East End Eats: At The All Seasons Cafe

The pleasure of dining outside is twice as great in September, when the specter of fall is fretting on the sidewalk looking at his watch and waiting to take your table as soon as you've finished your coffee.

And then there's the thrill of not making a reservation, but just dropping in at 7:30 in the evening and finding a table for five in the best spot of the patio, as we did this weekend at the All Seasons Cafe in Sag Harbor.

There's no doubt that it adds to the zest of a meal to sit there and watch the purposeful dogs out for their evening paseos, the no-hurry strollers, and the masts and slapping stays of the boats in the harbor.

A Higher Level

The restaurant, which has been open since July, is owned and run by Pete and Pam Miller. Though Mr. Miller has recently been a chef at Nick and Toni's and Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, the couple first met when they worked here, in an earlier incarnation called the Bay Street Cafe.

The interior of the restaurant still has the same pleasant, casual atmosphere as in the past, and some old favorites like clam fritters and fried brie, but the food, which was very good before, appears to have risen to a higher level.

(A friend who was eating there on Saturday evening reported that as she was leaving a woman at an adjoining table grabbed her arm and asked, "Was your food as good as ours?")

Soups Of The Day

The menu is a down-to-earth selection of soups, salads, pastas, and entrees with an emphasis on imaginative and original accompaniments.

Prices for appetizers range from $6 for soups to $10 for spicy kebabs. Entrees are from $18 plus for pastas to $26 for roast lobster with tarragon vinegar and asparagus.

We tried both soups of the day on Sunday, including a shrimp bisque that was a lovely, old-fashioned, to-hell-with-the-cholesterol cream soup. The gazpacho was icy and sparkling fresh and a wonderfully successful summer soup.

I just wish it had been called something else, because to me gazpacho should have neither cilantro nor chili - as they say in Spain, A mi me gusta el pan pan, y el vino vino. I like my bread to be bread, and my wine, wine.

Good And Simple

Salads seemed a good choice for a warm late-summer evening, so we tried a simple red and green leaf salad with red onion and cherry tomatoes - fine; a Caesar salad - fine, and a special salad with smoked salmon - outstanding.

A pasta of orecchietti, the little snaily ones, with fresh tomato and spinach, stuck with the tried and true rule of keeping pasta simple and was very good indeed.

In keeping with the pretty presentation of all the dishes, the salmon came with a heaped pyre of shoestring potatoes, shaved red onions, and a small arugula salad. The fish had been fiercely seared, so that all the juices were sealed inside a crunchy coating.

While that was good, it was outshone by the blackened tuna, which was about as good as tuna can get (not to mention that the tuna had just swum in from Montauk whereas the salmon had probably had a tiring ride on the Jitney).

Cooked to the point of rare perfection, it came in a horseradish sauce and was served with a simple cherry tomato salad and mashed potatoes laced with chopped scallions.

For those who spent the years of nouvelle cuisine weeping into their chrysanthemum-carved carrots, the huge marinated pork chop is a delight. But it was the accompanying concoction of tomato, eggplant, chickpeas, and toasted cumin that really impressed us.

The special entree of the day, monkfish with a sweet-potato puree, was rather a disappointment. It's a tricky fish and its treatment on this occasion just didn't quite nail it to the ground.

A Discovery

It's worth noting that among the entrees we didn't try - including risotto and ribeye steak - is a spaghettini with clams in a white wine sauce, a dish that many people go out of their way to find.

We tried three desserts: a light, lukewarm, and delicious bread pudding, an outstanding creation called a chocolate pate that was everything its name suggests, and a rather heavy key lime pie.

At the risk of being repetitious, it still surprises how the quality of East End food has improved in the last five years or so. And it's still a surprise when you can turn to each other at the end of the meal and say, "Hey, looks like we've found another good restaurant!"