It’s a trifecta of races.
No, it’s not the ponies. Or the Roses.
Rather a confluence of a few East End "culinary races."
First is the official launch of the summer season
starting with the bugle call of Memorial Day Weekend.
(Isn’t that a contradiction of terms - where “Day”
has morphed/slashed into “Weekend” – even as part of the moniker?)
Then there is the race to get the beaches and
resorts of Long Island hit by Superstorm Sandy ready – or the “new” ready – for
summer.
This season finds Chef Keith Luce is once again
racing against time.
His latest sprint is to officially launch The
Square, his culinary destination on the North Fork.
When I researched additional locavore chefs for an
expanded manuscript for my book, the now recently-released book, “The
Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook,” I was already impressed
with Chef Keith Luce’s farm to table knowledge and practices.
When it came time to interview Chef Keith, frankly speaking, he was
reeling; coming off a grueling, boot-camp of sorts – in order to get his
Jedediah Hawkins Inn successfully opened with the help of his father, family --
and his agricultural heritage.
After all his family has been farming the North Fork
since the 1600’s.
And that number also figured into Chef Keith’s pedigree
-- as he was a White House chef in the Clinton Administration: with food
deliveries going to – 1600 -- on Pennsylvania Avenue, that is.
There seems to be no coincidences in this chef’s repertoire.
Now, this homegrown native son is doing the same deadline-dance
to successfully open all but one of his four distinctive venues this weekend in
Greenport’s Stirling Square.
And the final race was his innovative dash to raise
funds for the addition to his family’s farm via Kickstarter.
Crowd Funding sure to be a crowd pleaser
Within just two months, Chef Keith raised
approximately 52K to jump-start his North Fork Market Artisan Curing
initiative.
His Kickstarter request was described as “True farm
to tale artisan products with a focus on cured meats from humanely raised
animals being raised on my family farm.”
Chef Keith’s successful Kickstarter appeal http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chefkeithluce/love-lane-market-artisan-curing?ref=live
details the story behind his funding to build a stronger food network for the
free-ranging, fairly rare, heritage Mangalitsa pigs that Chef Keith had been
raising on the family’s six-acre farm.
The Kickstarter campaign raised funds to build a
smokehouse, a meat curing and aging room, buying grinders and salumi supplies.
The pigs are too cute.
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| Appropriately native to Hungary (ha!) these Mangelitsa pigs are too glamorous! Photo courtesy of The Food Network |
Farmer Luce knows a thing or two about farming and
sustainability and feeds the glamorous, curly-haired porcines (resist the Miss
Piggy references!) an equal dose of kitchen extras from the restaurants and
food remnants from local artisanal growers.
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| Chef, Farmer, Grower, Keith Luce |
Chef Keith even used glamorous hazelnuts as mulch in his Hawkins and Luce kitchen garden! I couldn't take my eyes off the tawny look.
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| Jedediah Hawkins Inn |
The homegrown salumi is a remarkable, dream-come-true for many area
foodies and restaurateurs.
Perhaps Chef Keith will be able to provide finished
meats to other local food aficionados…
The East End surely needed a homegrown salumi and
charcuterie like this – capturing the clean, rich, marbled pork of the Mangelitsa plus the added delicious, delight of locally-raised animals, to produce a premium taste.
Place
matters.
It’s why I advocate for “Taste Tourism.”
Food should taste different depending on the
culinary bounty of a certain area. The waters and soil create flavors unique to
a region.
The terroir and
meroir of Long Island provide
rapturous, special flavors simply not found anywhere else.
There is no disagreeing that the goddess of gourmet
waved her culinary magic wand over the food treasures to be discovered on the
Two Forks.
Just to be certain, take a look at Chef Keith’s farm
and taste his treats at The Square.
Go ahead.
Experience a culinary adventure.
X Marks The Square
When asked why he moved from Jedediah Hawkins Inn,
Chef Keith noted his business decision to move to Greenport and provide a
year-round culinary destination with partners who shared his vision.
