The exhibit now at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in Manhattan, containing many works by artists associated with the East End, is as offbeat as it is noteworthy, the kind of show not ordinarily found in a commercial space. It is a balm for the summer doldrums.

Just about everything on exhibit dates back to the '50s and early '60s, before the artists were established and, in some cases, before they had found the style for which they became known. This means that a number of surprises await viewers unacquainted with early examples of the artists' work.

On the other hand, more seasoned gallery-goers will doubtless have an entirely different take on the show. Perhaps, like my own, it will be a feeling of nostalgia, a longing for a time when most new American art was nice to look at, modest in scale, and free of gimmicks.

Respect For The Past

I might as well come right out and say it: The show has a period look. That is not to say the works look dated. It's just that the artists had some connection with and respect for the past.

First and foremost there is Fairfield Porter, who for so many years lived in Southampton, where his widow, the poet Anne Porter, still lives. Their large, rambling house on South Main Street was the setting for many of his paintings.

A simple oil on board he did in 1950 is the earliest work in the show. A densely painted landscape, it has nothing in common with his familiar plein air paintings that came later.

Fairfield Porter

There are three other Porters on display, and they are unmistakably his - gentle, beautiful works in the American grain.

Chief among them is an oil portrait of Roland F. Pease that is as good as any of the artist's works in this vein. (All the selections in the show are from Mr. Pease's collection and will eventually go to the Vassar College Museum of Art.)

This thoughtful, evocative portrait caused my nostalgia to take an unexpected turn: I found myself reflecting upon certain aspects of the artist's unusual career.

Overdue Recognition

It seems incredible now, but recognition was a long time in coming. This was partly due to the reluctance of galleries to show his work and partly, I suspect, because Porter thought of himself as an art critic - as indeed he should have, since he was one of the best.

As is well known, artist friends who admired his work persuaded the old Tibor de Nagy Gallery to give him a show. The first exhibit was in 1952, when Porter was 45.

Think of it! Can you imagine an artist in today's art world waiting that long to show his work? What's more astonishing, Willem de Kooning was about the same age as Porter when he had his first one-man show.

The Women

As I moved through the gallery, it gradually dawned on me that a surprising number of things were by women. Elaine de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Nell Blaine, Jane Freilicher, Jane Wilson, Grace Hartigan - they had all exhibited at this venerable gallery, and here they were together in the same room!

Now I began to think about other women in the group, women of the same generation: Joan Mitchell, Marisol, Mary Abbott, and Fay Lansner came to mind. Perhaps Lee Krasner's name should be added, though she - like her arch-enemy Elaine de Kooning - was somewhat older.

Some of these women were more successful than others, but they all went on to sustain long and in some instances important careers. However, even when they were starting out, they did pretty well - as well, perhaps, as women in today's art world.

Compromises

No doubt they felt that accommodations and compromises had to be made.

For example, Grace Hartigan first showed under the name of George Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning painted under her husband's good name, and Helen Frankenthaler was significantly helped by her relationship with Clement Greenberg.

But the point is, they persevered and they succeeded.

Then I came to the Frankenthaler in the show, a luminous all-over abstraction from 1957. Unexpectedly, it put into perspective my ruminations on female artists.

In Perspective

I was reminded of the 1970 Metropolitan Museum of Art survey of American painting and sculpture from 1940 to 1970. The charismatic Henry Geldzahler was the curator, and he came under fire for many reasons, not least because only one woman was represented, the painter whose work I was now scrutinizing.

Could something like that happen today? Could a curator hope to get away with it? Not with those guerrilla women around. (They are still around, aren't they?)

Conclusion: Women in the arts are definitely better off now, in the wake of feminism.

Grace Hartigan

Yet it's hard to imagine that Grace Hartigan could have done any better. Hers was a bold, somewhat crude form of Abstract Expressionism that so impressed the powers-that-be at the Museum of Modern Art that she gained admission into its collection early on.

She was on her way; that was all it took to make her well-known, even famous. But her fame was short-lived, and the painting purchased by the Modern - was it "Grand Street Brides"? - has not been on exhibit there in many years.

Let me add that I greatly admired her 1953 painting, "Venus and Adonis (After Rubens)." A gauzy affair predominantly in pink, it delightfully suggests the Rubens work.

Rivers Still-Life

I also especially liked the watercolor landscapes by Jane Freilicher and the late Nell Blaine. While Ms. Freilicher has received wide and well-deserved recognition, Ms. Blaine was in her lifetime an artist's artist who seemed destined for a posthumous reputation.

Since Larry Rivers is one of our own, having lived in Southampton for better than 40 years, I feel it incumbent to mention the small, wonderful work of his that Mr. Pease acquired in 1953.

A modest, utterly simple still-life, it is nothing more than a hint of a vase and two flowers, painted in the artist's early touch-and-go style. What it possesses is a delicacy and tenderness eschewed by Mr. Rivers in his later works, which are less intimate and more hard-hitting.

Surprising Grooms

The show also includes a skinny, vertical Kenneth Noland painting that looks like a Barnett Newman, several works by Robert Goodnough that remind one how good this neglected painter is, several Modernist abstractions by another neglected artist, Maurice Golubov, and a work by an artist who is anything but neglected or underrated.

That artist is Red Grooms. His small oil on wood is the surprise of the show, because nobody could possibly suspect that he painted it.

"House at Night" is its title and subject, and it is as unique and haunting as one of the great little paintings of the reclusive painter of Water Mill, Albert York. I can think of no greater praise.

I failed to mention the show's title, "Art and Friendship." What Mr. Pease means to suggest, as I understand him, is that he did not set out to become an art collector; it just happened - through friendship, after the late Tibor de Nagy introduced him to his artists and their works.

The gallery is open Monday through Friday until Aug. 8, after which it will be closed until Sept. 2. When it reopens, the show can be seen through Sept. 13.

AMAGANSETT

Baker (trust) to Lawrence Sachs and Christopher Manthey, Osprey Road, $246,500.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Raucci to Michael and Scott Sherman, Kellis Pond Lane, $365,000.

