An East End foodie day trip — without the Hamptons crowds

It’s the perennial Long Island summer exhortation: Go East! Many who heed the call proceed directly to the South Fork. But while Hamptons-bound traffic is bottled up on Route 27, a few miles to the south, Montauk Highway is smooth sailing as you cruise through a landscape of woodlands and coves, punctuated by small towns. Despite pockets of Brooklyn hipsterdom and coastal chic, they retain the tranquility of long-ago Long Island, one undiscovered by the crowds.

START IN EASTPORT

This impression is solidified when you slide into a booth at the Eastport Luncheonette, in what is perhaps the Mayberry-est hamlet on the Island. The old-timey main street boasts a barber shop and an American Legion Hall, and at the luncheonette, where the tables are protected by oilcloth and place mats bearing ads from local merchants, you’ll find the Good Home Cooking that’s promised on the sign outside. In 2017, Keith Glynn took over the place from his late mother, a longtime server who had bought it in 2005. The building, he figures, is more than 100 years old and served as a soda fountain before becoming a luncheonette in the 1970s.

The menu offers no surprises, but the classics are all rendered well. The pancakes are fluffy yet substantial and, in season, made with local fruit. Another special commendation goes to the turkey sandwiches, whether cold (the turkey BLT) or hot (the Gobbler, with cranberry sauce, Russian dressing and melted cheese). Glynn roasts his own turkey breasts and, instead of a commercial slicer, uses a knife to cut off big, juicy hunks.

Not to say Eastport is in a complete time warp. Behind most of Eastport’s other original building facades lie contemporary tenants such as The Tipsy Duck Wine Co., full of curated bottles with beautifully designed labels, and the Eastport General Store, where, aside from artisanal provisions and well-chosen housewares, you may want to pick up an expertly pulled espresso accompanied, on weekends, by pastries supplied by local bakers. (On Saturday mornings, if you get there around 10, you might score a loaf of 1610 Sourdough from Calverton bread maker Aiyana Edmund.) Next door, at Eastport Retro, you’ll find vintage clothes and jewelry, Mama Cass and Cream on vinyl and more.

The most imposing storefront in Eastport belongs to Kreb Cycle, a stylish bicycle shop (younger sibling to the Bellport original) that is worth visiting even if you don’t need a new bike, so extensive is its collection of apparel and accessories. Until 2018, this two-story concrete building housed Lloyd’s, a massive antiques store that anchored a thriving community of dealers. Only a handful remain, including Beyond the Beaten Path, across the street and celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Owner Emily Weiss has a strong personal aesthetic, and although her shop is bursting with all sorts of treasures, in particular, it reflects her deep interest in costume (she was a muse to Ralph Lauren and designers for period dramas) and vintage lighting fixtures, which are becoming far less common these days.

A half mile north of “town” is another Eastport landmark, Olish Farms Country Market. Established in 1958, it’s no longer a working farm but the market is committed to selling local produce as well as imported specialty items and terrific homemade pies and cakes.

TAKE A DRIVE: COFFEE AND TREATS

Back on Montauk Highway, you won’t be able to miss Brewology, on the southern bank — there’s no “downtown Speonk” to speak of. With its capacious U-shaped bar and 20 taps, this modern gastropub’s easygoing menu includes wings and other crowd-pleasers as well as fancier fare such as lobster ramen and short-rib pappardelle. The burgers and lobster rolls are first-rate, and if your dish doesn’t come with the spectacular housemade fries, order them on the side.

The culinary hub of Speonk is slightly north of Montauk Highway on North Phillips Avenue. Nice Place Coffee is the two-year-old caffeinated fever dream of Evan Church, chief curator, connoisseur and cheerleader for the astonishing collection of hot beverages, baked goods and chocolate “library” — more than 300 bars from scores of small producers all over the world. It was Evan’s wife and partner, Kate, who came up with the overall eclectic, cosmopolitan vibe, which is evident in the food, too. Her muffins, oat squares and frittatas are supplemented by sfogliatelle and cartocci from Frank & Son in Mastic, and the Old World cookies and cakes (Linzer tortes and kolaches, for instance, and stunning medieval tartes de Santiago) come from IndiePeasant Pastries in Center Moriches.

Evan’s work in real estate takes him into New York City a few times a week and when he comes home, he brings Italian pastries from Veniero’s in the East Village as well as an astonishing Yemeni honeycomb cheese bread, khaliat al nah, from a cafe in Brooklyn. On Sundays from 11 to 2, you’ll find members of the Bill Rignola Jazz Orchestra in residence, and there’s more live entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights.

