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BBQ BATTLE
Long Island's longest-running barbecue competition, the Battle of the BBQ Brethren (now in its fifth year), will take place over the weekend of Aug. 6 and 7 at The Maples in Manorville. The weekend promises to be a blast, with live music, a car show, cooking demonstrations and barbecue for sale from competition sponsor RUB BBQ of Manhattan (said to soon be opening a satellite restaurant in East Meadow).
Of course, the centerpiece of any competition is the cooking. On Sunday, teams will compete in a New York State championship in four categories: chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder and brisket. Saturday, however, there's a bit of a free-for-all: a grilling competition open to any and all comers. Backyard warriors will have to turn in an appetizer, two "chef's choices" and a dessert. The top finishers will go head-to-head against a celebrity BBQ chef in an iron-chef-ish "mystery basket" shootout.
Entrance fees are $250 for the BBQ competition, $50 for grilling. All net proceeds of this event will be presented to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Suffolk. For more details and to download applications, go to bbqbattleli.com.
FISH CELEBS
Artie's is my kind of seafood restaurant, a no-frills place attached to a fish market where much of the catch is caught by the proprietor, Artie Hoerning.
At lunch on July 4, Artie's had yet another attraction: Dave Pasternack, chef-owner of Esca, one of Manhattan's very best fish restaurants. When he's not cooking, Pasternack, who lives in Long Beach, is usually fishing, often in the company of Hoerning and his band of Nassau County angling confederates. I walked into Artie's and there was Pasternack behind the counter, picking out some just-caught flukes for Esca.
My pal and I sat down at the counter and soon I was throwing back six cherrystones. Next up: fried Ipswich clams -- there are none better on Long Island. Then a steamed lobster and one of those just-landed flukes. Artie's cook steams the fluke first, then runs it under the broiler so that it is crispy but still moist.
Pasternack and Hoerning were both excited about a recent fishing expedition they'd taken with celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich (a partner at Esca and at Eataly, where Pasternack runs the fish restaurant). Bastianich had wanted to go clamming and fishing, and so the two old salts arranged for her to do so in the Jones Beach inlet and environs. (The trip was filmed and we'll let you know when it airs on Lidia's television show.)
Artie's South Shore Fish and Grill is at 4257 Austin Blvd., Island Park; 516-889-0692.
KITCHEN REOPENING
After being shuttered by a kitchen fire over Memorial Day weekend,
Southfork Kitchen has reopened for dinner.
Southfork Kitchen is at 203 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Tpke., Bridgehampton, 631-537-4700.