Petrone to Brenda and James Oakes Jr., Topping's Field Court, $700,000.

Rosenman to Deborah Freeman, Butter Lane, $475,000.

EAST HAMPTON

Mahoney to Michael Delfino, Stephen Hand's Path, $400,000.

Hren to Alan and Eugenia Sacks, Eileen's Path, $300,000.

Bambrick to Martin and Ruth Samuels, South Breeze Drive, $320,000.

McConnell to Mary Vassel, Amy's Lane, $825,000.

Rickenbach (trustees) to Ronald Rickenbach and Joyce Tuttle, Whooping Hollow Road, $175,000.

Kaufelt to Salvatore Ranieri, Highway Behind the Pond, $3,575,000.

Sanicola to Theresa Kistulinec and Jean Foglizzo, Abraham's Path, $365,000.

MONTAUK

Capano to Mel and Terry Oster, Brisbane Road, $168,000.

NORTH HAVEN

Seabury Realty Partners to Jeffrey Friedman, On The Bluff, $610,000.

NORTHWEST

Goldworth to Jeffrey Leimsider, Gunpowder Lane, $310,000.

Wall to Hal Rose and Barbara Matthews, Sammy's Beach Road, $225,000.

Theodoratos to Merle Hoffmann, Hedges Banks Drive, $870,000.

Dassa to Rafael Llopiz, James Street, $335,000.

Greenwald estate to Harvest Moon Assoc. L.L.C., Harvest Lane, $262,500.

SAG HARBOR

Stuckart to Gail Tiska, Deerfield Road, $358,000.

Johnson to John Bryan, Walker Avenue, $175,000.

McLaughlin to Dean Golden, Oakland Avenue, $245,000.

Fenelon to Joseph Flicek and Melinda Porter, Ackerly Street, $310,000.

SAGAPONACK

Noto to Vicarage Realty L.P., David's Court, $206,500.

Huntington to Anne Kaye, Old Barn Lane, $525,000.

SPRINGS

Shapiro to Alphonso Robinson 3d, Talmage Farm Lane, $258,000.

WAINSCOTT

Ventimiglia to Mary Graves, Exeter Lane, $215,000.

WATER MILL

Leibowitz to Jamie and Laura Hirsch, West Mecox Road, $625,000.

Lauring Enterprises Inc. to Laura Jeffreys, Seven Ponds Towd Road, $485,000.

Welsh 3d to Chris Mead, Wheaton Way, $995,000.

Dopf to Kathleen King, Deerfield Road, $326,500.

An Internet ad for the Georgian Manor, a house in the North Haven Point subdivision on North Haven, trumpets its availability for "weekends, weekly, or monthly rentals." A brochure advertising the property offers it for "weddings, anniversary parties, family reunions, retirements, holiday parties, and special occasions."

North Haven Village Board members, claiming last week that the house was being used for "commercial purposes," authorized Anthony Tohill, the village attorney, to serve Barbara Williams of Muttontown, the house's owner, with an injunction stopping the numerous short-term rentals.

The property, like the rest of North Haven, is zoned single-family residential, with only limited commercial use, such as a doctor's office, allowed.

"It's A Business"

"The law easily defines the differences between a residential and a nonresidential use," Mr. Tohill said this week. "There clearly is no problem here," he said of proving his case that the house is being used commercially. In a single-family residential use, he said, "we do have weddings, but we don't have a wedding one weekend, a funeral the next."

The promotional brochure includes photographs and describes the house's "eight bedrooms, [and] four-and-a-half baths with a private pool in a secluded wooded natural setting."

The house's certificate of occupancy, say village officials, is for four bedrooms.

"That's not a group rental, it's a business," said Mr. Tohill.

Upset Neighbors

Neighbors who complained of the situation at last week's Village Board meeting cited motorcycles zooming up and down the street and beer bottles and other trash strewn about.

"The people appear to be very young," said Mary Reina, a resident who spoke at the meeting. "It appears that she's renting out the house for prom parties."

According to Lisa Rose, a neighbor and the vice president of the North Haven Point Homeowners Association, the situation has been "ongoing for several years," though things came to a head with a recent weekend wedding which brought 45 parked cars and "unbelievable" noise through the early morning hours.

Recreational vehicles were brought in, Ms. Rose alleged, to accommodate even more people.

Violation Of Covenants

The Village Code allows the parking of one car per bedroom, plus one extra, per house.

There are no regulations which address the length of rentals, though "group rentals" - more than five unrelated persons living together - are prohibited. That statute, however, is difficult to enforce, admitted Janice Hines, North Haven's Village Clerk.

"We're going to have to tighten up our code," she said.

The activities at the house appear also to violate the covenants of the North Haven Point Homeowners Association, which state that "no dwelling or any part thereof shall be used for any purpose except as a private dwelling for one family, nor shall any business of any kind be conducted therein."

"No business or trade of any kind or noxious or offensive activity shall be carried on. . .," the agreement continues, "nor shall anything be done thereon which may be or become an annoyance or nuisance to the neighborhood."

Lawsuit In The Works

The Homeowners Association's board of directors is discussing the matter with its attorney, Ms. Rose said, though under the covenant enforcement and penalties, if necessary, fall first to the Village, she said.

Ms. Williams could not be reached for comment this week. According to Mr. Tohill, she was served with two notices of violation, in accordance with procedures dictated by the North Haven Point covenant, and a lawsuit on behalf of the village is being prepared.

Trustee Robert Reiser urged the board to act decisively. "If we don't," he said, "we run the risk of this village turning into someplace we don't want it to be."

"We're ready to fire away," Mr. Tohill said.

Probe In Vandalism and Theft

Criminal charges may be brought against a dozen North Babylon teenagers who are being investigated in connection with a burglary and vandalism Friday night at Montauk Point State Park.

