Opus One Winery Dinner

Sunday is the night for a wine dinner at Wolffer Kitchen in Sag Harbor featuring vintages from the Opus One winery of California, along with offerings from the Wolffer Estate of Sagaponack. Beginning at 5:30 p.m., the dinner costs $257.25 per person, which includes tax and tip.

Trump Travel Dinner

The politically defiant and culinarily adventuresome are making reservations now for a wine dinner at Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton on April 19 that will feature dishes from the countries President Donald Trump has targeted in his executive order on immigration. Jason Weiner, Almond’s chef and owner, is joining with Bridgehampton’s Channing Daughters Winery for the dinner of five courses, each to be paired with a pink wine from the winery. 

The cost is $85 plus tax and gratuity, or $80 for members of Slow Food East End or the Channing Daughters Wine Club.

Ina Garten’s Way

Ina Garten, who owned the Barefoot Contessa gourmet grocery in East Hampton before establishing a brand by that name, issuing cookbooks and creating a food show on television, has a new instruction series in the works called “Cook Like a Pro.” It will premiere on the Food Network next month.

For the Seder

Stuart’s Seafood Market in Amagansett will have gefilte fish and other Passover specialties this week and next. The shop will be closed on April 16 and reopen on April 18.

On Easter Sunday 

Making plans for Easter? Among the holiday dining options is a special Easter Sunday dinner to be served at the 1770 House in East Hampton beginning at 4:30 p.m. It will feature Easter specials as well as items from the restaurant’s spring a la carte menu. Entree choices will include applewood smoked ham, dry-rubbed rack of lamb, and slow-cooked prime rib, with accompaniments.

Elsewhere in East Hampton, Nick and Toni’s will serve brunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dinner beginning at 6. The regular a la carte menu will be available in addition to specials such as seared diver sea scallops with a sweet potato puree and pea tendrils, rack of lamb with morel mushrooms, spring onion, and fava bean ragu, and a pavlova with strawberries.

The Highway restaurant and bar also in East Hampton, will serve brunch from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with specials such as a Norwegian smoked salmon board with pickles and toasted pumpernickel, rack of lamb with mint tahina and spring pea quinoa, French toast with Vermont maple syrup, and a cocktail called the Shaddock, with gin, Aperol, St. Germain, and lemon. The restaurant’s chef is also preparing handmade chocolate bunnies for $25.

At Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor, an Easter brunch and specials will be served from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. The restaurant will host two Easter egg hunts on its lawn, at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Bostwick’s Reopens 

Those hankering for a basket of fried clams and a beer or a more composed entree of fresh and local seafood can take heart. Bostwick’s Chowder House in East Hampton will open today for the season and will be open for lunch and dinner Thursdays through Sundays beginning at 11:30 a.m. The menu includes steamed clams as well as fried, lobster, shrimp, oysters, fish tacos, and other treats from the sea, along with salads, hamburgers, and chicken.

For Food Managers

The Amagansett Food Institute is offering a course in food handling for county certification on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the South Fork Kitchen restaurant on the Stony Brook Southampton campus. A test for the certificate will follow immediately after the class.

The fee is $175, or $155 for institute members and employees. Nonmembers will need to drop off a $20 deposit at the kitchen or mail it to P.O. Box 2611, Amagansett 11930. 

Coffee and water will be served in the morning, but participants have been advised to bring a lunch and a check for the fee, a valid photo identification card, and a pen and paper. Questions can be addressed to [email protected].

South American Wines

A focus on South American wines will result in tastings of Argentinean and Chilean wines at the next wine education session at Park Place Wines and Liquors in East Hampton on Wednesday. The hourlong session, which is free, begins at 5:30 p.m. Those interested have been asked to R.S.V.P. by calling the shop.

Reservations are a must for the first annual “whole animal, cured, pickled, fermented, and preserved things” beer dinner to be held at Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton on March 1. Jeremy Blutstein, the chef at East by Northeast in Montauk, is teaming up with Almond’s chef, Jason Weiner, to create a five-course tasting menu. Each course will be paired with beers from the Montauk Brewing Company, which is co-hosting the event. The cost is $80 per person, plus tax and gratuity.