Keep heading north and if you hang a right just before the railroad tracks, you’ll discover Little Gull Café. This three-year-old charmer occupies the old Speonk depot which, with its slatted benches and wide patio, is well suited to its new life as a restaurant. The dining room offers unobstructed views of chef-owner Will Pendergast as he and his team make tender, massive buttermilk (and butter-rich) biscuits served with jam and, yes, more butter. The sourdough pancakes alone are worth the drive, as are the lobster rolls. Be forewarned: Many of the sandwiches come on homemade bread sliced about two inches thick.

Pendergast walks the locavore walk, and nowhere is that more evident than in the Grains ’n’ Greens bowl, a towering, ever-changing pileup of fresh leaves with toasted grains and, if you like, a slab of goat cheese and/or fried egg. Don’t leave without dessert, whether it’s a local fruit buckle or Pendergast’s signature pistachio — olive oil Bundt with a tunnel of chocolate.

Little Gull is usually open only for breakfast and lunch but, during the summer, Pendergast often cooks dinner on weekend nights. Reservations are required and the menus are tightly focused on one theme — homemade pasta, barbecue, jambalaya, coq au vin — and are announced on Instagram.

ON TO WESTHAMPTON BEACH

After the almost languorous pace of Eastport and Speonk, Westhampton Beach, about four miles up the road, is the busiest, buzziest restaurant scene between Patchogue and Southampton. Protective of your newfound relaxed state of mind, you might want to ease into things at a place like Eckart’s Luncheonette, founded in 1911 as a bar. Danielle McClain, whose family has owned the spot since the beginning, said that Prohibition forced her great-uncle Jacob Eckart to convert it into a luncheonette and not too much appears to have changed since then. There’s the requisite tin ceiling and tiled floor as well as a collection of memorabilia that will keep you occupied long after you’ve taken the last sip of your malted. Highlights include a decanter of “The 29th,” a whiskey distilled by Jim Beam for the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am in Pebble Beach and an issue of Life Magazine from Oct. 15, 1971 (cover story: “Disney World Opens”).

Another gem is Sushi 1. Flashy Westhampton Beach is about the last place you’d expect to find classic, old-school Japanese cuisine but chef Kimi Osaki and his wife, Yoko, have been plying their trade here for almost 30 years. The menu features traditional rarities such as gomaae (steamed spinach with sesame sauce), oshinko (pickled vegetables) and kimpira (sautéed burdock root and carrots) along with teriyaki and tempura. The sushi selections are focused more on a variety of fish than elaborate rolls, and the regular list of almost 20 species is supplemented by daily specials such as red snapper from Japan, sea urchin from California, fluke fin or butterfish. The attention to detail here extends to the rice: Sushi 1 serves haiga rice, milled to remove the bran but not the germ, so that it’s more nutritious than white rice and better tasting than brown rice. The best way to appreciate its qualities is in the chirashi, a bowl of rice topped with a selection of sashimi.

Both Eckart’s and Sushi 1 are in direct opposition to the prevailing Westhampton Beach sensibility, which is hip, modern and manicured — especially after the thoroughly Hamptonian Main Street was given a gorgeous face-lift a few years ago. A new arts cinema is in the final stages of construction, but the village’s cultural jewel is the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, where this season’s lineup includes Paul Reiser, Modi, Michael Feinstein, Leslie Odom Jr., the Righteous Brothers, Los Lobos and Rickie Lee Jones.

Half a block south of the theater is The Patio, a mainstay for modern Italian food and home to the lowest-key bar in town. Across the street is Brunetti Pizza, which, when it opened in 2010, kicked off Long Island’s neo-Neapolitan pizza trend. Three years ago, the tiny pizzeria — little more than a wood-burning oven and a counter — moved to this larger space and expanded the menu to include salads, small plates, Italian wines and beers, and Italian-inspired cocktails. The clam pie (no mozzarella, just local clams, butter and garlic) is a true Long Island classic.

Next to Brunetti is One Trick Pony, which is anything but, as it shape-shifts from coffee shop by day to cocktail bar by night — and manages to do everything well. Keep abreast of this spot’s pop-ups by Black Duck Barbecue or Happy Oyster Co., or the occasional evening of drag bingo, on Instagram.

A few doors away is Haskell’s Seafood Market and Cafe, the rare fish market that sells only local catch — no salmon, no Gulf shrimp, no king crab. At tables set up in the peaceful courtyard behind the shop, you can sample the prepared foods as well as one of Long Island’s best lobster rolls.

As you make your way north on Main Street, you’ll encounter chic boutique after chic boutique, as well as plenty of casual spots offering quick meals or snacks, including three Mexican—Tex-Mex establishments, in ascending order of formality, Corner Café & Restaurant, Funchos Fajita Grill and Margarita Grille. The big, bustling (and kosher) Beach Bakery & Grand Cafe offers sweets, savories and seating inside and out.

