March Happenings, Local Honey & More from the East End 'Food Seen'

Time flies by when you’re having fun! Can you believe we’ve reached March already? With only a few more months until peak foodie season, here’s the latest on what to look forward to these upcoming weeks.

MARCH FOOD EVENTS

Wölffer Estate invites you to indulge in the flavors of the season in their tasting room with Taste of the Season. Taking place during specific time slots Wednesday through Sunday, guests will have the opportunity to enjoy a meticulously curated four-course wine tasting experience paired with a tasting menu. This culinary experience features light bites that complement Wölffer’s renowned wines and properly capture the essence of the season.

The wine tasting menu includes pink radishes and toast with a 2022 Antonov Sauvignon Blanc, harvest burrata with the 2021 Cellar Series Semillon, and duck carnitas with a 2019 Caya Cabernet Franc, and concludes with a fig tart with a 2019 Grapes of Roth Merlot. The cost is $95 per person, and offered time slots are as follows: 12:30 p.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:20 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

R.AIRE at the Hampton Maid in Hampton Bays is hosting a special cooking class this Sunday, March 3. Learn to cook authentic Spanish tapas and paella with instruction from award-winning Chef Alex Bujoreanu. While being guided through the preparation of these dishes, Chef Alex will pair these meals with wine from the Spanish region that you can sip alongside your cooking.

When your dishes are complete, you will have the opportunity to enjoy your work in R.AIRE’s dining room and chat with Bujoreanu over more wine. Tickets are available for $150 per person, and the class starts at 11 a.m. If you can’t make this one, no worries; there will be another cooking class on Sunday, March 10 at 11 a.m.

The Margarita Grille in Westhampton Beach has deals of the week, specifically for the off-season. Starting off with Monday Margarita Night, where you can enjoy $9 house margaritas from 4–6 p.m. Then we have Taco Tuesdays, where there will be $5 and $6 tacos all night long until 9 p.m. On top of that, there are also special tacos offered that change every week to keep things interesting.

Wednesday night is Burger Night, where there’s a special burger menu, followed by Thursday Burrito Night, with a special burrito menu, both available from 4–9 p.m. Top it all off with lunch specials Monday through Friday from noon–4 p.m., where you can do a double food combo of either a soup, salad or sandwich. Sounds like a lunch lover’s heaven!

DID YOU KNOW?

Stay healthy with local honey; it can be particularly beneficial during the winter months due to its antimicrobial properties, which may help boost the immune system and provide some relief from common cold symptoms. Hampton Coffee Company features hyper-local honey on its Shop Local Shelf from Honey Rocket Apiaries. Interestingly, the color of the honey is determined by the blossoms that Honey Rocket collects from — buckwheat blossoms make a deep, warm, dark-colored honey, while wildflowers create a lighter-colored honey. Hampton Coffee Company features honey made from all of their hives, so shoppers can choose the shade and town of the honey that they like most.

In addition to its beneficial immunity properties, honey is a great natural sweetener, a source of energy, and it may help improve digestion. According to Hampton Coffee Company, mixed with some cinnamon, it makes for a delicious and healthy hot caffe latte, too.

BITS AND BITES

It’s Thursday Steak Night at Elaia Estiatorio! Every Thursday, join the restaurant for a chef’s special steak entrée.

Cove Hollow Tavern has Tavern Hour from 5–6 p.m. Thursday through Monday, featuring $5 beers, $10 wines, $14 cocktails and $15 bites.

Canoe Place Inn in Hampton Bays has Cocktail Hour from 4–6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

Pindar Vineyards in Peconic has live music every weekend on Saturdays and Sundays from 1–5 p.m.

Join eLTacobar in Sag Harbor for Taco Tuesday with an all-day Happy Hour from 11:30 a.m.–9 p.m. They also have Happy Hour on additional operating days from 3–6 p.m.

FOOD QUOTE

“I think preparing food and feeding people brings nourishment not only to our bodies but to our spirits. Feeding people is a way of loving them, in the same way that feeding ourselves is a way of honoring our own createdness and fragility.” – Shauna Niequist, author