Let the Dining Room Match your Mood this Spring
Light. Bright. Fancy-free. With the changing of the seasons, so, too, comes a changing of mood. Dine out, but do it in places that make you feel lighter. Eat with the knowledge that al fresco is just a month or two away. With this in mind, we’ve compiled a few of our favorite spots — new, old, and up-and-coming — on the North Fork and North Fork-adjacent that are perfect for the spring mood. Read on for our picks.
Mattituck’s clean, bright Pizza Rita, which closed in 2023, was a loss to the community (the space was known for their superlative Neapolitan pies). But North Forkians are in luck. Nabeel Massoud has opened a family business, Fiocha Pizza. Alongside brother Kareem and father Charles — and a 6,000-pound wood-fired pizza oven shipped from Naples that fires pies in under two minutes — pizza in Mattituck is back. The sunny space is ideal for kicking back, relaxing, and diving into some of the best pizza this side of the Atlantic.
It may technically be on Shelter Island, but don’t discount a meal at the Ram’s Head Inn this spring. The beautiful and bright dining room offers one of the best backdrops for the season. On Thursday evenings, the Inn offers a special Supper Club menu, a multi-course meal for $55. With starters like a Brussels sprouts salad served with Granny Smith apples and toasted sunflower seeds and a choice of entrees — don’t skip the homemade pastas, like the rigatoni with a braised lamb ragu, smoked bacon, and Pecorino Romano — this is one spring meal that’s almost too good to pass up.
With an easy, breezy, down-home feel, Myles on Main, open since last summer in Riverhead in the Preston House & Hotel, recalls a sweet front porch. Clad in shiplap, this family-friendly spot has a casual menu that’s easy to love (a giant meatball is, in fact, as large as a plate, but there are plenty of things to meet every palate, from seafood entrees to steaks to pastas to a simple chicken paillard served in a lemon-caper sauce). And how could anyone feel anything but spring-like at meal’s end, with an Oreo dirt cup for dessert? Yes, it’s that kind of dirt cup: the one served with pudding, cookie crumbs, and even a gummy worm, just for kicks.
In 2023, Duffy Griffiths and Stephen Wirth opened Alizé Brewing Company, in Mattituck. Last July, they added a clam bar to the mix. What began as a pop-up operation has now become permanent. The bright, clean interior — matched by an outdoor seating area — is the ideal place to while away a spring afternoon or evening. Fried clams, of course, are a star attraction, but there is plenty more to draw hungry diners (steamed lobsters, seafood risottos, little necks, shrimp cocktail, fried fish sandwiches, all manner of salads, and plenty of options for landlubbers, too). They started as a brewery, and the beer still flows freely, but the seafood — and the vibe — is what’s on offer here this spring.
