East End Eats: Nick And Toni's

The phenomenon of the "hot" restaurant is as much a part of a Hamptons summer season as fresh corn and parking chaos. But the public is fickle; buzz fades and today's "Sorry, no reservations for a month" is tomorrow's Chapter 11.

Nick and Toni's was the hot restaurant of 1988 and, amazingly, it has remained so ever since. Chance has nothing to do with it, nor have the idiots who go there to see and be seen: If a place maintains a reputation through the years then it's because it's doing things right.

Yes, it's difficult to get a reservation on summer weekends, which has made some people give up on the place, but good food is all the better when it's cold outside, and in winter there is also a good pre-movie special on Fridays and Sundays.

The decor is simple but warm, with a cheerful bar area and a terrazzo-decorated wood-burning oven. The first dining area has rather a lot of traffic trekking through it, but the back room is comfortable, perfectly lighted, and the acoustics are excellent.

Over the years, the front-of-the-house staff have occasionally been a little snippy, but there's a young woman there now who couldn't be more friendly. On Saturday our wait staff were also friendly and helpful, though the service could best be described as leisurely. That was okay; we were having a good time.

There is, of course, an impressive wine list and a good, fairly pricey, selection of wines by the glass. There is also a choice among at least a dozen single malts, tequilas, cognacs, and grappas.

Yes, it's expensive - appetizers from $9 to $12, entrees from $20 (pasta) to $32 - but you get your money's worth. And if you go on Sunday, for brunch or dinner, you can have one of four Tuscan-style pizzas for $16.

The special appetizer of the day was a salad of perfect little green beans and flaky "hot-smoked" salmon, whose flavor was somewhat crushed by the addition of a strong-tasting radicchio.

Taste Of Fall

The green salad, though it might appear a little expensive at $10, was as good as a green salad can get and worth every penny. Also recommended, though it looks rather unimaginative when it arrives, is the antipasto, which included among other things a prosciutto di San Daniele that will make your toes curl up in bliss, a silken breseola, and fine contrasting olives.

The top vote-getter was the polenta, which is made with Morbier cheese and walnuts and is good enough to make you weep (I suspect the calorie count would have made us weep too, if we had known it).

The one appetizer that was judged both overpriced ($12) and dull was the Sicilian stuffed artichoke with sweet onion broth.

The menu on Saturday suggested fall - which seemed appropriate as the temperatures plummeted from the mid-70s on Saturday to below freezing on Sunday - with squash soup and quail and venison and pheasant.

Quail To Venison

The quail, which came with apple and red currant relish and was bursting with herby flavor, was a $12 appetizer, but made a perfectly adequate entree. The large serving of pheasant, with potatoes, turnips, cipolline onions, and green olives, was fine in the flavor department, but a little dry.

We tried one of the pasta dishes - pappardella with a simple meat and tomato sauce. It was light and fresh and a perfect culinary example to all those meat and tomato sauce pasta dishes out there that should be classified under "Offensive Weapons" instead of "Pasta."

But there were two dishes that were really outstanding, that restored the flagging appetite and reduced the diner to respectful silence. One was the superlative medallions of venison with roasted pumpkin and potato parsnip puree.

Special Chicken

The other was sea scallops pan-roasted to a crisp brown with wild mushrooms and a slice of foie gras. Although we had hopes that bay scallops might be on the menu, these weeks being the small window of opportunity for them, they could hardly have improved on this dish, even though it might sound like sacrilege to say so.

As one would have hoped, each entree is prepared with a complementary selection of vegetables.

Given my druthers, I seldom order roast chicken in a restaurant, believing that it can be done just as well if not better at home, but for Nick and Toni's I make an exception - they raise the lowly fowl to a whole new plane of existence.

Although I haven't tried it for a while now, it remains in my mind very clearly: Crisp-skinned and juicy, served with a fine jus and scattered with whole cloves of baked garlic, it is a four-star experience.

The desserts are equally good. Beautifully prepared, they arrived looking like Rosalind Russell's hats in "His Girl Friday." One was a bittersweet flourless chocolate cake with milk chocolate custard and banana fool and the other was an apple cobbler - but what an apple cobbler! - served with caramel ice cream and fragile strips of cinnamon sugar "tuile."

Divine.

Don't be put off by Nick and Toni's chichi reputation; the staff is friendly, the atmosphere is warm, you can hear conversation, and the food is very, very good.