Goodbye Summer

Lesson learned from this weekend: planning is a waste of time. Okay, not really, but that idea I had about heading to the Shinnecock Pow Wow this weekend was a total bust.

Teababe came out from NYC to visit me this weekend, which is always a treat. First, there's the company, which is awesome, but then we get to run around and do all kinds of things I don't usually think to do. We started out with a driving adventure to Montauk. Now, this is Friday of a big holiday weekend - it's a basic Hamptons survival skill to stay off Route 27 East, the main road, to get anywhere.

So, trusting the GPS, we took off on a set of twisty back roads. I suspect that my portable navigator has developed something of an electronic sense of humor, though, as it apparently spontaneously decided at some point that where we really wanted to go was in a little cul de sac somewhere in the wilds of North Sea. Fortunately for me, Teababe is a patient kind of girl.

So the reason we drove 1 hour for dinner: The Inlet. This was a recommendation from a friend way back in the spring, and I've been thinking about that dinner ever since. The return trip was just as good, which is saying something. The Inlet is cool for many reasons: it's super cute, it has a great view of the water, the service is consistiently friendly and excellent, there's a good sushi bar as well as an extensive (non-Japanese) cooked menu - and the fish is incredibly fresh. According to the review I read, the restaurant is a venture by a cooperative of 6 fishing boat captains. You can see the boat dock from the bar. Did I mention the fish is fresh?

A diner at the next table leaned over as she prepared to leave and said "Order the tuna tartare. It's amazing, it has the most amazing dressing and pieces of mango in it. I've been to some good restaurants but that's the best thing I've ever had." We believed her, and she was possibly right. There was also a lovely day-boat scallop ceviche with lots of cilantro that all but took my breath away.

The only disappointment was a roasted monkfish that was a little overdone that we shared for an entree, but fortunately, we also ordered more sushi, so on the whole the dinner came out pretty much wonderful. We had a spicy tuna roll that was wrapped in slices of astonishingly buttery avacado (a food I usually don't like, but if it's paired with delicious raw tuna I'll risk it) that was especially memorable. Finish it off with a lovely bottle of a local Pinot Grigio and serve at sunset... hard to beat.

Once we finished up and waddled back to the car, dessert seemed all but impossible. By the time we got back to Bridgehampton a half hour later, though, I decided we needed one last culinary treat. And to run the entire spectrum of the Hamptons in one evening, the only possible answer was a stop at Tugboat's for a Guinness float. We picked up a pint of chocolate ice cream at King Kullen and made for Southampton.

Now, the first time someone suggested that I let him drop a scoop of chocolate ice cream in my Guinness, I told him he was out of his mind. But as Tugboat rightly told me then, he's never steered me wrong. The chocolate sweetness against the stout beer is wonderfully rich and unexpected. Ice cream goes in first, BTW, and drink it with a straw. You want to finish it just about the time the last of the ice cream melts.

After all that, all we could possibly do was go home, set up the air mattress, and try to recover in time for the next day's culinary adventures...

P.S., I've just read two awful reviews of the place on TripAdvisor when I went looking for a photo to share. They are wrong, wrong, wrong.