East End Eats: Il Farole

About the closest thing to a real-life episode of "The X Files" you can get on the East End is a trip to Montauk Manor on a damp, slightly foggy, moonless night.

Just as you despair of ever finding it, you round a steep corner and there is this vast Victorian grotesquerie in front of you, looking uncannily similar to the hotel in "The Shining."

You drive up to the front door, where there is nowhere to park and only the smallest sign announcing the existence of the Manor's restaurant, Il Farole. So off you drive again to a remote, completely silent, and rather creepily well-lit parking lot.

On the trek back to a subterranean entrance to the huge building, you may hear sudden movements and heavy snufflings in the nearby bushes.

"It's a deer," I said to myself encouragingly, doubling my pace. "Montauk's crammed with deer. They have to bring out the deerplow on Main Street all the time."

I believe it was a deer, but Mulder would have said different.

In the anonymous underground corridors of the building, there are no signs to the restaurant or the elevator, nor, once the elevator is located, any indication as to where to go.

When one emerges in the lobby, the resemblance to "The Shining" is complete. Anyone who hasn't been to Montauk Manor really should pay it a visit for a totally out-of-East-End experience.

With the hairs on the back of my neck rising in anticipation of meeting Jack Nicholson, it was a great relief to find that Il Farole itself is small and cozy and not in the least spooky.

On the night we were there, the staff consisted of the maitre d', a waiter, and a busboy, which meant that when all the tables filled up at the same time they were over-busy and service was a little spotty. But it got back on track once our food was served.

Compliant Chef

The wine list is not large, but each wine is carefully described. A pleasant Gristina Vineyards cabernet sauvignon from the North Fork was $22.

Appetizers range from $3.75 for cheese tortellini in chicken broth or the soup of the day, which was fresh cream of mushroom on this occasion, to $10.75 for a seafood salad. It is worth noting that the chef is happy to comply with special requests wherever possible.

The tricolor salad of endive, red onion, arugula, lettuce, and radicchio came with a lively raspberry vinaigrette, but the zucchini fritti were limp, watery, and dull, with a disappointing tomato sauce.

The deep-fried calamari, on the other hand, were crisply battered and tender. The calamari were so small they could almost have qualified as "chiperones" and been served whole. They came with a choice of an unusual honey rosemary sauce which, while a little on the sweet side, was an adventurous change.

Adventurous Sauces

In fact, adventurous sauces seem to be a hallmark of Il Farole. As well as the raspberry vinaigrette and the honey rosemary dip, Long Island duckling comes with strawberry liqueur, porcini mushroom ravioli with a Gorgonzola sauce, swordfish with a raspberry sauce, and poached salmon with a Grand Marnier sauce.

We tried baby lamb chops with a Chianti barolo sauce. They were good enough to pick up and eat with your fingers.

High Marks

The specials of the day included soft-shelled crabs. Floured, pan-sauteed, and served in their concentrated juices, they were excellent.

High marks also to the Dijon mustard-baked salmon, which was cooked to the second, juicy, and, well, salmony.

It is a good test to go to a place not at the best time, but rather at the worst. Il Farole merits the trek, even in the depths of winter. And oh, that spooky Montauk Manor setting.

All the entrees come with a variety of fresh vegetables. Prices are average, ranging from $11.25 for pastas to $21.75 for filet mignon.

As the desserts are mainly ice cream-based variations, we just tried the chocolate mousse cake. It was outstandingly good, big enough for all of us, and a bargain at $4.50.

The View Is Famous

Now it may seem completely perverse to review a restaurant in the depths of winter when what it is famous for is its view. And certainly summer is the time to drive up to the Manor, when you can have a leisurely drink on the terrace and look out across the ocean on one side and the bay on the other.

But it is a good test to go to a place not at the best time, but rather at the worst. And Il Farole merits the trek, even in the depths of winter.

You'd especially enjoy it if you're one of those who believe that book about aliens landing at the Montauk Air Force Base. I think they took rooms at Montauk Manor.