The Most Architecturally Interesting Dining Destinations of Summer

It has been a long, slow spring, with a literal and metaphorical fog hanging over the East End. But that fog is lifting, with summer in full swing. Restaurants are cautiously open. What a relief it is to leave our homes and our kitchens, to rely on someone else’s capable hands for dinner this time. Summer has never been so welcome on the East End.
With all the fervor surrounding dining out these days, you may be wondering where to begin. Start, I say, with some of the more architecturally interesting spots — though I don’t mean architecturally interesting in the conventional way. Landscape can be an architectural feature, too, and these days, landscape is just as important as a building’s structure itself. Although entering restaurants is still a slowly unfurling question, the landscape architecture of the East End’s restaurants is a thing to behold. These days, we’re all eating outside a lot more often, and, as we do, it’s time to consider where to share these most promising summer meals. Where should you eat this summer? Try some of these spots, which boast some of the most beautiful landscapes around.

TOPPING ROSE HOUSE
With a full view of the historic inn, enjoy the magical outdoor space of Bridgehampton’s Topping Rose House, which is lit with bistro bulbs and boasts a full garden of annual and perennial plantings. From inside the protected space, you’ll feel miles away from the bustle of the Hamptons traffic, even though Route 27 runs adjacent to it. At night, the soothing blues from the nearby pool are sure to put you in the mood for summer, a complement to Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s enticing food,

THE CROW’S NEST
This Montauk hotel and restaurant has always been a stunner as far as outdoor spaces go. With a rolling green hill that extends down to a private beach abutting Lake Montauk, The Crow’s Nest is known for its picture-perfect sunsets, which you can catch while dining al fresco with the restaurant’s 2020 slimmed down menu. Summer breezes and leaning grasses practically define this restaurant, which benefits from a little more time outside. And this year, they’ve introduced batched cocktails and picnic blanket rentals, too, though you can always sit at one of the pergola-shaded tables, beneath string lights, at twilight.

THE 1770 HOUSE
East Hampton’s 1770 House has an outdoor patio that feels like it’s straight out of a fairy tale. With lighting suspended in the trees — an astonishingly beautiful addition to the landscape — the patio is a world in and of itself. Made private by hedges, which wall off the area from the rest of East Hampton, The 1770 House’s patio is almost a secret to the uninitiated. The restaurant is now open for patio seating seven nights a week, with reservations available two days in advance. The menu is upscale: a three-course, $68 prix fixe dinner prepared by veteran chef Michael Rozzi, with two appetizers and a main course. The restaurant also offers selections from its carefully curated 250-bottle wine list, which is overseen by wine director Michael Cohen.