The park manager and the owner of the concession shop and cafe called state park police Saturday morning to report more than $5,700 worth of merchandise had been stolen from the shop, including over 100 T-shirts and sweatshirts, 25 cartons of cigarettes, key chains, and necklaces.

The parking-lot toll booth and the lighthouse museum ticket booth were broken into as well and graffiti was scrawled on the restroom walls. A $600 police radio and $100 in cash were taken from the toll booth. The museum booth's contents were disturbed, though nothing was reported missing.

Dusting For Prints

East Hampton Town police assisted park police by interviewing park employees, photographing the scene, and dusting for fingerprints.

Town police believe a group of North Babylon youths known to have been in the area may have been responsible for the mischief. "The investigation indicates that particular group may have been involved," said Capt. Todd Sarris.

Sgt. Mark Esky of the state park police confirmed that the teenagers were "being explored for their possible involvement. They happened to be relatively local at the time of the incident."

Hit On Head

A Springs woman was released on $5,000 bail last Thursday after her arraignment on a charge of felony assault. East Hampton Town police said Noemi Sanchez-Martinez, 26, of Fort Pond Boulevard attacked another Springs woman in her home.

The other woman, Lee Kucker of Three Mile Harbor Road, called police at around 10 p.m., saying she was injured. Police who went to her house said she had bruises on her left eye and elbow. She complained of dizziness as well, telling police she had been struck in the head with a heavy glass pitcher.

Police escorted Ms. Kucker to Southampton Hospital to be checked out. She was treated and released.

Meanwhile, Ms. Sanchez-Martinez was arrested at her residence and charged with second-degree assault. East Hampton Town Justice Roger Walker set the bail.

Parking Lot Punchout

A man who became irate after an accident at Gosman's parking lot in Montauk and allegedly punched another driver's car, damaging it, was charged with a felony count of criminal mischief Sunday night.

Jennifer Blackman of Bellmore was driving out of the lot onto West Lake Drive Extension, where she collided with Michael J. Hasbrouck. Ms. Blackman and her passenger went to the Montauk police substation afterward to notify police, and noted they were frightened by Mr. Hasbrouck's "hostile nature," according to the police report.

Police went to the scene to get information from Mr. Hasbrouck. He was given a sobriety test, which he passed. Back at the station, Ms. Blackman gave a statement saying Mr. Hasbrouck had damaged her vehicle by striking it with his fist.

The 44-year-old West Islip man was charged with third-degree criminal mischief and later released on $250 bail.

Open Beer Can

Obstructing governmental administration was the charge against a Center Moriches teenager who police said lied to an officer questioning him about an open beer can early last Thursday morning in Montauk and then ran away.

According to town police, an officer noticed Peter J. Meyer, 18, holding a can of Budweiser on West Lake Drive Extension in front of the Crew's Quarters restaurant. When asked his name, police said, the Meyer youth gave a false identity. Informed that police were checking the name, the youth took off, police said.

After a pursuit and an alleged struggle, the Meyer youth was arrested in the parking lot of West Cove. In addition to the misdemeanor charge of obstruction, he was charged with having an open alcoholic beverage in public, a violation.

He was released on his own recognizance and will appear in court at a later date.

Charge Construction Manager

A Springs woman turned herself in to East Hampton Village police last Thursday after being notified that a warrant was out for her arrest. Orly H. Friedman, 37, of Spruce Street was charged with two felonies, second and third-degree criminal mischief, and a misdemeanor, third-degree criminal tampering.

Police allege that in May Ms. Friedman, a construction manager, vandalized Gerald Curatola's Georgica Close Road house, where she had been working. Police said she threw rocks and dirt into air-conditioning units, walked across a newly finished floor, turned off the electricity to the house, and damaged walls by throwing metal screws at them.

The owner estimated the damage at $3,000.

Ms. Friedman was released on her own recognizance and given a court date.

Stolen Moped

An East Hampton youth was charged with fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, a misdemeanor, after he was allegedly found on a stolen moped on Sherrill Road.

Richard Familetti's $600 moped was stolen from his Miller Lane drive way on the night of July 5. Four days later, village police got a call from a custodian at the East Hampton Middle School that there was a moped in the bushes there.

While police were speaking with the custodian, Dan Talmage, the moped disappeared. Troy L. Dani els, 16, of Bow Oarsman's Road was found in possession of it later that afternoon, according to police.

The youth was released on $100 bail.

In Sag Harbor, a man was charged with second-degree criminal contempt for allegedly violating his girlfriend's order of protection against him. Police also charged Gerardo Rodriguez, 27, of Hillside Drive East with second-degree harassment, a violation, based on a civilian complaint signed by Kerri Ann Tolan.

Passengers who travel between Manhattan and the East End on the Hampton Jitney have had to shell out a little extra money this summer in the form of higher fares. And they have not had a lower-priced alternative, as in past years.

Since Hamptons On My Mind, notable for its hot pink coaches, discontinued service last November, the Jitney has had no competition. But that may change soon.

Marty Laschever, the owner of the Winston Coach Company of Medford, which operated the Hamptons On My Mind buses, said he would resume East End-New York service under the Winston name as early as September. The company also provides airport shuttles and tour services.

No Longer No-Frills

"That will give us the whole winter to get our act together," said Mr. Laschever, who added he would have preferred to have his buses back on the road in time for the peak summer season. That timetable proved untenable, however, when flooding in North Dakota earlier this year forced the closing of the Motor Coach Inc. factory, where Winston had placed orders for five new buses.

"The plant never got flooded, but the people who lived in the surrounding communities did," said Mr. Laschever. "The National Guard came in and closed the plant. It set us back, but what am I going to do? I can't cry about it."

When the company returns, its no-frills service and $15 one-way fares will be a thing of the past, Mr. Laschever said. The new buses, which will seat 57 passengers, will be staffed by attendants, like the Jitney. Fares will also be higher, although Mr. Laschever said he did not know by how much.

More Subdued Look

"People in the Hamptons want to pay more," he said jokingly. "It makes them feel important."

