menu are Gig Shack classics such as fish tacos, Hawaiian-style ribs, and scallop salad, along with weekly specials, among them pumpkin ravioli with brown butter, sage, and pignoli nuts, and filet mignon with pesto-roasted fingerling potatoes. There is live music at the bar every weekend.

Red Horse Doings

    The three chef-owners of the Red Horse Market in East Hampton will present the next East End Chefs at the Whalers Church in Sag Harbor this evening at 6:30. On the menu are fresh mozzarella with prosciutto as a starter, followed by homemade sausage and a chocolate-caramel tart. Admission is $30, which includes wine. Space is limited, so those interested in attending have been asked to call the church.

    At the market itself, there are some new offerings for those looking for takeout options. A “restaurant-style” takeout menu is offered from 3 to 7 p.m. most days, and until 8 on Friday and Saturday nights, and the shop’s collection of “grab and go” meals has been expanded.

Old Stove Pub

    The Old Stove Pub in Sagaponack has reopened under new ownership, but is still serving some of the classics for which diners have looked to the eatery for many years: authentic Greek food, and steaks.

    Dinner is served nightly starting at 5, and continues until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and until 10 on other nights.

Harbor Grill

    The specials at Harbor Grill in East Hampton this fall include a $19 three-course prix fixe and a two-course lobster dinner for $29, both available every night. At the bar, there is a $10 burger-and-brew special, and on Sundays, the all-you-can-eat brunch buffet is offered for $14.95, along with $3 mimosas and Bloody Marys, starting at noon.

    Harbor Grill, which has added a selection of world and United States microbrews to its beer list, has a daily happy hour from 5 to 6 p.m. On Saturday nights there is live music from 7 to 10.

Holiday Weekend

    Navy Beach restaurant in Montauk will see out its 2012 season this weekend, serving dinner tonight through Sunday as well as lunch on Saturday and Sunday. The fall menu includes duck tacos with mango salsa, braised short ribs, and warm duck salad.

Plans for Brunch?

    The Bell and Anchor in Sag Harbor will be serving brunch on October Sundays from noon to 4:30 p.m.

    The restaurant is also serving dinner, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and at 4:30 p.m. on Sundays. Service continues until 8:30.    

Cultural Evening

    Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton has invited artists and writers to gather to dine and chat on the first Wednesday of each month, and is offering a three-course prix fixe for $28 for the event. The menu will change monthly.

    Jason Weiner, the restaurant’s chef, said the goal is to continue “the time-honored Hamptons tradition as an incubator of creativity.”

Harbor Prix Fixe

    Andrra, the restaurant perched above Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton, has a new prix fixe menu available from 5 to 10 p.m. on Thursday and Sunday, and from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Two courses — either an appetizer and entree, or entree and dessert — are offered for $23, or three courses for $28, plus tax and gratuity.

Fun and Food

    Townline BBQ in Sagaponack is reviving its Thursday-night pub quiz, starting at 7 p.m. each week. An entry fee of $10 per person goes into the pot for the grand prize. Teams of five can be formed in advance, or will be formed at the event. All participants will receive a 10 percent discount on the regular menu.

Learn About Raw Foods

    Ann Harper, a raw-food chef and the owner of Raw Oasis Foods, will be at Provisions in Sag Harbor on Monday from noon to 2 p.m. for a demonstration and tastings.

    Those who visit will have an opportunity to learn about the benefits of incorporating raw and vegan food into their diets.

Fall Specials

    At Osteria Salina, also in Bridgehampton, specials are offered each night the restaurant is open. On Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., diners can choose among a la carte items included in a three-course, $27, prix fixe. A pasta-and-salad special is also offered, for $19. On Wednesdays, lobster fra diavolo is the special, for $21, and on Thursdays the $21 special is farsumagru, Sicilian-style stuffed steak, a steak rolled with speck, ground beef, eggs, peas, and cacciocavallo cheese.

    Beginning at 9 every night, a late-night menu is available. On Friday and Saturday, lunch is served from noon to 3:30 p.m., or brunch during the same hours. Osteria Salina is closed on Tuesdays.

