Food Seen: This Week's Hamptons and North Fork Dining Dish

The year 2020 may feel like it’s beating us all into the ground, but there’s still room to celebrate and enjoy local offerings, especially on the East End. Our restaurant friends throughout the Hamptons and North Fork dining scene are doing all they can to keep the East End pumping—check out some of the coming week’s top stops.

“Without death there cannot be life,” and so explains the premise of Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead! Experience the tastes and sounds of a time-honored Mexican celebration at La Fondita and Coche Comedor. Both Amagansett hot spots will honor Dia de los Muertos—La Fondita from Saturday, October 31 through Monday, November 2, and Coche on Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1. If you want a grab-and -go treat, snack on tamal de pollo, two chicken tamales with salsa verde and queso fresco, and champurrado, a chocolate-based atole made with maseca, milk, Mexican chocolate and cinnamon from La Fondita. If you’d prefer to soak in the fall air, snag a table outside at Coche and enjoy chili rellenos, spit-roasted turkey and arroz con leche served with passion fruit caramel and mezcal roasted pineapple. And yes, they have heat lamps!

Not that you need an excuse to indulge in mouthwatering barbeque and seasonal beers, but at Greenport’s Green Hill, the happy hour menu they’re offering is hard to refuse! Did you know Chef Matty Boudreau is a bona fide BBQ pitmaster? With Boudreau at the helm, you know you’re getting championship barbeque with every bite. Tuesdays through Fridays from 3 to 6 p.m., snack on $1 hot n’ sweet wings, $1 garlic shrimp, $4 pulled pork or jackfruit sliders, $6 smash burgers, $3 tap beers, $6 house wines and $9 well drinks. Settle into a seat for live sports, happy hour specials and award-winning barbeque for the ultimate pick-me-up.

I don’t know about you, but there’s something about the colder months that make me want to feel cozy and transported to a world away. Step into Fresno and you’ll feel like you’re dining in the heart of Tuscany. Allow yourself to feel like you’re in Italia Thursday through Tuesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Fresno’s happy hour. With $10 cocktails, $10 wines by the glass, $5 beers, and $5 bar bites, your daily stresses will fade as quickly as they came.

Celebrating the Art of Eating In, Hamptons Art of Eating is serving up delectable bites for your at-home Halloween Boo Bash. Their take-home menu is available weekly from Wednesday through Sunday for pick-up or delivery throughout the Hamptons, North Fork and Shelter Island. Their menus are all carefully curated from friends and farmers, and all items are made to order, so all changes or cancellations must be made 72 hours in advance. Pull out your witches cauldron and enjoy Blood Red Soup of organic tomato, red pepper and basil bisque. Grab some Icky Sticky Skeleton Ribs and Devil Spiced Beer Steamed Shrimp, and thrill your friends with Poison Apples—mini caramel apples with peanuts (poison not included).

More Halloween To Do’s: Dress up your dog as a witch (or a warlock) and get some treats at the dog costume parade in Greenport and the Greenport Harbor Brewing Company over in Peconic.

Quick Hits: Michelangelo’s in Riverhead has re-launched a lower-priced menu—go for the pizza at lunch, stay for the chicken or veal parmigiana! Is there a better bang for your buck than the fried calamari at Inlet Seafood in Montauk? The organizers of this year’s successful Fall Long Island Restaurant Week will be launching a Winter TAKE OUT Week in January. We’re hearing great things about Salt & Loft in Westhampton Beach.

We Hear That … Matthew Broderick dined with a pal at the new Main Street Tavern in Amagansett … that RHONY Luann de Lesseps chowed at Bostwicks on the Harbor in East Hampton the last weekend they were open … that brothers Owen and Luke Wilson dined al fresco at Nick & Toni’s … and that J.Lo hit Topping Rose in Bridgehampton earlier in the month!