Gone too will be the company's gaily painted - or garishly painted, depending on one's point of view - buses. The Winston coaches will be painted white with red, orange, and brown lettering, according to Mr. Laschever.

"We got a lot of complaints in East Hampton," Mr. Laschever said. "One guy called me up and told me he had moved there for the serenity and calmness, and we were killing the look of East Hampton."

Last year, the company held a contest to design a new look for its coaches, but most entrants "thought I was trying to make them louder," forcing the company to shelve the idea, he said.

Increased Costs

As the various competitors come and go, the Jitney marches on. Last month, the Jitney raised the price of one-way tickets to $22 and round-trips to $40 for travel between the South Fork and Manhattan. Ticket prices had been $20 one way and $36 round-trip.

Tom Neely, the Jitney's vice president and marketing director, said the lack of competition played no part in the decision to raise its fares.

"We had to catch up with the increase in costs," he said. The Jitney had charged the same price since 1990. Mr. Neely cited the expense of new buses and wage increases as reasons for the price hike.

Frequent riders can receive a discount by purchasing a value book of 12 tickets at $17 apiece.

"Hamptons On My Mind and Hampton Express have proven it is impossible to charge $15 or $18 or whatever they were charging and stay in business," Mr. Neely added. Hampton Express was an earlier competitor to the Jitney that ceased operation a few years ago.

Changes In The Works

The Jitney also has possible changes in the works. Mr. Neely said the company has been negotiating with Southampton Town and Suffolk County to lease space at Frances Gabreski Airport in Westhampton, first as a bus stop and later as a possible "satellite" for some of its office staff and a bus barn.

"It's just an idea at this point," he said. "We're talking about five or 10 years down the road."

Although the Jitney recently renovated its headquarters at the Omni on County Road 39 in Southampton, it is already outgrowing the space, Mr. Neely said.

Mr. Neely said the Jitney is not concerned about the return of competition. "When they came in, we didn't change the way we operated. When they left, we didn't change the way we operated, and if they come back, we won't change the way we operate," he said.

Dennis MacNeil and Dede McCann, the former executive chef and manager of the Laundry in East Hampton, have finally found a new home - in the former Duke's restaurant space in East Hampton. They left the Laundry, for which they helped build a solid reputation, about a year ago after an unsuccessful attempt to buy the business.

The duo's new venture will be called Peconic Coast. Though a definite menu has not been set, Mr. MacNeil, who will be the restau rant's executive chef, said it will focus on the kind of food he loves to prepare - American/Mediterranean. It will include a good selection of appetizers, as much local seafood as the chef can get his hands on, and good steaks and burgers like the Laundry offers.

The wine list will have 35 to 40 "value-oriented" selections, Mr. MacNeil added.

Dinners Year-Round

The paperwork for a lease with an option to buy the Montauk Highway property was just signed last week, and the partners are busy getting the place ready for business. That includes sprucing up the outside with new fencing and a new sign and redoing the driveway.

The inside decor will probably stay as is, except for a possible paint job, Mr. MacNeil said. A kitchen staff is in place and a staff for the front of the house, which Ms. McCann will direct, is being gathered. Once the details are ironed out, Mr. MacNeil said, he and his partner will set an opening date.

The plan is for Peconic Coast to serve dinner seven nights a week year-round, a remarkable schedule on the East End that the Laundry also is known for. Lunch might be added at Peconic Coast next spring, Mr. MacNeil added.

Ahoy, Malloy!

A new restaurant where Yellowfin was on Sag Harbor's Long Wharf has been open for a few weeks. Malloy's Dock is being managed by Shari Alexander, a New York Restaurant School graduate, former chef and owner of the Ship's Galley, and a food columnist who has a house in Sag Harbor, and Albert Geldmacher, an East Hampton resident who once ran the Cove Deli, the Madison Market, and the Dockhouse in Sag Harbor.

The restaurant's name comes from the owner of the property, Patrick E. Malloy 3d. Michael Vignapiano, the executive chef, has a house in Noyac and is on leave as program director at the New York Restaurant School. He has had an extensive career in hotel and restaurant kitchens, though this is the first time he has worked on the South Fork.

The menu, served all day for lunch and dinner every day but Tuesday, emphasizes seafood, or, in the words of Ms. Alexander, whose food and wine column "Dish" appears monthly in The Sarasota Herald-Tribune,"seaside comfort food."

Seafood And Daiquiris

Among the appetizers on the menu are baked clams, steamed mussels, and shrimp cocktail, and there is a kind of salad nicoise with blue claw crab instead of tuna. Entrees include a lobster roll, a Spanish version of shrimp scampi, lobster, grilled vegetables, and, for landlubbers, shell steak and a burger.

Catch of the day and grilled chicken of the day specials are offered, as well as a $20 "lobster Monday" special that includes a one and a quarter-pound steamed lobster, corn on the cob, fries or baked potato, and focaccia.

Desserts such as key lime pie and fresh fruit tarts come from a New York baker, though Mr. Vignapiano makes one of his own each week. The restaurant's large bar has a new frozen drink machine for such concoctions as a mango daiquiri (did you know that those drinks come from Cuba?) and there's a martini bar as well. Ms. Alexander said the restaurant's wine list is priced below others in the area.

There are 200 al fresco seats overlooking the docked boats and Sag Harbor at Malloy's Dock.

Paolo's Turns Salamander

The Salamander Bar and Grill is now open where Paolo's restaurant was in Montauk earlier this season. Eileen Oliver and Martin Olive have changed the Mediterranean menu their late partner and the chef, Paolo Penati, had offered. The new focus is on local seafood and Southwestern fare.

Ms. Oliver and Mr. Olive designed the menu along with their consulting chef, Steve Blechner, who has worked at La Reserve, La Cygne, and the Sign of the Dove in Manhattan and at the Maidstone Arms and the Ram's Head Inn locally. The Salamander's chef de cuisine will be Alberto Rivera, who has taken a sabbatical from his duties at the China Grill in Miami Beach's South Beach to head the kitchen staff for the season.