Author at Sylvester Manor

    Silvia Lehrer, a cooking teacher and the author of “Savoring the Hamptons: Discovering the Food and Wine of Long Island’s East End,” will be among the authors at the Plant and Sing event at Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island on Saturday.

    She will read from her book, and provide tastings of some of the food referenced, at 12:45 p.m.

    Those whose appetite for films was not satiated by the Hamptons International Film Festival might well consider Rowdy Hall when planning dinner and a movie. Beginning on Monday, the East Hampton restaurant, just a few doors down from the theater, will once again offer discounted movie tickets, at $8.50, to diners who purchase an entree for lunch or dinner from Sundays through Thursdays. For burger fans, a $20 special offered at dinnertime Sundays through Thursdays, also beginning on Monday, will include both the burger and a movie ticket.

Afternoon Tea

    Afternoon tea is served at the Living Room restaurant in East Hampton, located at c/o the Maidstone inn.

    Available on Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 4:30 p.m., it includes finger sandwiches, scones, jams, lemon curd, cream, and cookies, and costs $29 per person. Reservations are required.

Pierre’s in Fall

    Pierre’s restaurant in Bridgehampton has modified its menu for fall. Onion soup, escargots, and brandade of cod have returned as appetizers. New items that have been added include endive and pear salad, salmon with lentils, and duck magret with prunes and turnip confit. Also on the menu is a 12-hour-braised loin of pork with winter spices and pistachios.

    The prix fixe at Pierre’s is $26 for two courses, $32 for three, and is served all night every night, except on Fridays and Saturdays, when it is offered until 6:30 p.m.

Seasonal Takeout

    Also offering new items for fall is Pepalajefa, a gourmet takeout shop on Sag Harbor’s Main Street. Cooler-weather items include Spanish lentil soup, a focaccia sandwich with eggplant caponata and goat cheese, meatloaf with cornichons served on a baguette, polenta with wild mushrooms, and chorizo with leeks or Moroccan chicken legs, sold by the pound.

    The shop also has daily specials that include soups, meat, pasta, and side dishes.

Sunday Brunch

    Brunch on Sunday is a good reason to get up and out. At the Plaza Cafe in Southampton, brunch is served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and includes such offerings as slow-cooked pork belly with fried egg and braised lentils, Long Island duck-confit hash served with a poached egg and duck cracklings, and an omelette with butter-poached lobster, asparagus, morels, and Gruyere cheese.

Cheese Month

    For those not already celebrating it, October has been designated “American Cheese Month.” At Lucy’s Whey cheese shop in East Hampton, those who have purchased an American Cheese Month “passport” for $10 are entitled to discounts on a featured cheese, which will vary throughout the month. The shop has a second location at Chelsea Market in Manhattan; the East Hampton store is open Friday through Sunday.

    A bite of a Tate’s Bake Shop gluten-free chocolate chip cookie brought a woman to tears at the International Fancy Food Show in July, said Kathleen King of Water Mill, the company’s founder and owner. “Oh my God, I never thought I would be able to eat a good cookie again,” the woman told her.

    That same day, the cookie was announced as the 2012 Editor’s Pick in the gluten-free cookie category and won a silver medal. Ms. King, no stranger to awards, has expanded her gluten-free options to include cupcakes, brownies, blondies, peanut butter squares, muffins with blueberries, chocolate chips, and pumpkin, and even a Tateswich cookie sandwich with gluten-free vanilla ice cream.

    She said that she does not follow any specific diet herself, but tries to keep up with what’s going on with people and what they need. “I should have a chocolate chip cookie for everybody,” she said. “Nobody should go without.”

    Her newest creations are gluten-free, double chocolate chip cookies and crystallized ginger cookies that will be available in retail stores in another month or so. Ms. King said she is also crushing the gluten-free ginger and chocolate chip cookies and covering them in dark chocolate to create a Tate’s cookie bark with unique toppings including pumpkin seeds.