Wines of France

Red wines from southern France will be the focus at the next in a series of weekly wine classes at Park Place Wines and Liquors in East Hampton. The shop’s sommeliers, Lisa Schock and Chris Miller, will discuss wines from France’s Provence, Languedoc-Roussillon, and southwest regions, and present up to five vintages for tasting. The sessions — on Wednesdays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. — are free, but reservations have been requested. Italian wines will be up next, on March 1. 

Dopo La Spiaggia

31 Race Lane

East Hampton

631-658-9063

Dinner nightly 

I have been a fan of Tutto Il Giorno, now Dopo La Spiaggia (“after the beach”), in Sag Harbor for years. I don’t patronize it frequently because it is a wee bit expensive, but it is cozy and charming, with a view of Bay Street and the marina. Now Dopo La Spiaggia has opened at the old Laundry (later the Lodge and Race Lane) space in East Hampton. 

This place is also near and dear to my heart because I was the pastry chef at the Laundry for many years, many years ago. The Norman Jaffe-designed interior is dramatic, with soaring ceiling, huge beams, and a welcoming fireplace. During the years I worked there, there was a Bill King sculpture of the owner, Leif Hope, inside, and the original washer from an actual laundry once on site was used as a planter on the patio. 

The bones of the design are still there, but a lot has changed. The walls are a gray-painted grasscloth, there are dramatic, modern, hanging light fixtures, and the low wall dividing the bar from the dining area has twinkly-lighted pussy willow branches for added sparkle. Upon entering there is the long bar to the right, seating by the bar, and long banquettes and tables to the left. Behind the fireplace one can find somewhat quieter, more private tables.

On a recent visit the place was packed, a wonderful sight in the dead of winter. Is it worth it? You bet!

After being seated we got a basket of good, plain, crusty bread with a dish of deliciously fruity, green olive oil. For starters we ordered the tuna tartare, scallop crudo, and a brussels sprouts Caesar salad. All of them were absolutely marvelous and beautifully presented. 

The tuna tartare was a cyclindrical mound of cubed tuna, tartly dressed, on top of paper-thin slices of cucumber. A swirl of parsley puree, some avocado on top, cress sprouts, and a sprinkling of black salt, possibly Hawaiian lava salt (!) on the plate, completed the dish. The scallop crudo was a dainty offering, perhaps no more than one or two sea scallops, but it packed a flavorful punch. The slices were adorned with generous dabs of caviar, lemon zest, chives, and a few sprigs of sea beans. The salinity of the briny sea beans and caviar helped emphasize the sweetness of the scallops, with the lemon and a few drops of olive oil giving it all a lovely balance of flavors. 

The brussels sprouts salad was awesome. The sprouts were finely shredded and dressed with an aggressively lemony and anchovy-infused dressing. That’s a compliment, by the way. There are far too many wimpy, creamy, cheesy Caesars out in the world. The addition of toasted pine nuts throughout the salad added a buttery crunch.

For entrees we tried the black bass, ravioli, and a pasta special. F.Y.I., most of the pastas are made in house and they are divine. The black bass was perfectly prepared, a super-crispy skin-on filet served on a bed of sauteed purple kale, chewy farro, chanterelle mushrooms, and visible (but tamed) slivers of garlic. The ravioli dish was seven delicate pillows filled with shiitake mushrooms with a wonderful ragu mounded in the middle. Umami city. 

The special pasta of the evening was (I think) cavatelli-shaped pasta with braised fennel, sausage, and cannelini beans, another winner. It was hearty and light at the same time. We couldn’t figure out what kind of sausage it was, but it was similar to cotechino, tender and fatty.

The service on the night of our visit was excellent. Our waiter, Ryan (full disclosure), worked at the Living Room in East Hampton when I was pastry chef there. I don’t think he knew about my other job writing restaurant reviews for The Star. The delivery of drinks and our food was slow but that was the bar and the kitchen, not our waiter. He was all over everything, and when we peppered him with questions he came back with answers from the chef A.S.A.P. There was also a manager on site who was exceptionally active, moving among the tables and making sure everything was hunky dory.