The menu includes a raw bar, soups and salads, sandwiches like seared fresh tuna on a roll with rouille, and fajitas with such fillings as spicy chicken with slow-roasted tomatoes and Monterey Jack cheese. Among the pasta choices is penne with sweet sausage, broccoli rabe, tomatoes, and corn, and entrees include potato-crusted flounder, roasted cod with shiitake and portobello ragout, and a grilled ribeye.

Mr. Rivera will draw upon his experience at China Grill to create daily specials.

Lunch and dinner will be served seven days a week at the Salamander Bar and Grill, and plans are afoot to add breakfast.

Cooking Classes

Silvia Lehrer's Cookhampton classes will continue this week at her house on Oliver's Cove Lane in Water Mill. John DeLucie, the executive chef of the Bridgehampton Cafe, will lead a demonstration class Tuesday from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. for $60.

Mr. DeLucie will show students how to prepare cured gravlax with grappa, creme fraiche, and caper berries, grilled local striped bass with melon salsa, and shortbread with seasonal berries. Roman Roth, the winemaker at SagPond Vineyards in Sagaponack, will match wines with the menu, which students will be able to consume at the end of the evening.

Knowledge Devoured

A class scheduled for this past Tuesday with Kevin Penner of Della Femina restaurant in East Hampton was rescheduled for Aug. 5. Ms. Lehrer is teaching her own class tonight on do-ahead Asian grill recipes, and next Thursday will teach a sold-out class focusing on fish specialties.

Victor Vieira, the executive chef at Savanna's restaurant in South ampton, will continue his weekly Thursday afternoon cooking classes. Today beginning at noon, Mr. Vieira's students can learn to make salad di caprese with roasted peppers, escargot in puff pastry, seafood risotto, and key lime pie with baked meringue. The class, which costs $50, is followed by the meal itself.

The foods prepared in Kristi Hood's next cooking class also will be enjoyed by the students who helped prepare it. The $70 class, on Monday and Tuesday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., will feature marinated olives, a salad of poached egg and fresh spinach with a mushroom vinaigrette, poached chicken breast with chive sauce, and open apple tart. The class will meet at the Mill House Inn in East Hampton, but Ms. Hood can be reached at her house in East Hampton to register.

The Station Bistro in Water Mill will offer a three-course meal inspired by Provence tonight for $24. The restaurant offers a prix-fixe of foods from various French provinces each Wednesday and Thursday night.

Also:

The 1770 House in East Hampton will host a dinner to benefit East End Hospice and the East End AIDS Wellness Project on Friday, July 25. More details can be found elsewhere in this section of The Star.

Also in East Hampton, the Maidstone Arms will begin serving dinner a half-hour early, at 5:30 p.m., on Saturdays. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week.

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton Village is serving lunch on Saturdays and Sundays only now, from noon to 3:30 p.m., although dinner continues seven nights a week. A "Rowdy Hour" is now offered at the restaurant's bar Monday through Friday from 4:30 to 6 p.m., with $3 drafts, $3 for well drinks, and homemade snacks.

Italian Inspiration

Homemade pastry items are now available at Jerry and David's Red Horse Market in East Hampton. The market's new pastry chef, Laura Donnelly, is baking a variety of fruit pies, cobblers, and tarts.

Ms. Donnelly, a contributor to The Star, once taught Italian cooking at the Peter Kump Cooking School, worked as the pastry chef at the Firehook Bakery in Washington, D.C., and was sous chef under Colin Ambrose at Estia in Amagansett before coming to the Red Horse Market.

A two-for-one special on selected entrees is available Wednesdays at Chili Peppers in Sag Harbor. Also, some dishes with a little Italian inspiration are being added to the menu, like chicken marsala, steamed mussels in marinara sauce, and broccoli and shrimp over pasta.

La Bonne Soupe

Jean-Paul Picot, the owner and chef of Manhattan's La Bonne Soupe and the co-author of a cookbook by that same name, will be on hand at Palmer Vineyards in Aquebogue Sunday. Mr. Picot will demonstrate some of his cooking techniques and also sign copies of his book.

Doris Tobias, a food and wine authority and Mr. Picot's co-author, will be on hand as well to sign copies of the book, answer questions, and match food with Palmer wines. Admission is free and the doors will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The three-year-old dispute be tween the "60 Minutes" producer Don Hewitt and Telemark Construction, one of the area's oldest and most recognized building firms, made its way to the Southampton Town Home Improvement Licensing Review Board last week.

At stake at the well-attended two-hour hearing on July 9 was Telemark's reputation as well as the company's license to operate in Southampton. Mr. Hewitt is seeking to have the license suspended or revoked for what he alleged was questionable work and billing on a $650,000 renovation of his Bridgehampton house, dating back to 1993.

Settlement Talks

The dispute between the television producer and the 43-year-old building company had been fought out in State Supreme Court before last week's hearing, with Telemark seeking $29,000 it claims Mr. Hewitt still owes on the renovation, and Mr. Hewitt seeking $1.4 million in a countersuit.

A Supreme Court judge dismissed Mr. Hewitt's countersuit last year, but did not block his ability to bring the matter before the Licensing Review Board. Telemark had argued vehemently that the Review Board was not the proper forum for the dispute. The board called the hearing and entertained Mr. Hewitt's complaint, nonetheless.

There was an 11th-hour effort to settle the dispute and eliminate the need for the hearing. Lawyers for both sides spent well over an hour before the morning hearing attempting to reach an accord, but emerged empty-handed.

Hewitt's Charges

When the hearing did begin, Christopher Kelley, a lawyer representing Mr. Hewitt, told the Review Board that Telemark had failed to complete the job on deadline, had left work unfinished, and had added $38,000 onto the original bill for extras Mr. Hewitt argued he had never ordered.

Among those extras, said Mr. Hewitt, was nearly $3,000 for tree protection, "which I never, ever ordered," and an extra $7,500 for a dumping fee, a charge that was set at a fixed rate of $10,000 in the contract. There was no change-work order for the latter, he argued.

