News for Foodies: 03.20.14
It’s that time of year again. Hamptons Restaurant week, which offers three-course prix fixe dinners for $27.95 at more than a dozen local eateries, will run from Sunday through March 30.
Participating restaurants include Fresno, Nick & Toni’s, Race Lane, the 1770 House, and the Living Room in East Hampton. In Sag Harbor, the special will be offered at Muse in the Harbor and Bell & Anchor. Also participating will be Almond, Bobby Van’s, and Pierre’s in Bridgehampton; Gurney’s Inn in Montauk, and RedBar Brasserie, Tuscan House, Shippy’s Pumpernickles, and Le Chef in Southampton. A $19.95 option will be available at the last two.
Specials will be offered nightly, but only until 7 p.m. on March 29. A full list of participating restaurants, including many on the North Fork, in Riverhead, and farther west can be found at hamptonsrestaurantweek.com.
For Food Entrepreneurs
The Amagansett Food Institute will open South Fork Kitchens, a commercial kitchen that can be rented by small business owners, at Stony Brook Southampton later this spring.
Local farmers and food producers will be able to rent the fully-equipped and licensed kitchen in four-hour blocks seven days a week and 24 hours a day, with an option of renting double blocks. Up to four businesses will be able to use the 3,000-square-foot space at one time.
The center will be overseen by Carissa Waechter, who will also use the kitchen to make products for her company, Carissa’s Breads. Services to be provided will include group purchasing, delivery and shipping oversight, and processing and packing services for farmers’ produce. The Amagansett Food Institute also plans to partner with local government, nonprofit organizations, and business development professionals to offer accounting, legal, marketing, and technical services to kitchen users, and will be operating a farm-to-table cafe at the college campus where those who use the kitchen may provide products for sale.
The food institute will sponsor a food handlers’ certificate class in the next few weeks. More information is available by sending an email to amagansettfood@ gmail.com.
On Wine
The Parrish Art Museum’s Business Circle, Edible East End magazine, and the Long Island Wine Council will host a program on Long Island wines at the Water Mill museum tomorrow evening at 6. “How Do You Bottle Creativity?” will include a discussion by three winemakers, Kareem Massoud of Paumanok Vineyards, Barbara Shinn of Shinn Estate Vineyards, and Christopher Tracy of Channing Daughters, about what inspires their art. Tickets are $25, or $20 for museum members. Advance reservations have been recommended as space is limited.
Saturday for the Irish
Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett will help celebrants gear up for the Montauk St. Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday with a pre-parade party on Saturday from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. featuring specials on pints of Guinness, whiskey shots, and Jello shots. A D.J. will be on hand to provide the tunes. The cover charge is $5. The tavern serves lunch and dinner seven days a week from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
East End Chefs
A new series of East End Chefs events at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor will begin with a cooking class on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. with James Carpenter and Jamie D’Oliveira, the chef and general manager of Page at 63 Main in Sag Harbor. The meal to be prepared and served will include a brick-oven flatbread salad, roasted chicken with vegetables, and sticky toffee date cake with mascarpone cream for dessert. The cost is $20. Wine and water will be available for purchase. Space is limited, so advance reservations have been recommended, and can be made by calling the church.
New Pastry Chef
In her new role as pastry chef for Honest Man Restaurants, Rachel Cronemeyer will oversee the desserts at Nick & Toni’s and Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, Townline BBQ in Sagaponack, and La Fondita in Amagansett, as well as for Honest Catering and Nick & Toni’s Cafe in Manhattan.
Ms. Cronemeyer, who attended the baking and pastry arts program at Suffolk Community College, interned at the North Fork Table and Inn, where she worked with Claudia Fleming, a James Beard Award-winning pastry chef, for more than three years. In 2012, she started her own company, Cronemeyer Cakes & Confections.
Among the sweets to be added to the menus are a flourless chocolate cake, pear crostata, and bambolini — an almond cream, butterscotch gelato, and toasted almond concoction — at Nick & Toni’s, fried pecan pie and chocolate cake pops at Townline BBQ, and, at Rowdy Hall, warm pineapple tart, fruit caramel with rum ice cream, chocolate caramel popcorn trifle, flourless chocolate cake, and a peanut butter brownie sundae.
Spring Specials
Two prix fixes will be offered at the Bell & Anchor in Sag Harbor on Sunday through Thursday all night as well as on Friday and Saturday between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. A two-course menu is $30, and three courses are $35. Among the menu choices are chowder, brandade, Caesar salad, fish of the day, moules frites, and flat iron steak frites.
Thursday is pizza night at Fresh Hamptons in Bridgehampton, with a three-course pizza dinner offered for $18 plus tax and gratuity. The meal begins with Caesar salad, followed by a 12-inch organic whole wheat pizza and gelato or sorbet for dessert. A variety of toppings, including grilled eggplant, sauteed greens, Mecox Bay sausage, ricotta cheese, and soppressata, just to name a few, may be added for an additional $1 or $2 per item.