Prices are high at Dopo La Spiaggia but worth it. It may have been our imagination, but it seemed that the portion sizes at this Race Lane location are a bit more generous than at the Bay Street spot. The chef and co-owner, Maurizio Marfoglia, is in charge at both restaurants, but there was something about the presentation of the food at Race Lane that was particularly special and beautiful. Prices are $16 to $23 for appetizers, $23 to $28 for pastas, $31 to $40 for other main dishes, $13 for sides, and $12 to $15 for desserts.

For desserts, mostly made in house, we ordered the tiramisu, flourless chocolate cake, and “Dreamy” ice cream. The tiramisu was super-fresh and quite good, but we all agreed it did not have a real jolt from espresso or booze like it should. The flourless chocolate cake was a good version of this classic. It was made with high quality chocolate, was very moist, and was served with some swirls of white chocolate ganache. Locals in the know will recognize the name “Dreamy” ice cream — it is the perfect marriage between Sylvester’s of Sag Harbor’s Dreamy coffee turned into ice cream with chocolate-covered almonds by Joe and Liza Tremblay of Bay Burger.

People always seem to be more amused, almost delighted, when they read a brutal or snarky review in this column. That makes me kind of sad. When I can write a glowing review about a new(ish) restaurant, well, that just makes my heart sing.

It’s that time of year again, when diners at Rowdy Hall, in addition to submitting their orders, can submit their own Oscar night ballots with their predictions for winners of the golden statues to be awarded on Sunday. 

Whoever submits the ballot with the largest number of actual winners will win the East Hampton restaurant’s contest and receive a $50 gift certificate along with two vouchers for the East Hampton movie theater. Rowdy serves lunch, dinner, and a “midday” meal from 3 to 5 p.m. daily. 

Rowdy Hall is also the spot for lunchtime meetings of BookHampton’s Rowdy Readers Book Club. The group will meet the first Thursday of March, April, May, and June, with discussions over lunch to be led by a BookHampton staffer. Those who purchase all four of the books at BookHampton get a 15-percent discount. The first to be discussed, next Thursday at 12:30 p.m., will be “The Glorious Heresies” by Lisa McInerney. 

Wine Dinner at Wolffer

Roman Roth, the Wolffer Estate winemaker, will lead diners through a tasting of the Sagaponack winery’s cabernet franc vintages paired with a five-course dinner prepared by Brian Cheewing on Sunday beginning at 5:30 p.m. According to the vineyard, the best vintages here of cabernet franc produce “one of the most exciting and interesting Long Island wines.” 

The menu will begin with roasted beet carpaccio followed by seared diver scallops, braised lamb ravioli, and Long Island duck confit. Blood orange cheesecake will follow. The wines to be served have been handpicked by Mr. Roth after they’ve aged for years in the wine cellar.

Tickets are $109.33 person, which includes tax and gratuity. For additional information, emails can be sent to [email protected].

Beer Dinner

Wednesday brings the First Annual Whole Animal Cured, Pickled, Fermented, and Preserved Things Beer Dinner to Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton. Jason Weiner, Almond’s chef, is collaborating with Jeremy Blutstein, the chef at Montauk’s East by Northeast, to create five courses to be paired with Montauk Brewing Company beers. The cost is $80 plus tax and gratuity.

When I wake up in the middle of the night I usually begin to fantasize about palominos.I Google palominos for sale and imagine the fun of owning one. This insomniac behavior can last for hours. Sometimes I research vintage Airstream trailers, because, well, they’re pretty to look at. The Bambi model, measuring a mere 16 feet and built from 1961 to 1964, is the most totes adorbs!

But if I wake up fantasizing about a particular kind of food, watch out. Something is bound to happen. Last year, it was Szechuan dumplings — fat, silky pillows filled with porky bits or shrimp, swimming in an oily, spicy chili sauce. Upon researching where I could find the closest decent dumpling (one and a half hours away), I realized that spending that much time in the car just to satisfy a craving was madness. 

“You’re a cook, you should be able to figure out how to make them,” was my internal scold. And, with the Lucky Peach cookbook I did. Store-bought wonton wrappers, ground pork mixed with scallions and ginger, and a few tweaks to the “China Moon Cookbook” chili oil, which lives in my fridge, et voila. Now I have little plastic baggies filled with dumplings in my freezer, ready for any occasion — or obsessive craving.