Aside from those contentions, Mr. Hewitt's complaint also centers on a kitchen exhaust system installed during the renovation. Though it was not discovered until after a certificate of compliance had been issued by the Southampton Town Building Department on the house, town officials have said the system could become a fire hazard, since it vented the stove into a basement crawl space, rather than outside the house. Mr. Hewitt was left to correct the situation at his own expense, he contends.

Job "Abandoned"

"They abandoned the job without doing what they told me they were going to do and left me with a condition Paul Houlihan [chief building inspector] said was a violation," Mr. Hewitt said when he finally took the stand.

Who had installed the exhaust system became an issue in the Supreme Court case. Mr. Kelley told the board that Frank Dalene, Telemark's president, had first denied putting the system in, then changed his testimony, saying Telemark had installed it.

John Bennett of Southampton, the lawyer for Telemark, charged that Mr. Hewitt and his wife, Marilyn Berger, as well as the architect on the renovation had been "advised of the situation."

Mr. Bennett argued again that the case should not be before the Review Board.

Homeowner With Clout

"At the very best there's a dispute over how the kitchen fan came to be installed and how it was installed," he said, calling the issue "the tail wagging this unnecessarily large dog." He asserted that the real dispute was over money, not Telemark's reputation or workmanship.

"The difference here," said Mr. Bennett, "is you have a homeowner with considerable media clout who lost in Supreme Court, and because of that is bringing his campaign of harassment to this board. . . . It's merely Don Hewitt's intent not to pay his contractor. It's outrageous he is here besmirching this reputable company's name because he doesn't want to pay his bills."

Though Telemark took out a $29,000 lien on the house last year for money it claims it is owed, Mr. Hewitt said the outstanding balance amounts to only $4,500, which he kept in escrow because of some minor problems with the renovation.

Previous Disputes

"If I spend $650,000 on a renovation, I should be able to lock my back door," he said at the hearing. Disputing the extra charges, he pointed specifically to the $7,500 extra for dumping. "That one item alone is testament that the $29,000 lien is a fraud."

Mr. Bennett put Mr. Hewitt to the test in a lengthy cross-examination, which brought up two previous renovations on the house that he said involved monetary disputes with contractors. Mr. Hewitt acknowledged he had gone to arbitration to settle matters with his last contractor, but that he had no problem with the first.

Mr. Bennett also pressed Mr. Hewitt on whether he found Telemark's renovation overall to be satisfactory, despite the ventilation issue and billing discrepancies.

"I would have difficulty in saying the workmanship didn't turn out satisfactorily," Mr. Hewitt responded.

Arrows On Door

During the Supreme Court case, another homeowner's experiences with Telemark were brought into the proceedings. Caroline Hirsch, owner of a popular Manhattan comedy club, had hired Telemark for a $2 million renovation to her Water Mill house, also in 1993. The project also wound up in a dispute over money - Telemark secured a $215,000 lien on the house.

One day, Ms. Hirsch told police, she discovered three arrows stuck into her front door and a note on the property reading "Pay your bills, the natives are restless."

There was never any evidence linking the arrows to Telemark, and the company denied having any involvement in the incident.

Though Mr. Kelley and Mr. Hewitt tried to bring Ms. Hirsch's experiences with Telemark into their testimony, they were cut off by the Review Board's counsel, David Gilmartin, who said without a formal complaint to the board from Ms. Hirsch, the hearing should focus only on Mr. Hewitt's house.

Mr. Bennett said it would be "scandalous, prejudicial, and outrageous" to allow discussion of the Hirsch case, especially the arrow incident and its unfounded link to Telemark, at the board's hearing.

After more than two hours of testimony, the board opted to adjourn and resume the proceeding on Wednesday at 9 a.m. at Town Hall.

Dispatcher Relays Aid For Choking Baby

It was a mother's worst nightmare.

"My baby is turning blue," a panicking Ann Casey, the mother of 2- 1/2-month-old Christopher, told the person who answered her 911 emergency call Friday afternoon. "Can you please send somebody now?"

The frantic call from a Georgica Woods Road house was greeted with the calm and experience of Mary Ellen McMahon, an East Hampton Village public safety dispatcher.

Ms. McMahon, assisted by a fellow dispatcher, Joan Jacobs, helped Ms. Casey and her 21-year-old babysitter, Kerri Ann Tolan, keep their wits about them and keep Christopher breathing while waiting for police and ambulance personnel. The infant, who has a history of problems with breathing and swallowing, was choking on formula.

Relayed Directions

In a nine-minute-long conversation, Ms. McMahon, who has training as a critical care emergency medgency medical dispatching and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, relayed directions to the mother, which were then relayed to the babysitter. Meanwhile, Ms. Jacobs immediately put out the call for an ambulance and handled other incoming calls.

"They're on their way, ma'am, they're on their way," Ms. McMahon can be heard assuring Ms. Casey during the dramatic 911 call. "I need you to calm down so you can help [Christopher] breathe."

Ms. McMahon instructed them in aided breathing and back blows to open Christopher's airway to keep him alive until police and an E.M.T. arrived.

Back Home

At one point, the faint sound of the baby crying, indicating the airway had been at least partly opened, can be heard on the tape. "Good, that's good," Ms. McMahon responded.

And when the mother conveyed that her son had turned from blue to white, Ms. McMahon assured her, "Okay, that's a lot better than blue."

An E.M.T., Mary Mott, and Town Police Officer John Anderson arrived before the ambulance and brought Christopher to Southampton Hospital in a patrol car.

Calming The Frantic

The good news is that Christopher is okay. After spending the weekend in the hospital, he is back home in East Hampton.

"Keeping them calm is probably the hardest part" of her job, Ms. McMahon said in an interview Tuesday. Equally difficult, however, is not being there and being able to see the situation for oneself.

With 13 years of volunteer service with the Sag Harbor Ambulance Corps behind her, Ms. McMahon's instincts automatically kick in.