    Next up is the building of a 5,000-square-foot gluten-free kitchen in East Moriches, where her cookie production plant is located. There are a lot of guidelines to follow with gluten-free baking, she said. The products must be baked on separate days from other goods and are always sent right out for testing to ensure the absence of gluten.

    The cookies are not just for those with intolerances, allergies, or specific diets, according to Hilary Woodward of Southampton, who sat outside the shop on Thursday afternoon. She said she visits Tate’s almost every day, and buys the gluten-free products purely for their taste.

    “Sometimes it takes 10 to 12 times more to get it right,” experimenting with the texture and flavor of rice and almond flour, for example, Ms. King said. But she was “really lucky” to get it right on the first try with the gluten-free chocolate chip cookie. Or maybe it is because she has been baking cookies since she was 11, when she began to sell them from a card table at North Sea Farm, owned by her parents.

    She opened her first shop in 1980 when she was 21, and her baked goods are now seen in conventional and natural markets across the country, and are also distributed in the Caribbean, Hong Kong, and Canada. She is also the author of two cookbooks, “Baking for Friends,” published this year, and “The Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook,” published in 2006.

    While some of her gluten-free products, such as the chocolate chip cookies and brownies, are offered on her Web site, Ms. King said the largest selection is at her shop on North Sea Road, where she also offers products that are not her own, such as crackers and pancake mix, that she thinks are really good.

    She also purchases products from locals whenever possible, like Aldo’s organic coffee beans from Greenport for her espresso drinks and brewed coffee, apples from the Milk Pail in Water Mill for her pies, jam from the North Fork, and some bread from the Blue Duck Bakery around the corner.

    “Growing up on the farm made me everything that I am today,” she said. When she began to work at a young age, she said she learned about integrity, a good work ethic, and quality of ingredients. She named the company after her father, Tate, who still lives on the farm in North Sea.

   Where most people’s houses are landscaped by trees, shrubs, or flowering plants, Michael Cinque’s, set back from Montauk Highway opposite an Amagansett gas station, is surrounded on three sides by grape vines, 100 or more, neatly trained against wire trellises but growing so closely up against the windows that you can reach right through and touch them.

    Which, in fact, Mr. Cinque did one night last week, when he and his wife, Amy Slack, were awakened at 3 a.m. to a rhythmic thump-a-thump outside. He threw open a bedroom window as the motion-sensor lights came on, “and there stood a deer with a mouthful of pinot grigio.”

    They have a word for people like Mr. Cinque in France. Garagistes, they call them — men who make wine in their garages.

    Most wine merchants are in business for one reason only, to make a buck. Not this one, not anymore anyway. Mr. Cinque, the owner of Amagansett Wines and Spirits since 1979, has, as they might say in the trade, a full, rich, complex life with sometimes nutty overtones, all revolving around wine.

    Besides the pinot gris, he grows chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, and pinot blanc, chosen, he said, because those grapes ripen earliest. A few years ago, when he first started making wine, he would pick each kind separately, which meant monitoring four different vats for a month while they fermented, then “racking” them (siphoning off the sediment) one by one, once or twice a month for the next three months.

    “It was crazy,” he said. “So last year I made a skin-fermented cuvee [blend] of all four.”

    The cuvee, which Mr. Cinque wouldn’t dream of selling — it’s for benefits, friends, and house guests, of whom there’s a steady stream — is similar, he went on, to Grav­ner, a little-known wine from a little-known wine district in northeastern Italy called Fruili, where a man named Josko Gravner produces some of the most sought-after whites in the world. “It’s not good — it’s great!” he raved, speaking as much of the Cinque cuvee as the Gravner Gravner. Once Mr. Cinque is off and running on his favorite subject he becomes almost oblivious to his audience. “He ferments his wines in clay pots lined with beeswax!” he marveled.

    There was envy in his voice as he said this, and sure enough, 15 minutes later, he remarked that he’s been thinking about keeping bees.