Along with his wife, Marta and new partners, Scott and Veronica Hunzinger and
Jason and Kara Graves, whose collective experience includes expertise in
finance, marketing and business development, the team and their newly incorporated
NoFo Hospitality Holding LLC will work to realize this James Beard award-winning chef’s big dreams.
The Greenport historic Stirling Square property
includes four
distinctive venues at the site of the former North Fork Oyster Company on the
corner of Bay and Main Streets:
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| Main on the Square |
•
MAIN, a full service restaurant in the space formerly occupied by the North
Fork Oyster Company. The year-round restaurant features farm-to-table
ingredients and signature menu items including General Luce’s Duck Wraps,
the NoFo Cobb Salad along with house-made pastas, fresh oysters, as
well as seafood boils and bakes
•
NOSH, a “caffeinery” and small treat shop offering a range of beverages
along with savory and sweet goods, snacks and ice cream
•
PREP, The Square’s take on “street food” offers flatbreads fresh from a
wood-burning oven, cured meats, and more. Visitors can also watch the chefs
prepare pastas, baked goods, ice cream and other culinary offerings while they
wait
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| Widowmaker Flatbread: Duck confit, farm egg |
•
MEET, a unique tasting room for sampling interesting NY-produced beer, wine
and spirits, shopping for packaged and canned goods from neighboring farms,
participating in cooking or food and beverage pairing classes, or even enjoying
low-key acoustic musical performances * to open soon
Chef
Keith notes that he will source ingredients locally – from his family farm to
the on-site garden that he is working on.
Oysters
– which play a big part of the menu – Main
claims to “strive to serve all five species of oysters from Crassostrea
Virginica to Ostrea Edulis to Crassostrea Gigas – begs for Karen Rivera’s Peconic
Pearls www.peconicpearl.org/ locally
grown oysters – (Karen – please call chef!).
Karen
and her Peconic Pearls are also featured in The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook because she is
cited as a grower who inspires the local chefs.
“This
is a restaurant that is decidedly more casual than the Inn,” said Chef
Keith. ‘It’s a take on American comfort
food – with a twist.”
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| House Made Flatbread & Sandwiches |
Chef notes there will be mac n’ cheese, for example but
made with his own extruded pasta.
He’ll
do his lobster with corn and oyster chowder.
And then there is the new take or remake on his shrimp and lobster
meatballs turning the dish into a shrimp and lobster corn dogs!
Sort
of a “food folly” for the fun and easy days of summer.
The Main menu offers Daily specials from meatless Monday’s to Baymen’s Stew to homemade ravioli.
The Square is a food destination.
Think
of it is a European kind of food market village of sorts. The Square is
comprised of stand-alone bungalows that house unique food offerings. La Dolce
Vita!
And of
course The Square offers local drink from the area’s best Long Island wineries
and beer and spirit makers.
Let’s
hear it for LiV Spirits, http://www.lispirits.com/home.html Long Island’s First Craft Distillery and the
finest homegrown potato vodka. Plus
Sorbetta made with locally grown berries from SEPS farm, and the Island’s
first, single-malt, scotch-style whiskey, “Pine Barrens.” (This is another,
entire, locally Homegrown story!) Don’t
wait – buy and enjoy the Pine Barrens and the story will follow.
And
the family-owned Paumanok Vineyards, also featured in the Homegrown Cookbook,
produces the best Chenin Blanc (if
you can even get a bottle of this award-winning wine) to go with the local oysters: it’s
all in the unparalleled Long Island terroir
and meroir that give the meals here a
true “taste of place.”
www.paumanok.com
in Auquebogue. 631-722-8800.
For a full story of Chef Keith Luce and his
Homegrown Long Island agriculture roots, get your copy of: The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown
Cookbook: http://www.amazon.com/Hamptons-Long-Island-Homegrown-Cookbook/dp/0760337578
or http://tiny.cc/g9ihbw
Send me your address and I’ll send you an autograph
plate from me, the author – and I bet we can get chef Keith to sign too!
The Square is open seven days a week. For
hours, directions, menus, live music schedule, special events planning, and
reservations (for MAIN), go to www.nofosquare.com.