WESTHAMPTON DINING

When it comes to fine dining, you’ve got your pick of several fashionable new places, all of which hew to an eclectic New American approach — Ivy on Main, Salt & Loft and, under the Rooted Hospitality umbrella, Flora (small, quaint, vegetable-forward menu) and Fauna (big, sprawling, the place for steaks). A bit of local history for you: Fauna opened in 2022 in what was once Starr Boggs, Westhampton Beach’s best and best-known restaurant helmed by its eponymous (and legendary) chef-owner, who died in March of that year.

And then there’s Daphne’s. Westhampton native Jack Clark trained at Starr Boggs and, after a sojourn in Manhattan, returned to take over this kitchen, which serves some of the finest food in town and has a beverage program to match. The cocktail menu typically features one clarified milk punch, a drink that owes its silky-textured translucence to a milk base acidified (so it curdles) and then strained.

The Make You Sin cocktail is crafted from Bathhouse John’s Well Dressed Gin plus guava, lemon, orange liqueur, and vanilla; it’s finished with a Fruity Pebbles — salt rim. Clark is also the restaurant’s sommelier, and his wine list is full of interesting (and, for the setting, affordable) international vintages.

Drinking can extend to the wee hours here, at the bar and tables on front and back porches. On Saturday nights, a DJ starts at 9, but it’s worth arriving early to concentrate on the food. Daily crudo specials utilize local fish from Haskell’s and the beef in Clark’s burger comes from Mecox Bay Dairy in Bridgehampton; it’s well served by fried shallots and herbed fries. Salads are uniformly fine, as is the lobster roll. Don’t miss the slow-roasted Arctic char with celery root purée, sugar snap peas, hon-shimeji mushrooms and pickled daikon.

PICK UP PROVISIONS

Westhampton Beach is blessed with green spaces, from the Great Lawn at the base of Main Street to the Village Green at the traffic circle, which, on Saturday mornings, hosts the Westhampton Beach Farmers Market, one of Long Island’s best. Tucked away on Glovers Lane is the exquisite Maria Z. Moore Community Park, a tiny Tuileries.

In short, this is a picnic-perfect village, and two shops stand ready to serve. Mill Road Cheese Shop makes classy sandwiches and has an excellent selection of cheeses and cured meats, along with dozens of different crackers on which to serve them. Just next to the Village Green in a gracious two-story building is the town’s favorite caterer, Sydney’s “Taylor” Made Cuisine. (The striking salt-and-pepper — haired woman who is in charge is not Sydney; she is Erin B. Finley, and she has run this establishment since 1993 with her husband, chef David Blydenburgh. Sydney and Taylor are their daughters.)

Among the most popular dishes at Sydney’s are the marinated skirt steak, honey mustard — glazed salmon and freshly roasted or fried chicken. Celery-avoiders are going to love the tuna salad here; everyone loves the new-potato salad. On the sweet front are tart lemon bars, flourless and flour-full chocolate cakes and seven-layer bar cookies consisting of graham crackers, butter (yes, the butter gets its own layer), butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, walnuts, coconut and condensed milk. There’s also a well-curated selection of cheeses, charcuterie, condiments and so on.

Anything you buy at Sydney’s can be savored on the porch or lawn with a glass of wine. On Sundays there is a proper brunch, with table service in the shop’s adjoining dining room. Don’t pass up the crab cakes Benedict or the croque madame. And remember to ask for the Dutch baby for dessert.

With a cooler full of provisions from Mill Road or Sydney’s, you might want to venture farther afield than the local park. This is Westhampton Beach, after all, and the Atlantic Ocean is less than two miles away. Driving over the Beach Lane or Jessup Lane bridge, you’ll find yourself on Dune Road, the only thoroughfare on the narrow 14-mile-long barrier island that “belongs” to Westhampton Beach and its neighbors to the east, Quogue and Hampton Bays.

If you’re a real estate gawker, you’ll want to drive its length and take in the luxury hotels, clubs and homes that run the gamut from grand old houses to glass-walled palaces. Most of the beaches are private, but at the western tip is Cupsogue Beach County Park, open to all for an $18 parking fee. (On summer weekends, the parking lot can fill up early.) The 296-acre beach park offers lifeguard-supervised swimming and fishing, too.

Once you’ve had your fill of the ocean and white-sand beach, backtrack a few miles to John Scott’s Surf Shack, for a view of Moriches Bay. This marsh-side dive bar is devoid of frills but there are eight beers on tap and many more in bottles and cans, as well as 16-ounce “summer cocktails,” including the Transfusion (vodka, Welch’s grape juice and ginger ale) and the 007 (orange vodka, orange juice and Sprite). There’s also a menu of bar snacks, burgers and casual entrees, but you can’t possibly still be hungry.

Or can you?