August 31, 2009 |
Short Order
What do you do when it rains in the Hamptons? You eat.
Photo: Steven Richter
Looking forward to a weekend of blissful sloth in the Hamptons, I took along the last six unread New Yorkers. It rained a lot, yet I only polished off one magazine. Every single other minute I was eating, shopping for dinner, driving to a restaurant, or sleeping it off. Mostly we were sycophantic mouths in thrall to our host Karine and Pascal’s edible hospitality. She whirled around the kitchen like a hurricane. We were fed mussels two ways and slurped the broth. Along the way, the Road Food Warrior staggered into Briermere Farms (cued by our hosts) and came back with peaches piled in a peak atop thick pastry cream on an acceptably good crust, certainly better than most farm stand and local bakery efforts. Most amazing of all: the peaches were ripe, not cooked into a slop or over-sweetened.
Friday night we rubbed aerobicized shoulders with a good-looking crowd of the younger privileged at The Living Room in East Hampton’s Maidstone Inn – a stylish new venture by a Swedish hotel family.
Imagine. Even in Sweden they know from the Hamptons. I loved all that fresh charm, greeters in formal gowns with feathers in their hair, a costly rehab – we actually had a small crystal chandelier over our table for five. And the food, at least what we ate, wasn’t all bad, some of it was actually good enough, about what most people expect when they eat out on this rarified strip of land. Indeed, I suspect most slaves of the Montauk Highway are grateful just to get a weekend booking and don’t know or care all that much about culinary epiphany, especially after a cocktail or two.
I was happier with the tapas at Copa in Bridgehampton – charred octopus, zucchini croquetas, and flash fried peppers - more so than too sweet lamb chops (to the kitchen’s credit, I asked for them rare and they were). The bar crowd spilled over into the street where it was only lightly sprinkling by 11. A boozy jumpstart for the economy. I’m so glad it was a party thrown for a friend’s birthday and I wasn’t stuck with the bill. Briermere Farms, 4414 Squid Avenue, Riverhead, 631 722 3931. Living Room at the Maidstone, 207 Main Street, East Hampton, 631 324 5440. Copa, 95 School Street, Bridgehamtpon, 631 613 6469.