pinknest: the north fork: day 1

A jaunt to the North Fork began with our stay in Southold, which was glorious, quiet and delicious countryside. This little red barn and green fields was right next door to where we were staying.

Which was here, at one of the four guestrooms in this historic little house...

...The North Fork Table and Inn. Which is also the home of a restaurant run by Gerry Hayden — an alumnus of Aureole and nominee for the James Beard Best Chef: North East — and his wife, the pastry chef Claudia Fleming, who was once at Gramercy Tavern and won the James Beard Award as Pastry Chef of the Year in 2000.

The drive there is pleasant, full of fields and farms...

...and vineyards, of course. It's Long Island Wine Country. And signs will tell you so.

After arriving in Southold, we headed over to Town Harbor beach for a brief respite overlooking the bay.

When it was time for lunch, we drove to Greenport, about a seven-minute drive into a much more crowded and trendy town where the typical art galleries, ice cream parlors and Calypso St. Barths abound.

Front Street...doesn't look like much in this photo, but this is sort of the main drag.

Matt contemplates the restaurant across the street, which vouches for its real authentic Texas barbecue.

We decide not to go there, and head over toward a place right on the water.

At Scrimshaw, it was way too hot and searing to sit out on the dock, so we ate inside, in a space that was totally devoid of any atmosphere except for the one created by its discombobulated and untrained teenage waitstaff. Which I didn't mind, because hey, it's a beach town. But that soon devolved into a little absurdity. And why were the shades down in this water-view place?

I should have stuck to some North Fork wine, but I was so hot that I ordered this somewhat tasteless but good enough hibiscus ice tea to cool down.

Is it just me, or is it bizarre that some people have no clue what an oyster po boy is? Like, no inkling that it's something with oysters, potentially a sandwich of some sort? What are they imagining? I sort of don't want to know, I guess. Well, poor boy or po boy, I was kind of perplexed by this when two different customers at two different tables asked the waiter what an oyster po boy was. And the waiter's response? "Hmmm...I don't know, I'll have to check on that for you." What?! That immediately made me brace myself for what we had ordered, po boy or not. But thank goodness that it was delicious and that it came with a very yummy and refreshing homemade coleslaw.

I went for the salmon and shrimp cake sandwich (hope that is clear) with homemade coleslaw as well. Loved, although could have used a little more salt. The boy waiter eventually came around (twice) and asked us "if everything was really good." Bizarre choice of phrase, but we concurred. As I was still delving into the second half of my sandwich, the boy waiter asked us if he could get us any dessert.

What?! Now, yes, ordinarily I would like this kind of thinking. Ready for dessert always and any ways. But I literally had my mouth full, eating my main course, nowhere near finished, and I was thinking, um, yeah, bring it, bring it now, just put the dessert RIGHT HERE. (Instead, I said no thanks.)

After lunch, we headed to the very tippy tip of the North Fork: Orient Point, and then out on to the thin strippy strip of beach that is Orient Beach State Park, surrounded by Long Beach Bay and Gardiners Bay. So thin! So narrow!

So blue. I believe that's Gardiners Island out in the distance.

Sailing anyone? Not I.

Orient Ferry in the left corner.

In East Marion, we stopped by a lavender farm called Lavender By the Bay. Unfortunately, it was all already harvested. Don't you hate it when that happens?

I spy some potted lavender at the store. How sad.

But you can see that Matt has enough lavender satchets that he doesn't need to browse for more. Okay, time to get out of here and head back to the inn.

The real purpose of the trip was to eat at the North Fork Table & Inn, where we were staying. The restaurant's menus focus on seasonally inspired locally grown biodynamic organic produce, and seafood from the Peconic Bay and Long Island Sound. Yes, please.

Our Chef's Tasting dinner that evening began with an amuse of some deliciously spicy and creamy gazpacho.

Warm bread and scrumptious butter.

Raw hamachi and seared Hudson Valley foie gras with glazed daikon, radish syrup and micro red mustard greens. A little sweet but when served such a thing it's hard to complain. And it was so cute, like a little pet to keep in a tank or something.

Sea scallops with sunchoke cream and pickled carrots. My favorite dish.

Um, maybe this was my favorite dish, actually. Creamy and corny sweet corn risotto...sweet and succulent.

Already getting full, this was the perfect portion of ridiculosity: charred grassfed black angus striploin of beef with garlic scented Swiss chard, chicken mushrooms and crispy potato cake.

Okay, now this really was my favorite...a pre-dessert to cleanse the palate with dessert before dessert: coconut tapioca with passionfruit sorbet. Creamy, coconutty, almost like a rice pudding.