    Every day during the 140-day growing season, Mr. Cinque gets up with the sun and pads out with his morning coffee to check on the vines. Watering is not a problem: He’s devised a drip irrigation system buried under the neat rows of crushed stone in which the posts holding the trellises are planted. But trellising, training, spraying, pruning — especially pruning — that’s another story. “Otherwise, it would run wild,” he said. “The vines don’t know they’re supposed to grow fruit. They want to grow leaves and go to the sky. So you’ve got to control them. I force everything to grow at the same level, about three feet, the ideal fruiting height.”

    He learned by doing. “You prune at the top, like privet. Who knows how to prune? It seems easy for the first five vines, then there are 15 to go.” From one plant, he said, he gets six bunches of grapes, though “someone else might have 20. It’s like snipping off the flowers on tomato plants. You wouldn’t have 2,000 tomato plants on a bush, you’d have 12 beauties.”

    Where pruning is predictable, spraying is weather-dependent. Sun-worshippers may remember the summer of 2012 as an almost endless procession of cloudless days, but vintners saw mildew under every leaf. “This was the toughest season,” said Mr. Cinque. “Evening rain, morning rain, 90 days. I was constantly spraying.” All by hand, too — the vines are too close together, on a lot of maybe a third of an acre, to admit of any other way.

    Commercial vineyards, of course, are mechanized. “They put the sprayer on the truck, they turn the handle, and they go,” he said. “I put a 40-gallon sprayer with 32 gallons of spray on my back.” Even that big a load covers only half the vines. He has to fill the thing twice, but “it’s spiritual, it’s good, it’s therapy for me. It’s beyond growing your own tomatoes. It’s raising another kid. What does a wine guy do? Plant more grass? Mow more lawn?”

    When he was a kid himself, growing up in Lynbrook, it was a Sunday ritual to go to his Italian grandparents’ house in Brooklyn, “a brownstone with a tiny backyard and an amazing garden,” where his grandfather grew fig trees, all kinds of vegetables for putting up in winter, and table grapes. The old man bought his wine grapes, though, at the Brooklyn Terminal Market, and 4-year-old Mikey would watch wide-eyed as he made wine on a venerable hand press. “I’ve tried to use it, but it’s too old,” his grandson said regretfully. The press now resides on Main Street, Amagansett, in a corner of his store. “It’s my good-luck charm.”

    Grandpa Cinque lives on also in a homemade red wine that Mr. Cinque calls Mi Famiglia. On the label, made from an old family photo, grandpa and grandson, both beaming, are holding wine glasses. The stains on the 4-year-old’s shirt suggest that he started in the business pretty young.

    The family name, which means “five” in Italian, was originally pronounced chin-quay, but “when my father went into the Army they could never get chin-quay, so he gave up and went to sink-you,” said Mr. Cinque. “They wound up calling him “C.Q.”

    Ever mindful of the past, he would like to revive the old pronunciation, but even with Italian-speakers he runs into snags. “When I call a restaurant and say, ‘Reservation for eight, Chin-quay,’ they say, ‘Is that eight or five?’ ” Some friends simply call him “Mikey Five.” It was the late Jeff Salaway of Nick and Toni’s who started that, years ago when Mr. Cinque set up the restaurant’s first wine program.

    “I have almost 100 friends through food and wine over the years,” Mr. Cinque said: chefs, suppliers, buyers, winemakers, retailers, oenophiles, and others. When they have dinner out together, eight or twelve at a time at top East End restaurants, everyone brings wine. “Last time, someone said, ‘I’m bringing a Barolo.’ I knew it would be a great Barolo, so I brought one too.”

    At one of those dinners two weeks ago everyone agreed to bring Rhone wines. One man was new to the group. “I told the new guy, ‘Bring your best Rhone, because they will.’ ”

    He pulled down a bottle of red from a kitchen shelf. It was a gift, he said, from “my paisan from Arthur Avenue. People bring me their home brew. He has Mike’s Deli in the Arthur Avenue Market,” in the Bronx.