Next was something called papri chaat or papdi chaat, an Indian street food snack with many variations. Basically, it is papdi dough cut into little circles and fried. I skip this step and use store-bought papadums. These are topped with a mixture of diced boiled potatoes, chickpeas, chopped onions, and tomatoes, and then drizzled with several chutneys, usually cilantro and either tamarind or mango. The final touches are a few spoonfuls of thinned yogurt and a sprinkling of sev, which are crunchy little fried chickpea noodles. The whole thing is light, healthy, and colorful, crunchy, spicy, sweet, and sour. It’s fun to lay out the ingredients for guests, like a taco bar, and let them have at it.

For a while, okonomiyaki was my favorite esoteric dish to make. I have written about it before; it is essentially a Japanese pancake made with cabbage, bound with eggs, and filled with anything from octopus to pork belly, seasoned with lots of scallions and pickled ginger, then topped with okono­miyaki sauce (similar to Worcestershire except a bit sweet and thicker) and a drizzle of Kewpie mayonnaise. For this recipe I fiddled around with some I found online and once again used a Lucky Peach version as a template.  

Another surprise I like to spring on people is kimchi pancakes. They’re kind of like Korean latkes. Kimchi, fermented cabbage (and sometimes radish), is one of the super foods of the moment because it contains healthy bacteria, lactobacilli, along with plenty of vitamins A, B, and C. It is salty and spicy, good as a condiment, side dish, or incorporated into stews, folded into scrambled eggs or fried rice, you name it.

After a good deal of experimentation, I settled upon a brand available at King Kullen called Chonnga. I like this one because it isn’t too spicy, and once it is combined with the other ingredients it has just the right balance of flavors. The pancakes can be a side dish, a snack, part of an all-vegetarian meal, and they freeze and reheat beautifully.

My latest obsession is XO sauce, a Chinese condiment that supposedly was invented in the 1980s. It is named XO after cognac, not because it contains cognac but because the ingredients are almost as expensive. Its expensive ingredients are dried scallops and dried shrimp. The first time I tried XO sauce was at Dim Sum GoGo on the border of Chinatown in New York City. There is always a tiny dish of XO on the table there, along with a little dish of ginger-scallion condiment. The XO sauce at Dim Sum GoGo is salty and a bit chewy, but not fishy. I purchased a commercial brand and it was overpoweringly fishy and nasty. Time for more research!

The first recipe I came across was again from the folks who write for Lucky Peach, via their latest book, “Power Vegetables!” This recipe had only a small amount of dried shrimp and scallops and included sesame oil, sugar, chipotle powder, and almonds. Other recipes had lots of fishy bits, shallots, and sometimes cured, not smoked, ham. In other words, recipes for XO sauce are all over the map. Because it is a bit time-consuming and the ingredients aren’t cheap, I decided to consult a chef buddy who is an expert on Chinese foods, Kevin Penner. Coincidentally, he recommended this exact recipe.

I was still wanting to find a recipe that used ham, because I’m pretty sure the Dim Sum GoGo version has ham in it. When I found an older recipe, from David Chang’s Momofuku restaurant, I decided this could be the one. It has a whopping two ounces each of the shrimp and scallops to yield a mere cup of savory sauce. Warning!

Being a true Southern gal, I already had a slab of country ham in the freezer, which is an adequate substitute for Jinhua, the dry-cured Chinese ham called for in some XO recipes. Everything is ground up individually in a food processor, then fried low and slow for about 45 minutes. The mixture looked like the beginnings of scrapple, and my house stunk to high heaven, but in kind of an uber-umami way. The final product is actually kind of dry looking and brown, as if your mom forgot about the sloppy joe hamburger on the stove for a couple of hours.

I’m kind of moderately pleased with this first foray into XO sauceland. It will be good (in small doses) on brown rice, plain rice noodles, shredded daikon radish, sugar snap peas, and, as Mr. Chang recommends, any seafood with high sugar content like scallops, shellfish, and squid. But I’m going to keep trying until it tastes like the version I crave.

Obsession and insomnia are not necessarily bad things. Sometimes they can lead to great discoveries and accomplishments. Even if you can’t go to India to sample papdi chaat or Korea for kimchi and China for XO, your own kitchen can take you to far-flung lands and teach you about exotic flavors.

