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Bed and breakfasts on Long Island's North Fork

BY SYLVIA CARTER | Special to Newsday

May 25, 2008

A double room at the Orient Inn, a five-room inn on the North Fork of Long Island (Orient Inn Photo / May 23, 2008)

Want to wake up to fresh local duck eggs at a farmhouse that is surrounded by a vineyard? Spend the night at a working fruit farm and gather raspberries after breakfast? Bring your dog to spend the night? Stargaze from a backyard observatory?

All these adventures and more await you at bed and breakfasts on the North Fork of Long Island. (There are unique stays on the South Fork, too, but we couldn't cram everything into one story. More later.)

Though many of the bed-and-breakfasts are in handsomely restored farmhouses, they often offer the usual Wi-Fi service and other modern embellishments. Summer is, of course, high season on the East End - many B&B's have a two-night minimum stay on the weekends. Still, many are happy to accommodate guests for a single night, particularly during quieter times of the year.

Below are some of the more unusual B&B's ready to open their doors to you. Rates quoted are for a night, based on double occupancy.

Andrew's Legacy 35995 Main Rd., Cutchogue 631-734-6052, andrewslegacy.com

Rates: $190-$220

Details: The MacNish family, which runs this B&B with three guest rooms, is rich in family lore and legend. Earlier generations were avid duck hunters as well as innkeepers, but today, Mark MacNish said, they keep chickens so they can serve the guests fresh-laid eggs for breakfast.

What's special: All food served is made on the premises, including jams and jellies made from homegrown herbs and fruits, and house-baked bread.

On the grounds there is an herb garden, a shade garden, a cutting garden, a rose garden and, in the front, a cottage-style garden. Some "learning vacations" are offered, on the themes of making jelly and jam, cultivating and preserving herbs, collecting antiques, and starting a garden from seeds, cuttings and root divisions. The B&B is next door to Bedell Cellars and is within walking distance of five other wineries and several farm stands. The resident Westie is named Emily.

Red Barn B&B 733 Herricks Lane, Jamesport 631-722-3695, redbarnbandb.com

Rates: $195-$295

Details: James Slezak owns this 1898 farmhouse B&B with his wife, Linda, who makes three-course breakfasts as well as goodies for teatime. Jim leaves a decanter of brandy in the common sitting room for guests who want a nightcap. Woodside, an apple orchard, is nearby, as is Martha Clara Vineyards.

What's special: In the backyard you'll find the most modern stargazing equipment. James has a small observatory with a telescope linked to a computerized mount. Deep-space objects and faraway galaxies can be found in the night sky, using celestial coordinates.

Orient Inn 25-500 Main Rd., Orient 631-323-2300, orientinn-ny.com

Rates: $185-$250

Details: Rocking chairs grace the inn's enormous front porch. Inside, five bedrooms each have private bathrooms and air-conditioning.

What's special: Four-legged friends are welcome in the inn's lone pet-friendly room (there's a $50 surcharge for deep-cleaning). When the weather is fine, dogs also may dine with their owners at an outdoor table. But can pooches sit at the table? "They can do anything they want. It's their table," says owner Joan Turturro. Orient Inn, too, will offer offseason cooking classes led by Turturro, a graduate of the French Culinary Institute, and guest chefs.

Shorecrest 54300 County Rte. 48, Southold 631-765-1570, shorecrestbedandbreakfast.com

Rates: $215-$475; separate beach house, $475-$625

Details: This Victorian mansion, built in 1897, has English-style gardens worthy of novelist-poet-consummate gardener Vita Sackville-West. The landscape qualifies as spectacular, too, as the house is perched atop a crest of land overlooking Long Island Sound to the north and Ashama-moque Pond, an inlet of Shelter Bay, to the south. Shorecrest has beach rights and private dockings on both those bodies of water, and kayaks and canoes can be rented locally. There also are hiking trails and preserves nearby.