    Deli Mike also dropped off packages of homemade prosciutto and sopressata, a large pan of tiramisu, and a tall bottle of deep gold olive oil with a label you have never seen on a store shelf, when he was here cooking for a charity event they did together in Southampton, one of dozens Mr. Cinque contributes to each year. Among the beneficiaries are the Peconic Land Trust, the Hayground School, the Children’s Museum of the East End, the Ross School, Guild Hall, Souper Tuesday at Eli’s Farmers Market — the list goes on. Mr. Cinque, a member of the all-volunteer Amagansett Fire Department, president of the Amagansett Library board of trustees, and active on more committees than a flowchart could comfortably contain, is nothing if not community-minded.

    On or about Oct. 2, their wedding anniversary, he and Ms. Slack, who is CMEE’s program director, will bring in the last of this year’s grapes. “She picks and I crush,” he said. “This will be my fourth leaf” — winespeak for harvest.

    A visitor left Mr. Cinque to wander among the vines, where, he said, “most mornings, I sing and pray a lot and laugh and cry. I don’t know how many dead relatives have visited me.”

   It takes Fred Overton, the East Hampton Town Clerk, two days to make 30 gallons of chowder. He does the kitchen prep the day before and puts everything together in two 15-gallon vats on the morning of the East Hampton Town Trustees’ Largest Clam Contest.

   Clams and potatoes in equal amounts — 50 pounds apiece — are the main ingredients. (The Seafood Shop in Wainscott sells 10-pound “setups” of clams and their juice. Mr. Overton uses five setups.) Then, 8 to 10 pounds of onions — “I don’t like too many onions, they overpower the soup,” he said — and about eight 28-ounce cans of canned whole peeled tomatoes.

   The number of tomatoes “depends on what it looks like.” Bonac chowder should not be too red.

Borrow a vat from the firehouse if you can and line the bottom with quarter-inch strips of salt pork (one package lines one vat). Add equal amounts of clam juice and water: 10 quarts juice, 10 water. Add potatoes, chopped onion, diced tomatoes, and “just a pinch of thyme.” Simmer. Put the clams in last, “not until after the potatoes are done. Otherwise they get rubbery.”

   Season to taste. Some people add carrots or celery. This recipe serves at least 200.

   A story on the contest and its winning clams and chowders appears elsewhere in today’s Star.

    It takes a family to make a bagel — and to run a bagel mini empire.

    “Izzy was the bagel maven,” Paul Wayne, a partner in Goldberg’s Famous Bagels in East Hampton and Montauk, said of his grandfather, Izzy Goldberg, who started the family in the bagel business in the years after World War II.

    As he talked on Sept. 16, he cut a brisket into paper-thin slices. Rosh Hashana would begin at sunset, and the demand for brisket, corned beef, and pastrami was strong. As was the call for challah bread, which the store continued to make throughout the day.

    Mr. Goldberg had four sons, Artie, Jerry, Alfred, and Marty, all of whom went into the family business, starting at a shop on Webster Avenue in the Bronx, then at shops in Brooklyn and Manhattan, before the family took their businesses to New Jersey.

    Outside of the five boroughs, “there was a lack of bagels in the late 1960s,” said Mr. Wayne, whose father, Marty, changed his last name to Wayne, after his hero John Wayne, during a brief pursuit of a theatrical career.

    It was Mr. Wayne’s cousin Mark Goldberg who brought the family business from New Jersey to the East End. “Fourteen years ago, I was vacationing out here and I saw a sign in Southampton that said, ‘Bagel store wanted.’ I left a bunch of stores in Bergen County for a better life in the Hamptons,” Mr. Goldberg said.

    Located on County Road 39, Goldberg’s Southampton shop was a success, and six years later, Mark Goldberg had the opportunity to open an East Hampton store, this one at 100 Pantigo Place.

    “I was in O’Malley’s when I heard that the health food store wanted to get out of their lease,” Mr. Goldberg said. His uncle Marty Wayne was his partner in opening the second South Fork store.