Click for recipes

The Montauk Brewing Company has been growing by leaps and bounds, it seems, and recently got some positive attention for its Driftwood Ale. Competing against beers from many breweries from across the United States, the brew won a gold medal in the India pale ale or English-style pale ale category at the 2017 Best of Craft Beer Awards in Bend, Ore., in late January.

Soup’s On

The soup pots will be simmering on Saturday at Scoville Hall in Amagansett for the eighth annual soup and chili dinner sponsored by the deacons of the Amagansett Presybterian Church. Twenty-two East End restaurants or food purveyors, along with church members, will provide the eats. They include Mary’s Marvelous, Sen, Nick and Toni’s, Estia’s Little Kitchen, Harbor Grill, Bostwick’s, Brent’s, the Mill House Inn, Dopo La Spiaggia, Stuart’s Seafood, the Palm, Simply Sublime, and the Hedges Inn. 

Supper, which will include a choice of soups, chilis, and breads in a newly designed mug, will be served from 5 to 7 p.m. and cost $15 for adults and $7 for children. Desserts by A Kitchen for Liam will be for sale. 

The event, which will include music and a 50-50 raffle, represents the first church-sponsored dinner to be held in the new Scoville Hall, which was rebuilt by the church after a fire. 

Ladies Night

The monthly ladies night at c/o the Maidstone inn is coming right up, as it occurs on the first Tuesday of each month. The evening features a chance to network in the lounge and includes featured guests and shopping opportunities, with a 50-percent discount on food and cocktails from the bar menu from 5 to 8 p.m. 

Sundays With Nonna

A Sunday special at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton includes the restaurant’s version of Nonna’s Sunday sauce, a slow-cooked sauce served over pasta, or spaghetti squash for a gluten-free option. The menu, subject to change, can include the Sunday “gravy,” with chunks of beef, meatballs and sauce, sauce with sausage, brasciole, or lasagna. The cost is $20 per person.

Lucy’s Leaves Chelsea

Lucy’s Whey, the cheese shop formerly of East Hampton and run by Lucy Kazickas of Amagansett, closed its spot at New York City’s Chelsea Market this week. The shop is still open at an Upper East Side location on Lexington Avenue, does catering jobs in the city, and provides cheese platters and other goods to online customers throughout the five boroughs. In summer, from Memorial Day weekend on, Lucy’s Whey cheeses can be found at East Hampton farmers markets. According to a press release, there are plans afoot to find a new Manhattan location downtown. 

Popping Up in Summer

While its primary location undergoes renovations, a New York City restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, will open a summertime pop-up called the EMP Summer House at the Pantigo Road, East Hampton, site that housed Moby’s last summer. The EMP Summer House, according to a press release, will be a more casual version of the city eatery, with “indoor and outdoor spaces, seafood-centric fare, and fun summer vibes,” and will open in late June.

It will be only for American Express cardholders, however — open to reservations only by those with Amex cards, which will be the only payment taken for meals. 

Eleven Madison Park “is one of the top requested restaurants for reservations by American Express Platinum Card members” through the credit card’s Platinum Concierge service, according to the release. Amex is seeking to provide “exclusive access and experiences to card members in the places that matter most to them,” and will collaborate on special events throughout the summer with EMP Summer House. 

Kitchen Open House

Farmers and food producers who wish to learn more about the Amagansett Food Institute’s South Fork Kitchens incubator kitchen, housed at the Stony Brook Southampton student center, will want to mark their calendars for March 15, when there will be an open house at the kitchen from 5 to 7 p.m. 

Food entrepreneurs will have an opportunity to speak with others who currently use, or have used, the space, a fully equipped and licensed commercial kitchen available to East End farmers and food producers. The event is free, but advance registration has been requested by sending an email to [email protected].

On Pinot Noir

This week’s free wine class at Park Place Wines in East Hampton will center on pinots from around the world. It takes place on Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., and a reservation is required.

Taste, Learn in Wainscott

The spring session of tastings and classes at Wainscott Wine and Spirits begins on Wednesday with “The Past and Future of Wine Education: Why We Taste and What We Learn,” presented by Andrew Beti of Wine Symphony, Inc., a co-founder of the American Sommelier Association. 

