Star Chef Sam Talbot’s Newest Kitchen
The newest kitchen in town is an ancient Air Stream trailer, outfitted for the talented hands of Sam Talbot, a TV chef and formerly executive chef of Montauk’s Surf Lodge and Manhattan’s Imperial #9. It’s parked on the “Dirt Lot” at Ditch Plains Beach, Montauk’s surfing core, and the fare offers some of the most skillfully treated flavors ever to hit East End sands. Talbot is partnering with restaurateur Zachary Lynd who launched Turf as a lobster roll food truck in 2011. The daytime vibe is pure Ditch Plains, surfers, bikinis, a jammed parking lot with some customers without an East Hampton parking sticker walking two miles from Montauk.
Within days, possibly this Friday, Turf will hold occasional three- or four-course early evening dinners on the beach announced in social warp speed on Facebook and Twitter. If the daytime menu which runs until 6 p.m. is any measure, Dirt Lot Dinners (no parking restrictions) would even be worth the walk.
The lobster roll is excellent. But it’s other dishes that set Turf apart from food trucks and even local restaurants. For example, There’s a salad of sugar snap peas, thinly sliced roasted radishes, fresh cheese, seeds, which exemplifies the Talbot trademark: a melange of impressions that both balance each other and surprise, crispy, crunchy, salty, sweet, fresh, mellow. “Talbot is amazing,” said one customer as he dug into cold ratatouille.
The prices and offerings for the first “Dirt Lot Dinner”? “We’re not there yet,” says Talbot. It depends upon what local farms, fishermen and other producers will have available that day. With talented hands at the stove, there’s flexibility to operate at social-warp speed. For updates, check Facebook, Twitter or log on to andturf.com. Turf opens daily for the season on June 28.
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