"I can't visually see what's going on," Ms. McMahon said. "I depend on the person I'm talking to to draw me a picture." That's not always easy, however, since many callers are agitated and get flustered.

Grateful To All

Ms. Casey expressed gratitude this week to everyone involved in helping her infant son, from her babysitter to the dispatchers to the police and E.M.T. to the emergency room personnel at Southampton Hospital and Dr. Mark Garabedian, a pediatrician there.

"They taught us C.P.R. at the hospital, but you just can't think" when it comes to such a frantic situation, Ms. Casey said. "It was just really, really terrifying. . . . It was like something you see on TV."

The dispatcher "was keeping me calm. . . . It helped me focus," Ms. Casey said, and "helped to save his life."

Ms. Casey also credited the E.M.T. on the scene, Ms. Mott, with recognizing that the situation was too urgent to wait for the ambulance to arrive and the police officer for driving Christopher himself.

"I'm just really, really thankful," Ms. Casey concluded.

First, Elliott Erwitt's photographs, full of wit and the irony of life, make you smile. Then they hit you with their underlying poignancy. And then - particularly because the shots seem so straightforward and casual - they provoke a slew of questions:

How did he see that? How was he always there at the right time? Are the rest of us sleepwalking through life, never noticing what is right under our noses?

Although Mr. Erwitt would never say it himself, the answers to those questions define his unerring visual sense and also explain what makes a good photographer a great one. Instead, he claims that his shyness, which he was able to conceal behind the protective camouflage of a camera, has helped him, together with endless curiosity and a sharp eye for human comedy.

Ideas, he says, have little to do with photography - it's the moment, an instant when it all comes together.

You Never Know

"But you never know what you're going to get until you see the contacts. What you see happening in front of you and what you get in the photograph can be completely different," said Mr. Erwitt.

"There are times when you think you've done terribly well," he said, but the finished photo disappoints. And there are other occasions when a photograph of nothing much turns out be just the one - the great shot. Mr. Erwitt made some of his best prints, he said, from photographs taken 20 years ago, when, looking back over the contact sheets, he suddenly discovered something new.

"It must have been there all the time," he said, "but I couldn't see it then." Since the photos obviously didn't change in the intervening years, the two decades must have brought a change in his way of looking.

World Traveler

The photographer is apparently at home anyplace in the world. Some of his better-known pictures are of an outdoor confessional in Poland, a boys' street band in Mexico, strippers in Las Vegas, little old ladies in St. Tropez, a wedding in Siberia, nudists in England, tourists in Italy, and dogs just about everywhere.

"Travel is good in that it gets you out of a rut," he said. "You get into the middle of situations, or on the surface of them, anyway, which is useful for photography - where things are what they seem, though not necessarily what they are."

"But," he added, "I'm getting a little tired of constantly traveling." In the last three months, Mr. Erwitt, who speaks four languages, has been around the world twice and to Europe three times.

Hollywood High

If he has adapted to almost continuous travel in a way most people couldn't, it's because he has had a lifetime of practice. He was born Elio Romano Ervitz in Paris, the child of Russian emigres who fled the Revolution. He spent his first 10 years in Italy, but politics, this time Fascism, again uprooted the family and in 1938 his father carried him off to Los Angeles.

He went to Hollywood High School, where his first camera was an antique glass-plate, and Los Angeles City College, where he bought a Rolleiflex and got a job in a darkroom printing movie stars' photographs.

But he couldn't wait to get out of Southern California. His father was by then living in New Orleans, and young Elliott had been pretty much supporting himself from the age of 15, so in the mid-'40s he took off for New York City.

"It wasn't the Big Apple then, but it was the only place to be."

Capa And Steichen

Mr. Erwitt found a job working with Roy Stryker and the Farm Security Administration on a photographic project about the rebuilding of Pittsburgh. He met Edward Steichen, who arranged his first commercial job, and Robert Capa, who had started a little agency, which he called Magnum.

Mr. Capa asked Mr. Erwitt to join. But it was 1951, the time of the Korean War, and Mr. Erwitt was called up. Extensive testing indicated he should become an antiaircraft gunner, but he was made a darkroom assistant with a Signal Corps photo company instead, and assigned to Europe rather than Korea.

"I've always been lucky," said Mr. Erwitt. "The Army was my first steady job. I liked it."

His first professional recognition came while he was still in service. A photo of his called "Bed and Boredom," of a private lying on his bunk, won a $1,500 Life magazine contest. Mr. Erwitt bought a little car with the money and named it "Thank you, Henry," for Henry Luce, Life's publisher.

He had been in touch with Capa while he was in Paris, and "20 minutes after leaving the Army, I signed up with Magnum." He has freelanced with the agency ever since.

Mr. Erwitt enjoys his commercial work - big advertising jobs, usually with British or Japanese advertising agencies. "They pay well and I generally get the good ones to do with people, travel, and actuality. I get hired for believable pictures - even if they're set up, they're still believable."

Then there are the photographs he has taken while on journalistic assignments - Marilyn Monroe on location, Jackie Kennedy at her husband's funeral, or the particularly famous one of Nixon jabbing Khrushchev in the chest.

An Accomplice

Mr. Erwitt invariably has an exhibit in one city or another. His latest is a show of 101 large-scale prints in Verona, Italy, in an ancient building containing Roman ruins, and another recently with his New York City gallery, Edwyn Houk.

For his professional work he uses color and an arsenal of equipment, including a large-view camera, but for his own work he uses only black and white, usually with a 50-mm lens, sometimes a 90-mm.

He let slip one trade secret about how he gets those completely relaxed, unposed pictures - he uses an accomplice, preferably of the opposite sex.

"Stand the decoy between yourself and your real goal," he said, and "pretend to take her picture; shoot between her ear and her shoulder with a 200 mm lens while directly facing your target."

"To The Dogs"

The photographer commented that he had been amazed at the escalation in value of photographic prints, including his own, in the last decade, noting that an early Kertesz postcard had sold for $250,000 just the other day.

