Last Chance: Hamptons Summer 2016 Season Ends Soon!

This is it! The stretch run, the apogee of Summer, that being the last two weeks of August not only on the east end but across America! This August has not been disappointing with great hot sunny days and very warm ocean and bay temperatures.

Now it’s time to eat those lobster rolls, hot steamed clams, and other treats best sampled in the summer months. It’s tragic that having a BBC at Cyril’s is not on that list. That once dumpy but popular location now sits like an aging cactus on Route 27 of the Napeague stretch with a FOR SALE sign, a reminder that nothing is forever.

However so many other locations are now in high feather! In Montauk the Sloppy Tuna is right off the beach with wonderful cold refreshments along with a menu perfect to augment a great time at the beach! For some reason I will always refer to the location as "Nick’s Beach" as old habits die slowly if at all. The Surf Lodge is cooking, but what’s up with food? Same chef but results should be much better! You must get to Gosman’s before it become another iconic place owned by new people with new ideas like the now very pricey Duryea’s Lobster Dock! Have you had a bite at the Shagwong lately, things change even in the same space, Oh Jimmy Hewitt I will miss you guys forever.

The Stephen Talkhouse just keeps on keeping on with a simple formula... don’t change a winning formula. Astro Pizza still makes a great pizza and I love Frank’s stories and logic on the way things are! Of course a stop at Indian Wells Tavern is a must, I love their burgers while I watch a game at the bar.

East Hampton Village my loving first home in the Hamptons before Montauk. Rowdy Hall is as popular as ever and Sam’s Pizza is still the gold standard for Italian food in the village. I want to thank Graham for another year of working really hard making it all happen there at the oldest continual restaurant in East Hampton Village! I must make a huge shout out to J.J. (Jim Jensen) at Citta Nuova perhaps the nicest, classiest and genuine man I have ever had the pleasure to know. He may be the last of the great. Of course I will miss the Blue Parrot when it closes for winter in October for a myriad of reasons the first being, I worked there once. Rico Martinez is the best Mexican food chef in the Hamptons and his fish specials are masterpieces! There is no better bar then at the Blue Parrot for that off the beach experience in East Hampton Village because bartenders Julia Rodriguez, Ashleigh Rodman and Barry McGovern have the expertise in making the best summer cocktails. The whole place has been great to me all year. The 1770 House is historic with fine food but pricey. I am not a fan of eating “downstairs” there in the summer season and paying upstairs prices. However in the winter downstairs is very charming when they have a fire going.

In Sag Harbor I actually prefer the Dock House in the fall when the soups are more soothing then when it’s very hot, but they do make a great Lobster Roll and the American Hotel is a the best place for that glass of wine we all need eventually during a Hamptons summer.

Now I purchase Pizza from World Pie in Bridgehampton all year round, so I always recommend a visit there. As far as I am concerned Bobby Van’s does the “best Steak” in the Hamptons although the next two weeks will be crazy there and forget going there without a reservation. Pierre’s serves up the best French cuisine in the Hamptons with French of course restaurant prices.

These are just my some of my thoughts after spending the last 13 summers sampling the treats of the Hamptons. I have a 22’ Catalina in 3Mile Harbor and I sail it about 4 days a week from late May until November. Many times I drop into many of these places as I traverse the Hamptons for my ride back to my wonderful wife and our home in East Patchogue.