The Crow’s Nest and South Edison – Best Beach Bites

What is the point of a new bikini, really, if one is going to gorge on the great eats of Montauk, NY and grow ripples of flab? Thus the joy of visiting a beach town in the early fall. So many flowy cover-ups to hide your excesses! So much food to suck down with the sweet salt air!

The best meal I had in Montauk last weekend was forks down at The Crow’s Nest Inn and Restaurant. We cooled off our hour-long wait with micheladas and jalepeno-infused cocktails and played ping-pong (in heels!) at the table outside.

Appetizers made love to our taste buds: airy whipped ricotta, flavorful hot and cold tomatoes (literally some hot, some cold). I just about died savoring their grass-fed rib-eye, a perfectly marbled, exquisitely cooked piece of awesome that makes you believe that unicorns and world peace are possible. And what a resurrection at the end! The salted caramel ice cream gives even the most misunderstood emo youth a reason to live. Not enough sweetness for you? Make sure to toast a marshmallow on a stick at the bonfire outside!

South Edison sadly just closed for the season, but what a season it was! Their Happy Hour should perhaps be renamed Elation Hour, or Ecstatic Hour, or Blissed-Out Bivalve Nirvana Hour. It’s simple really: $1 oysters from 2-5 pm, with an array of accents including a yum rasped ginger/scallion topping. Once dinner service kicks off at 5:30, the price triples for a shucked selection of Head of Harbors (Huntington, NY), Beausoleils (Prince Edward Island, NB) and more. It feels better to drop two Hamiltons for 20 oysters than a whopping six, no?

This bit of mid-day elegance is typical South Edison, which blends beach and bougie in the best of bites. Hungering for more? The house Fish N Chips, made of local hake, swaps fries for fantastic smoked potatoes. Put it on the list for next year!

For more information:

The Crow’s Nest Inn and Restaurant
4 Old W. Lake Dr.
Montauk, NY 11954
(631) 668-2077

South Edison
17 S Edison St.
Montauk, NY 11954
631-668-4200