South Fork Kitchens

The menu changes each week with all farm to table, local foods that will blow your mind.

Hidden inside the Stony Brook University campus (aka the old Southampton College) is one of the best bites in Southampton right now. Stony Brook has recently been leasing their commercial kitchens inside the Student Center to the Amagansett Food Institute. Their first farm-to-table cafe named the South Fork Kitchen, opened in September, and it is working. The food is fresh, innovative, healthy and delicious and best of all, local.

In the top picture you can see the guy running the whole show, Jack Formica. He's not only the chef coming up with the original and inventive menu, but he's also prepping, cooking and serving it all as well. I do have to admit my bias of being friends with Jack since birth, but that changes nothing. His love for food is evident in everything he does in his little shop and I can’t wait to see where he goes with it.

Before I start in on the food I just want to prep you for what you are looking for. If you walk up and it’s a brick building that looks like a college gym you are in the right place. As you come in the front door you will see a cafeteria looking space that they have turned into a pop-up like farmers market. The classic table clothes, miss-matched chairs/stools and great art on the walls will help get you in the mood for a down to earth meal.

My mom and I had a hard time not ordering everything off the menu, but decided on four of the different dishes and shared it all. We started off with the roasted parsnip soup which was dairy free, it was pure parsnip and was incredible. The flavor he extracted from this winter root vegetable that isn’t normally too interesting was perfect. He toped it with fried parsnips and toasted sunflower seeds that gave the soup texture and made your mouth water just looking at it. The second thing we had was the roasted beets with homemade ricotta. This was my personal favorite. Beets are one of my favorite foods and he roasted them and cut them up in to small pieces coated with a little balsamic and oil. This was on top of homemade ricotta made from Mecox Dairy. He grilled some pita and nestled on the side and this was all placed on top of a bed or arugula. I wanted to freeze this with Walt Disney so I could have it forever. The third bite was his special of the day, mussels, with a thai sauce based with coconut milk, topped with sriracha sauce that gave the perfect kick. After finishing a heafty bowl of fresh mussels my mother and I fought over who could guzzle the broth and begged for more. The last but certainly not the least was the slow roasted pork taco/chipotle chicken taco. We were lucky to get the last bit of the slow roasted pork which he had made that day and got a bite of the chicken one as well. I'm partial to the pork since that's always my favorite and falls apart in your mouth but they were both delicious. They were topped with a cilantro/cabbage slaw and some pickled onions! Although we had reached maximum capacity two plates before that we pushed though and had to finish it all, it was too good.

As I'm sure you have noticed from my gushing enthusiasm, this spot is going to be my weekly lunch break the entire upcoming summer. I can't wait to see what he can do with Southampton's ridiculously abundant and farm fresh summer foods. Please stop by and say hi to Jack and eat to your hearts content. Your tummies will be happy, as will your wallets since everything is an average of $5-$7, and you can take it togo, so you have no excuse. Okay stop reading and get in ur car now...