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.

My off off Broadway play (Who Put the Ex in Xmas?) closed Friday night. The snow storm kept out of town friends from coming for the weekend, so Saturday I hopped on the jitney to spend the remainder of the weekend with my woman in the Hamptons. We had had a memorable (and expensive dinner with friends at Nick and Tony’s in East Hampton earlier in the winter and decided to go back to take advantage of their movie deal: two course and a movie voucher for 30 bucks. Not bad! Because it was off season and because we made a resy for 6:00, (not so much because we’re fabulous) we got a great table.

Why so early? Because we wanted to make it to the screening of “Mean Streets” and post-movie talk with Alec Baldwin at Gild Hall. (Lauren has crossed paths with him before in her professional life and his repeated refusal to grant her an interview has become something of a bit between them.) Lauren kept telling people that the Q&A would be moderated by Ted Nugent. Of course, peoples response was “Wha?!” It wasn’t Ted Nugent at all of course, but David from the Hampton’s Film Festival.

But, back to dinner…

we didn’t realize until after the fact that the special was drawn form their Alsatian menu. Lauren had an onion tart with greens as an appetizer an I had a frisee, ham and Gruyere salad. Both were delicious. For main course, Lauren chose the chicken, while I had the baeckoffe, a stew of brisket lamb and pork under a blanket of potato puree. with desert and a glass of wine, our bill broke the $100 mark, but we did pocket two movie passes. (Or I should say Lauren pocketed two movie passes. I barely got a glimpse of them before they disappeared into her purse.

That was not our only food for the night; the movie event included a free desert at the Maidstone Living Room. I’ll just have a bite of desert, Lauren said as we walked to the restaurant. (Actually, we walked away from the restaurant as for some reason Lauren got it in her head that we were going to the Hedges. Once we got straigtened out we made it to the maidstone where we had more than a taste. We actually shared three deserts between us. (That brownie with warm espresso sauce was too inviting to resist.) At least we had pre-worked off a few calories with that walk to the wrong restaurant.

Nest stop: Miami!