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“North Fork Table and Inn”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	Suburbs	Moderate	Great

It’s funny where life takes you. Or at least where life took two of the city’s great chefs—one a pastry chef who made desserts at Gramercy Tavern as important as entrees, and one who made a name for himself at Aureole and Amuse. They now find themselves knee deep in the Long Island’s wine country—the North Fork. Last year, Claudia Fleming and her husband Gerry Hayden made a bold move. They ditched their Gramercy area apartment and bought the old Coeur des Vigne, a former French restaurant and inn in Southold. They were ready to start a new chapter. And to make sure it would be a chapter their customers wanted to keep on reading, they partnered with two old friends from the front of the house—Mike and Mary Mraz—the former service directors of Hearth and Gramercy Tavern (respectively). Talk about a dream team. And so The North Fork, a place my friend Jamie and I have been coming for four summers now, has made its official culinary arrival. We had dinner there last weekend with our friend Michelle, and with the meal we had, we could have walked out onto a buzzing slice of city sidewalk. Instead, we walked out to the sound of tree frogs, crickets, and rain soaking the leaves of wide old oak trees—to a cold, wet summer night in the North Fork.

When we arrived at the North Fork Table and Inn, quite ready for a glass of wine after a day of shopping at the outlets (we did very well), the bar was already crowded with folks drinking cocktails—there’s one perfect for summer made from prosecco and strawberry sorbet ($10)—and swapping plates of butter poached shelled lobster ($36) and bowls of silky potato leek soup hiked up with hickory smoked bacon and black pepper sour cream ($10). We had a few glasses of the Lieb blanc de blanc sparkling wine ($16.50, YIKES!, but fabulous) and moved to the dining room, to tables set with white tablecloths, tall stemware, and wide Frette linen napkins. Frette in the North Fork? Alert the media!

The dining room is simply and warmly done, with a dropped ceiling, and the original (slightly slanted) floors finished a dark walnut brown, a nice contrast to cream-colored walls lit with double sconces. The cozy bar area also has dark wood floors but it’s got these amazing wood-beamed ceilings that date back to the 18th century that were uncovered in the renovation.

Dinner was exceptional, which makes sense because Hayden is cooking ... [more, click below]

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Posted: June 4, 2006

Other restaurants in Suburbs :
+ Gaia in Greenwich CT   + North Fork Table and Inn   + Izakaya and the New Water Club in Atlantic City   + La Estacion (Fajardo, Puerto Rico) by special guest reviewer Kathleen Squires   + The Lunch Truck at the North Fork Table and Inn   

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