American Traveler

A Traditional Montauk Feast

It was the first time in many years that i hadn’t cooked for Thanksgiving–either with my daughters, or for my mother, or with friends. But since i was going out with my wife, Lauren,  i don’t think we could have made a better choice for where to dine. We joined hundred of others in the restaurant at Gurney’s, a sprawling ocean side resort in Montauk. The service was outstanding, all of the diners seemed to be smiling, and we engaged in friendly conversation with several near us. It felt like being with family. I went for the traditional dinner of the day: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce. the turkey was moist and flavorful, the stuffing was light and juicy. The Riesling was perfect. Lauren dug into a huge broiled lobster with gusto and pronounced it he freshest ever. We finished off with a selection of mini pies, chocolate cake and other pastries.

The Dessert Table at Gurney's in Montauk

On a beautiful October Saturday, the entire front of 75 Main on Main St. in Southampton was thrown open in welcome. Couples dined casually at the sidewalk tables, drinkers imbibed at the large square bar in the center of the front dining room.  We arrived early for our reservation and were seated promptly at a table overlooking the street.

The appetizers seemed so appealing, we started with three: Poached Shrimp; Tomato Tartine; and Roasted Littleneck Clams, and especially enjoyed the large, fresh shrimp, and the spicy salty broth in which the clam were served.

For mains at 75 Main, we went for the sauteed Branzini and an exotic Lobster Salad with mango and hearts of palm. I loved the braised fingerling potatoes served with the Branzini. But the highpoint of the meal was desert: choclatey Tartufo and perfect Creme Brulee.

A bright casual atmosphere, good service, contemporary cuisine… what more could you ask for on an October evening?

Hot dog, homemade beef chili, gruyere, and sauerkraut. Delicious!

We also had the Turtle Crossing  signature chicken wings, homemade, fresh onion rings, shrimp kisses, mexican corn on the cob, and pulled chicken sandwich. It was a great lunch! filling and delicious. This is great pub food like with imagination and a twist.

P1010371, a photo by wjsvt on Flickr.

The Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center

Lauren with Red-tailed Hawk at benefit in Southampton

Literati Under a Tent at the Library

Scores of authors, both local and national, sat  behind their stacks of books Saturday evening and patiently engaged in coversation with book lovers—and maybe sold a few books in the process. We had a nice visit with Alice Harris who brought the family out to support her and spread the word about her latest book, The Wedding Album. Sitting nearby was the totally charming Marianne Hagan, author of Victoria Hagan, Interior Portraits, a book about her sister’s interior design projects. We also visited with Robert Caro from whom i finally bought a copy of The Power Broker. I told him i had put off purchasing it before because the book was too thick and heavy to lug back and forth on the jitney.

Vivacious Danyelle Freeman, The Restaurant Girl, was also there with her book, Try This.

Danyelle Freeman's Latest

I also had a nice chat about one of my childhood heroes with Tom Clavin co-author of Roger Maris. Ex-Yankee Jim Leyritz was there pitching his new book.

Co-author Tom Clavin was at Author's Night

Also on hand were Martin Amis, Alec Baldwin, Dick Cavett, Robert Klein and many many more.

Great dinner at East Hampton’s newest steakhouse, the Beachhouse. Even the small seafood platter is huge. Grilled asparagus was crunchy and delicious. Coffee and donuts desert sent us home happy.

We’ll be back for sure for their earlybird Lobster Bake, a good sized lobster, plus, clams, corn and potatoes for $25. They also have a happy hour special of a dozen clams on the half shell for $5!

Oh, by the way, service was terrific.

Saturday Evening in the Garden

We were fortunate to snag an invite to the annual Benefit for Longhouse Reserve on Saturday honoring Dale Chihuly. Even though the artist was not able to attend, it was still a glorious evening, highlighted by a dazzling perfomance by principal dancers of the New York City Ballet. Of course Jack Lenor Larson was there. So was Edward Albee. Ran into Mark Drucker from Plum magazine, whom i worked with at Garden Design back in the day.

Lobster, Crabcakes, and More…

What great way to start a long weekend in the Hamptons. Happy Hour at the Palm features their bar bites at a super reduced price of $4.50 each, and a buck and half for oysters. And so the two of us were able to enjoy lobster roll sliders, mini crabcakes, oysters, shrimp and a couple of glasses of Reisling for about $50.

I am happy to report that the Age of Brunch is over. Oh, all the folks blithely enjoying their weekend mimosas and Eggs Benedict think that brunch will always be in fashion. After all, it has been more than 100 years since Punch magazine declared in 1896, “to be fashionable now, we must brunch.”

And brunch we do. From sunup to sundown every weekend in New York and cities across America people are going out to brunch. They’re engaging in it, and enjoying it, but can someone please tell me exactly what the heck brunch is?

