SEASON OPENER

These seasonal South Fork restaurants are open for business

What is the greatest joy of summer? It may just be the long-awaited reopening of the area’s best seasonal restaurants. Here are just a handful of the seasonal restaurants that are now open for business. Dust off your flip-flops and get ready for warm weather’s best dining options in the Hamptons. 

The Crow’s Nest 
Opening two weeks before Memorial Day, this perfect Montauk space is back for its 12th season. Arrive before sunset and you’ll be treated to a light show on Lake Montauk. At dusk and beyond, carefully strung Edison bulbs over the restaurant’s pergolas provide delicate light. And don’t forget the food. The restaurant’s locally sourced menu draws its inspiration from the Mediterranean and beyond. 

Moby’s
Moby’s is the Hamptons gift that keeps on giving. In its incarnation, the seasonal restaurant was a pop-up in the Montauk parking lot adjacent to Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Café. In 2014, the restaurant moved to Pantigo Lane, in East Hampton, to the sprawling space that was once The Laundry. The restaurant called that space home for several seasons, until EMP Summer House took over. Moby’s spent a summer on the water, at East Hampton Point, before returning to Pantigo. That’s where they will be this year, beginning in late April, serving coastal Italian cuisine in a cool, casual setting. 

Beacon
There are few sunsets as magical as the one you catch from Beacon’s slim balcony — if you can get a table, that is. David Loewenberg’s Sag Harbor bistro on the water has been going strong for over two decades now, and the joy of eating there never subsides. Last summer, the restaurant offered reservations-only “sunset dinners,” a prix fixe, two-course meal with the best view in town. Let’s hope that idea carries through to 2021. 

Navy Beach
If you’re lucky enough to own a boat, you can pull right up to the rocky shores of Navy Beach, a seasonal Montauk restaurant on the bay that offers the best of both worlds: excellent food and excellent scenery. The 200-foot private beach that’s home to this iconic restaurant was once occupied by the U.S. Navy. Today, it’s the prime spot to grab a plate of Yunnan ribs (sticky, sweet, and hard to pass up), charred shishito peppers, and a jumbo lump crab cake with apple and chayote slaw. 

Harbor Bistro
In the Springs neighborhood of East Hampton, this seasonal restaurant reigns. Tucked into a marina, your dinner will include a peaceful view of the boats bobbing in the water at sunset. The restaurant will begin sit-down service on Memorial Day Weekend, though takeout is available before then. The restaurant’s nightly happy hour, from five to seven, features wine, cocktails, beer, and appetizers from $8 to $10. But you won’t want to miss out on the linguine with clams, made from bivalves caught right in East Hampton.