Sessions, which are fun and informative for all levels, run weekly from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and cost $10, which covers a tasting of six to eight wines a week. Participants are welcome to take cheese or accompaniments for a potluck cheeseboard each week. The March 15 session will center on artisanal and small-batch tequilas. Those interested have been asked to send an email to [email protected], or call the store to sign up.

In an unexpected move, the Meeting House restaurant in Amagansett closed its doors on Sunday. It announced the closing on Facebook on Friday. Word is that Randy Lerner, who owns the restaurant and all of Amagansett Square, where it is located, has made a deal to have Wolffer Kitchen take over the space. Wolffer’s Sag Harbor location is closed until Wednesday for renovations. 

Food Manager Training

The Suffolk County Department of Health Services will give an update on its food protection program at a seminar at its headquarters in Yaphank on Monday. The event, from 10 a.m. to noon, will include information on mobile food safety and on controlling food-borne illness risk factors at food establishments. There will be a question-and-answer session. Additional information is available at the food protection program’s web page on the county’s website at suffolkcounty.ny.gov. 

Kids as Pizza Chefs

Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton is holding pizza-making sessions for kids ages 5 to 12 every Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. For a fee of $10 per participant, children can work with the eatery’s pizza chef to create their own pies. Reservations are required. 

Wine and Liquor Tastings

Departing from the usual focus on wine, Wednesday’s tasting and education session at Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits will focus on stronger spirits. The “Small Batch and Artisanal Agave Tasting: Tequila, Mezcal, Sotol, Oh My!” takes place at 5:30 p.m. and costs $10. Sign-up is by phone or email to [email protected].

A wine-tasting series at Park Place Wines in East Hampton, also on Wednesdays, will present “Sommelier Sweethearts” at the next hourlong session, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the shop. Led by Lisa Schock and Chris Miller, each session offers an opportunity to taste six different wines. Next week’s will feature “unique and under the radar” wines, including those made in “overlooked, underrated” wine regions or with similar grape varieties. The latest wine industry trends and sommelier interests will be discussed. Attendance is free, though reservations have been requested.

Fare o’ the Irish

Friday, March 17, will bring Irish food and drink specials to Rowdy Hall in East Hampton for St. Patrick’s Day, along with a live WEHM radio broadcast from the restaurant from 4 to 6 p.m. Drink specials offered all day will include Magners cider, Irish mimosas, and tap beer. A lunch and dinner prix fixe will include two courses — an appetizer and entree, or entree and dessert — for $25, with menu choices such as Pride of Erin soup (potato cabbage soup), corned beef and cabbage, Guinness stew, bangers and mash, and Guinness-chocolate cheesecake for dessert. The specials will also be available, a la carte, on March 26, the day of the Montauk St. Patrick’s Day Parade. 

A St. Patrick’s Day party will take place at Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday, March 17, featuring specials on tap and canned beers, along with specials on shots of Bushmills Irish whiskey. There will be live music and a chance for women to win a $50 gift certificate to the restaurant by catching beads that will be tossed out from time to time. The cost of admission is $5.

Roman Roth, the winemaker at Wolffer Estate Vineyard in Sagap­onack, will host a private tasting in the wine cellar on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. featuring a number of Wolffer varietals and vintages and including information about the creation of each wine and how to pair it with food. Admission is $35, or $25 for Wolffer Wine Club members. 

Empty Bowls

Empty Bowls, a fund-raiser for the Springs Seedlings student gardening program and the Project Most after-school program, will take place from noon to 3 p.m. on Sunday at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett. More than 30 chefs and restaurants will provide vats of soup. 

The admission fee — $12 for adults, $5 for kids 13 and under (except for those under 5, who can sip for free), or $25 per family — entitles one to endless refills of all the soups. Quarts of soup to go can be purchased for $12. Those eating at the Legion can supply their own mugs or bowls or use those provided. 

Mushroom Cultivation

Registration is open for a mushroom cultivation class to be led by David Falkowski of Open Minded Organics in Bridgehampton on May 6. The half-day session will include a tour of the company’s mushroom farm, a discussion of basic mycology, and information on indoor and outdoor mushroom cultivation. Participants will also be guided through inoculating a shitake-mushroom-growing log. The class will conclude with a light lunch and a question-and-answer session.