The simple answer, according to the Oxford English Dictionary is that brunch is a combination of breakfast and lunch. The OED informs us that the word itself was coined by a Mr. Guy Beringer in Hunter’s Weekly in 1895.

But neither Mr. Beringer nor the OED really explains what makes brunch, brunch—as distinct from breakfast or lunch. Is it the food? It’s not the food. Eggs, for example, a brunch staple, are also breakfast food. They are prepared for brunch exactly the same way as for breakfast. Brunch favorites burgers and salads are also served at lunch and dinner. If brunch were a true combination of breakfast and lunch it would combine the dishes as well, e.g. eggs with hamburgers. In fact that is a dish I’ve enjoyed, a regional Rhode island specialty hamburger patty with a fried egg on top. But I ate those on my half-hour lunch break in the Ocean State. That clearly was not brunch because I was on deadline. I had a schedule, I had somewhere to be after I ate, unlike brunch, which is a meal that, in theory, can stretch to infinity—or at least Monday morning. Is it the time? Yes, it’s the time, to a certain extent. Brunch is characterized by a sense of leisure.

Yes, it has to be on the weekend—Saturday or Sunday with a long day and lazy evening stretching out in front of you.

As a boy, growing up on a farm, those long lazy days were non-existent. Even on weekends, there was always work to get back to. So you can understand my bafflement about brunch.

I’m quite sure my Dad, a lifelong farmer, never ate brunch. He probably never spoke the word “brunch”. That’s not to say he wouldn’t like brunch. He would appreciate any excuse to eat. On the farm, my father routinely ate a second breakfast around 10:00 am. As I recall, it was pretty much the same as the first breakfast (or as he called it “breffist”): peanut butter on white bread, folded, dunked in his coffee. Now, you probably won’t find peanut butter on the brunch menu, unless it’s tucked into a crepe or incorporated into some brunch dessert

So does the eater define brunch? To a degree.

My father was a real man. I believe that a regular guy like him, couldn’t care less about brunch. If he’s at brunch, Nine times out of ten he’s there because his girlfriend suggested it. However, he does like the idea of having permission to start drinking in the morning. If that requires ordering a hamburger and calling it brunch. So be it. Girls like brunch. Guys will do what girls like. Straight guys do anyway. And gay guys just plain like brunch.

So just because I am a brunch idiot why do I posit that brunch has reached the apex of its ascendency?

Go to the epicenter of the brunch world, the restaurant Pastis in the Meat Packing District of New York. If brunch wasn’t invented there, it should have been. And you will suppose, from the long lines and the high prices that brunch has never been more popular. Folks will wait for hours for the privilege for paying seventeen bucks for a couple of eggs—the very same eggs that are eleven dollars during the week. That’s a six dollar surcharge for the privilege of calling them brunch. You’ll find l’oeufs on the brunch menu at Pastis. As well as their salades and garnitures. But you won’t find the French word for brunch. Why? There is not French word for brunch. The French do not need a magic work to justify spending all day in a café eating and drinking.

But look around at the outskirts outer reaches of Brunchville and there are signs of unrest. There’s something brewing besides coffee—and that something is trouble. First there was Permanent Brunch, a restaurant in the Lower East Side that promised brunch all day, every day. It seemed like a sure thing. It shuttered soon after opening. Why? Once you experience brunch on a Tuesday at 6:00 pm you realize it’s not so special anymore. It’s not hard to figure out that anything permanent cannot be special. (See marriage.)

But a worse sign of the coming brunch apocalypse is offered by Meat Hook Butcher shop in Williamsburg, Fitting, that the home of the hipster is also home to the first ironic brunch. At the Meat Hook they’ve set up a single table in front of the counter and for $50 a head, guests get to enjoy a “tasting menu” that might include a slice of leftover pizza with Miller High Life, saltines with chocolate and coffee, schnapps and beef jerky followed by lentil soup.

Well, it does meet the main criteria of brunch: alcohol. Plenty of it. But seems to me that once brunch becomes ironic, it’s days are numbered.

So if you’ll excuse me, it’s the weekend, and I’m going out for a late morning meal. I’m in the vanguard of the next fashionable thing. Eggs over easy, home fries and bacon. And a big mug of coffee. I’m calling it breffist.

We’re so glad that Turtle Crossing in East Hampton has reopened for the season. and not just reopened but with a refurbished interior, and a new menu. No, don’t worry, they still serve those fabulous wings. We had an order along with their new unbelievably addictive Shrimp Tickles and sweet and juicy pulled chicken sliders. What a pleasant way to spend and hour or two, sitting at a picnic table and enjoying great food. Oh, their wide list as long and deep too!
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