Mr. Erwitt's work has been published in a number of books, among them "Personal Exposures," "Between the Sexes," "On the Beach," and "To the Dogs." In a field of publishing notorious for single printings, "Personal Exposures," for instance, is in its fifth and has been translated into Spanish, French, Japanese, and German.

"To the Dogs" is also the name of a benefit art show tomorrow from 5 to 8 p.m. for the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons at the Lizan Tops Gallery in East Hampton. The show, for which the 5 to 8 p.m. benefit is a preview, includes 16 of Mr. Erwitt's large-scale photos.

Sammy, Not Rolling

In the twists and turns of a complicated marital history, Mr. Erwitt, who has been coming to the East End for 35 years, was interviewed by the pool in the same East Hampton house he lost in his last divorce settlement and then regained. (He has been married three times and has six children: Ellen, Misha, David, Jennifer, Sasha, and Amy.)

Sammy, a cairn terrier who travels everywhere but England with his master, bounded out from a bed of lavender where Mr. Erwitt's companion, Pia Frankenberg, was gardening, to demonstrate that dogs don't always make cooperative subjects.

Sammy, it seems, rolls over on command. On this occasion, of course, he just stared stolidly in front of him and pretended he hadn't heard. But as soon as Jonny, Ms. Frankenberg's son, brought out a cookie, Sammy started rolling like a little sausage before any command was given at all. It made the visitor appreciate the patience, quick response, and luck that must have gone into creating an entire book of hilarious dog pictures.

Mr. Erwitt, however, says his way of getting a reaction from a dog is to bark at it. Signs of his laconic sense of humor crop up around the house - in two life-size figures of military policemen outside the front door and a large Statue of Liberty in the back- yard, for instance.

He is currently working on a book about "museum watching," compiling amusing pictures taken over many decades as a confirmed museum visitor in whatever city he finds himself. "If I can settle down a bit, it'll be ready for the Frankfurt Book Fair," he said.

Mr. Erwitt enjoys it when his photos make people laugh and, while he doesn't aim for it, thinks that to make them laugh and cry is the supreme goal.

"The work I care about is terribly simple. I observe, I try to entertain, but above all I want pictures that are emotional. Little else interests me in photography."

The Sag Harbor Main Street site that was a bright yellow, soi-disant Catalan restaurant last year now has white walls, warm lamps, and the hometown food and friendliness of the Abruzzi region of Italy.

Serafina, named for the owner's grandmother, looks European and welcoming on a warm summer evening, with suntanned customers eating at a couple of sidewalk tables or having a drink at the polished wood bar inside.

No Ribeye?

The restaurant has a very Italian atmosphere - the staff members seem expansively Italian, even when they're not, and offer thoughtful little services, like explaining that the fra diavolo dish could be served as spicy as a diner wished and happily substituting olive oil for butter.

One of our company ordered a boneless ribeye steak. A waiter returned with an uncooked T-bone on a plate and offered it as substitute with the news that the chef "has decided that he cannot serve the ribeye this evening."

How exciting and temperamental that sounded! When we asked why that was that so, the waiter said, "Who knows? The chef is crazy, like all chefs."

Pinned down, he reluctantly conceded that, its being late on Sunday, all the ribeyes were gone. But his story certainly sounded better.

Over-Generous

Appetizers at Serafina range from $6 to $10 and include some of the lightest, crispest calamari around, including the lovely tentacle bits, served with two sauces.

The most interesting appetizer was a polenta cake with a wild mushroom ragout. It is perhaps a rather rich and over-generous starter for a warm summer evening, but it was unreservedly delicious.

There was a nice antipasto of prosciutto, soppressata, and provolone with cracked olives and homemade roasted red peppers and marinated eggplant and two salads which were refreshing and first rate.

The tomato salad came with mozzarella and prosciutto and basil-flavored oil and the "tricolore" salad was pungent and satisfying, made of very fresh endive, arugula, and radicchio with walnuts and a balsamic vinaigrette.

Moderate Range

Prices for entrees, ranging from $12 for a pasta dish to about $24, are moderate for the South Fork. There is a generous selection of specials daily.

On this particular evening, the winning dish was the capellini pescatorese, which came with large shrimp and scallops in a delicate and delightful tomato-based sauce, surrounded by a ring of local mussels.

Also a winner was another pasta dish - rigatoni Abruzzese with a veal, pork, lamb, and beef tomato sauce. My heart sank when I saw it, as it always does at the sight of that giant pasta that looks like plumber's offcuts, but my fears were groundless. Somehow, Serafina's rigatoni were light, and the sauce, which sounded intimidating, was excellent.

Huge Portions

The grilled T-bone and the Sicilian-style veal cutlets were huge and flavorful. They were served with fresh spinach and a helping of very good smashed potatoes.

Vitello Aida, veal medallions sauteed with fontina and prosciutto with sage, was another tasty, hearty dish that will be even better when Sag Harbor sinks into the doldrums of winter and you need some comforting solace.

Unfortunately, the halibut had taken that 50-second leap into the overcooked zone and also was rather too salty.

Criticisms

The varied wine list has white wines from $14 to $38 and reds from $14 to $63. We chose a delightful crisp Angoris pinot grigio at $21 and, at the same price, a South African cabernet sauvignon/merlot called Lost Horizons. It came in a blue bottle and was okay but not brilliant.

Criticisms might include the fact that the portions are almost too generous (not a criticism for some, I know) and that on this occasion the fresh fried garlic in the spinach had been scorched, giving a bitter taste.

Also, and at the risk of repeating myself, Serafina, like another restaurant reviewed recently, is too noisy. Maybe the new owners will take a little advice and do something about the acoustics of the place once they have settled in.

We tried three desserts - a carrot cake, which was fine, cannoli, which were fine, and a tiramisu, which was completely unexpected. It came in the form of a slice of cake, but was featherlight, not too sweet, and a good way to finish a Serafina meal - if you have any room.

All in all, it looks as if Sag Harbor has snagged itself another good, and good value, restaurant.