Tuition is $100, and class size is limited to 12. However, a second session could be scheduled for May 7, depending on demand. Those interested can email Mr. Falkowski at [email protected].

Learn About Wine

The next “Wine Wednesday” tasting and education session at Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits will be “The Case for Terroir: A Chablis Intensive” with Elmer E. Contreras of Frederick Wildman and Sons. It starts at 5:30 p.m. and costs $10. Reservations can be made by sending an email to wainscottmain@ gmail.com or calling the store.

At Park Place Wines and Spirits in East Hampton, the next free weekly wine class aims to help participants “discover your white wine style.” The session, according to the Park Place sommeliers, will help tasters “define your wine style by tasting through an assortment of delicious white wines possessing varied textures, flavors, and body to discover what characteristics please your palate.” The class takes place from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday and is free, though an R.S.V.P. is required. 

It’s Almost Here

Springtime — well, almost — brings news of the season’s new restaurants. Lulu Kitchen and Bar is to open on Main Street in Sag Harbor in the space where Doppio Artisan Bistro did business. Philippe Corbet, a French-trained chef who most recently headed the kitchen at Arbor in Montauk, will be at the helm, producing an entire menu of dishes for brunch, lunch, dinner, and late-night dining using a wood-burning grill and oven. The menu will center on East End products and include seafood and wood-fired pizzas. 

The restaurant will be the latest opened by Montauk Asset Holdings and Marc Rowan, who took over Duryea’s Lobster Deck in Montauk and also opened Arbor. 

Springs Tavern

Michael Ruggiero, a chef whose credits include stints at Nick and Toni’s, the Harvest, Fresno, and the Montauk Lake Club, will be at the helm in the kitchen at the Springs Tavern, a new incarnation of the former Wolfie’s Tavern on Fort Pond Boulevard. 

Dan and Charlene DeSmet are reopening the space soon after a makeover that included a complete renovation and redesign. The tavern will feature a casual dining menu for a sit-down meal or bites at the bar. It will serve dinner nightly as well as a lunch menu on weekends and holidays. Vegetarian and gluten-free items will be available. 

If you are what you eat, then Donald Trump is a basket of, I mean, bucket of, deplorable K.F.C. chicken, washed down with Diet Coke.   “If he had any class, he’d eat Popeye’s,” grumbled my gourmet offspring when he heard this revealing tidbit.

The eating habits of presidents and presidential hopefuls has been a fascination of mine for many decades. If Dukakis had beaten Bush in 1988, would there have been glorious Greek dishes served at the White House state dinners? Perhaps, but instead we got Barbara Bush’s ultra-WASP-y layered pea salad, redolent with mayonnaise and iceberg lettuce petals. Dubyah and Laura enjoyed Blue Bell ice cream, Richard Nixon ate cottage cheese with ketchup, the Clintons tried to emphasize American foods and wines, and the Obamas brought a little bit of Chicago and Hawaii to the table. More importantly, Michelle Obama tried to improve American children’s eating habits with her “Let’s Move” campaign, and installed a kitchen garden and beehives at the White House. 

White House chefs do not necessarily change with administrations. Many chefs have overlapped between Democratic and Republican presidents. Cristeta Comerford, Sam Kass, Walter Scheib, and more have worked through many First Family’s tastebuds.

I fear the White House kitchen garden will be turned into a putting green with gold-plated markers. Mr. Trump has already declared he’d like to do away with state dinners. “We should be eating a hamburger at a conference table.” He likes his hamburgers well done and his steaks so overcooked they “rock on the plate,” according to a former butler. 

Perhaps none of this should be a surprise. A lot of super busy, hugely successful businessmen can’t be bothered with micro greens and farm-to-table stuff and meals with the family and those things called “vegetables.” If you attempt to research Donald Trump’s favorite vegetables you are led to a site showing corn silk and its resemblance to his mysteriously fascinating hair job.

So here are some favorite foods of Trump’s: See’s Candies, cherry vanilla ice cream, burgers, pizza without the crust, bacon with overcooked eggs, the Trump Grill taco bowl, Cornflakes, Caesar salad, spaghetti, his mother’s meatloaf, the aforementioned K.F.C. chicken, and McDonald’s “fish delight,” as he calls it. He eschews tea, coffee, and alcohol and drinks Diet Coke with everything. He said once: “I’ve never seen a skinny person drinking Diet Coke.” Neither have we, sir, neither have we. 