    At first, the elder Mr. Wayne had his doubts about the location. “You’re in the back of a building. You’re not in town,” Mr. Wayne remembers his father saying to his cousin. But he threw himself into the business.

    “My father was a real schmoozer,” Mr. Wayne said about the business’s early days in East Hampton. “He would go to London Jewelers, Prudential, the hair salons” to drum up business.

    Eventually, though, the elder Mr. Wayne wanted to return to New Jersey. His son wanted to come to East Hampton. “He was 65. I said to him, ‘Whenever you don’t want to do this anymore.’ ” Two years ago, the two men traded businesses, with Paul coming east.

    Now, Paul Wayne knows most of his clientele by their first names, and just how they like their bagels.

    Key to the Goldbergs’ success was mastering the art of making a bagel and slicing the lox.

    “My dad taught me,” Mr. Goldberg said. “I am by trade a bagel roller and bialy maker. Paul is more of a counter man. Cutting corned beef and pastrami, a lox cutter.”

    Lox must be cut paper thin to qualify for a Goldberg’s bagel or flagel (a flat bagel).

    From Memorial Day until Columbus Day, Goldberg’s imports a lox slicing expert from Staten Island to stay ahead of the demand.

    “I’ve been doing this since I was a kid,” Stuart Kull, the Goldberg’s hired knife, said last week.

    “The key to slicing lox is a light hand and a sharp knife,” Mr. Kull said. “During the height of the season, I can slice up to 100 pounds a day.”

    While not a Goldberg, Mr. Kull is part of the extended family. “His dad had a store next to my dad’s store in Jersey,” Mr. Goldberg explained.

    Indeed, the entire staff has a family feel. “It’s fun here,” said Aura Hernandez, as she doled out bagels to hungry customers.

    Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Wayne are willing to discuss their recipe for bagels, to a point. “Flour, water, brown sugar, a little salt, and our own special ingredients,” said Mr. Wayne, explaining that the secret ingredients used date back to the first Goldberg store in the Bronx.

    “We mix the dough for about 12 and a half minutes,” Mr. Wayne said, adding that some bagels can be mixed in one of their 200-pound mixers, though all are rolled by hand, while other bagels, pumpernickel among them, must be done entirely by hand, depending upon the particular dough.

    Mr. Goldberg’s father taught him the art of bagel rolling.

    Originally, the bagel business in New York City was a wholesale business, with the bagels being sold to delis and stores nearby. 

    The bagel rollers who made the bagels were part of a tight union, which was strictly father and son. Owners were not taught the secrets of the trade.

    That changed when the first retail bagel store opened, according to Mr. Goldberg, “The first retail store was Bagel Oasis on the Long Island Expressway — really called Triboro,” because the three owners were from the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. “That’s where everybody went to learn back in 1960. It was in Fresh Meadows, and is still there today.”

    That was where Mr. Goldberg’s father learned the secrets of bageldom, which he, in turn, taught his son.

    But there is more to Goldberg’s than bagels. There’s also what Mr. Goldberg called “the Jewish soul food” — brisket and corned beef, pastrami and matzo ball soup, and other traditional dishes, all prepared under the direction of Denise Goldberg, Mr. Goldberg’s wife, who doubles as chef, as well as supervising the day-to-day operations at the Southampton store, along with their daughter, Amanda.

    At the beginning of July, Mr. Wayne and Mr. Goldberg opened Goldberg’s Bagels and Flagels Deli in Montauk, which they are hoping to keep open year round.

    Besides their Hobo, a bagel with eggs, cheese, bacon, and home fries, their Power House wrap — egg whites, turkey, and cheese in a whole wheat wrap — became their hottest Montauk seller.

    The East Hampton store is open seven days a week, 365 days a year, 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.

    “It’s not about the money,” Mr. Wayne explained. Their customers rely on them to be there, on holidays as well as on working days, and so they are. Mr. Goldberg gets to work at 4 a.m., and Mr. Wayne not much later.

    “It’s a mom-and-pop kind of place,” Mr. Wayne said, “It’s old school, just like the bagels.”