This past Memorial Day, we followed in the footsteps of many other city residents by choosing to retreat to a more "peaceful" locale outside of NYC.
In our case, we went to the North Fork of Long Island for the weekend and stayed in Mattituck, which provided us easy access to the rest of the North Fork and its many wineries and restaurants. Although we had several good meals while on Long Island that weekend (including the great Love Lane Kitchen in Mattituck itself), our most anticipated meal, which also lived up to our expectations, was at the acclaimed North Fork Inn and Table in Southold.
We took my in-laws there to celebrate their 40th anniversary with a quiet lunch away from the rest of the family. "Peaceful" is definitely the right word to use to describe the experience, from driving into Southold, to the quiet, simple dining room and the accommodating staff. We started our meal with the "breakfast breads" which included a scone, muffin and sticky bun. Each were fantastic and well-portioned.
While everyone else ordered a meat-based dish for their main course, I settled on the housemade cavatelli with mushrooms and ricotta. It was great - the pasta was firm, and there was a good combination of savory from the mushrooms and herbs and sweet from the ricotta. The only downside was that the health serving of ricotta may have made the dish too heavy, but I wasn't really one to complain during our relaxing, out-of-town weekend :-)
I look forward to returning during our future visits to eastern Long Island!
57225 Main Road
Southold, NY
The restaurant is located 15 minutes (by foot) from the Southold LIRR station.