He prefers individually wrapped butter pats because, “I don’t like those little flower butters, there’s always a fingerprint on them.” He is known to be germaphobic and insists that fast food is cleaner than other foods. “I think you’re better off going there than maybe someplace that you have no idea where the food’s coming from. It’s a certain standard.” Ingredients of the McDonald’s Filet O’ Fish, a.k.a. “fish delight,” 390 calories, 19 grams of fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 590 milligrams of sodium: pollock, American cheese, tartar sauce, and too many preservatives and flavor enhancers to list here.

What about the rest of the family? His daughter Ivanka keeps a kosher kitchen at home and says she enjoys a pastrami sandwich from the Second Avenue Deli. She offered up a recipe for broccoli kugel for a glossy magazine. It is made with frozen broccoli. 

One of the salads at Trump Grill is named after her, so let’s assume she likes that too. It is a chopped mixture of tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, feta, cured olives, and romaine lettuce with Greek dressing. It is somewhat reminiscent of the Palm’s Monday Night Chop Chop salad or, dare I say, Rowdy Hall’s Mr. Smith’s salad!

Melania Trump, whippet thin like all the ladies in his life, obviously eats a different diet from her husband’s. She eats seven portions of fruit every day and says she enjoys chocolate and ice cream in moderation. She claims to also only drink Diet Coke with meals but methinks that’s just the geisha girl in her speaking.

Eric Trump is said to be the real cook in the family, and he reportedly makes many dishes he learned from his grandmother, Ivana’s mother, Marie Zelnickova. Chicken paprikash, borscht, and strawberry dumplings are some of his Czech specialties. 

The Trump family may or may not install its own kitchen staff at the White House. Some chefs rumored to be in the running are David Burke, a talented man with a significant restaurant empire who cooked on the Trump Princess in 1988. Joe Isidori, who was a chef at Southfork Kitchen on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, is another possibility. He cooked for Trump from 2003 to 2008 and specializes in burgers and milkshakes. Awesome. Perfect.

So don’t expect any soigné state soirees serving extraordinary or even interesting foods. It could be more like the Hamburglar, Papa John, Wendy, and Colonel Sanders at the First Table.

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Super Bowl Sunday this weekend will bring food and drink specials at Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett beginning at 6 p.m. while the game is shown on five TVs and through a large projector. There will be free appetizers served during the game and giveaways each quarter, with a chance to win a smart TV. 

Artists and Writers Night

At Almond in Bridgehampton, the next Artists and Writers Night on Tuesday at 7 will feature Scott and Megan Chaskey, both poets. Mr. Chaskey is also a farmer who oversees the Peconic Land Trust’s community supported agriculture farm at Quail Hill in Amagansett and the author of the book “Seedtime.” Ms. Chaskey is a yoga teacher, musician, educator, healing practitioner, and holistic life coach. Her book of poetry and memoir pieces, “Birdsong Under the Wisdom Tree: A Book of Hours in the Life of a Poet,” was released in 2015. A $45 fee for the evening includes a three-course family-style meal with a glass of craft beer or wine. A tip is included. Reservations are a must.

Highway Restaurant and Bar

The Highway Restaurant and Bar in East Hampton is serving brunch on Sundays beginning at 11 a.m. On the menu are avocado toast with chili, frisee salad with lardoons, poached egg, and parmesan, and a 16-ounce ribeye steak with eggs, among other dishes. On Mondays, the restaurant serves chicken pot pies, a specialty of Anand Sastry, the chef, and Thursdays are Thai nights, when a three-course menu is available for $42.

No D’Canela

D’Canela restaurant in Amagansett has closed up shop, and the Main Street space is for rent. 

About Sparkling Wine

Park Place Wines is presenting a free weekly class on wine with its sommeliers, Lisa Schock and Chris Miller, starting next week. Each will focus on a particular topic and include a tasting of up to five wines. The first session, on Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., will be about Champagne and other sparkling wines. Reservations are required; cancellations must be made a day in advance.