Land & Sea Gala Offers North Fork Locals a Moment to Embrace the Seasons

For more than three decades, a grand party — and fundraiser for the East End Seaport Museum and Marine Foundation — featuring selections from across the local food and beverage scene has kicked off the annual Maritime Festival in Greenport Village. For many, the gala isn’t just about supporting the seaport museum but also seeing one another as a busy summer season transitions into a fall season proving, at times, even more grueling as tourists swarm the North Fork for wine, pumpkins and apple cider doughnuts.

That point has not been lost on the museum’s new executive director, Tracey Orlando, who pitched this year’s Mardi Gras maritime theme for the Land and Sea gala. “It’s something that I came up with given that the event has always been so important to us locals,” Orlando said of the event, traditionally attended by upward of 400 people. “It’s a party about us — it’s our party — so we’re just hoping to bring in a bit more elegance, dress for the occasion and have a blast.”

Orlando has worked with the East End Seaport Museum long enough to know the Land and Sea gala has taken place in various spots across the village, including at the museum adjacent to the Third Street ferry, so she is glad residents and businesses alike seem “genuinely very excited” about the gala taking place at Crabby Jerry’s this year after several years spent at the Greenport Yacht & Shipbuilding Company’s working waterfront property.

“We’ve had it so many successful years with Steve Clarke — he has been so generous — but it takes an awful lot of money to get electricity to the shipyard and, given an escalation in prices, we spoke with Claudio’s, who supported us with Tall Ships, not only to reimagine Land and Sea, but be good stewards to our donors’ dollars and the people buying tickets to offer something special while also reducing the overhead for us,” she said.

“It will be a very short walk to the after-party this year,” she added.

While Claudio’s will sponsor the event and after-party, it won’t be one of the usual suspects of purveyors providing food and drink throughout the evening, though Crabby Jerry’s kitchen will be passing appetizers to purchasers of VIP tickets, which allows indoor access to a select few between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. That said, a score of local businesses will still be serving food and drinks outside, including a signature Bug Light cocktail supporting the seaport museum, liquor from Montauk Distilling Company and, of course, beer from Greenport Harbor Brewing Company.

“We have six taps on the firetruck, so we always do at least three varieties, bring four to six slim barrels and almost always kick everything,” Greenport Harbor co-founder Rich Vandenburgh told The Express Magazine. “We have a lot of folks who love the Otherside IPA. We’ll have Leaf Pile because it’s that time of year, our Light Work Lager, which is a really easy drinking beer and a keg of Black Duck Porter.”

Though newer to the gala than Greenport Harbor, Danielle Sweeney of Montauk Distilling Company said the Riverhead distillery is excited to be returning for a third year. “We absolutely love the gala and everyone that is involved with the event,” Sweeney said. “We just launched our Montauk Hour Canned Cocktails, so we are really excited to spread the word.”

Gala-goers will be able to find their vodka Palmer and rum punch canned cocktails at the event, in addition to mango and pink lemonade Mermaid Water hard seltzers.

And what Land and Sea would be complete without an extensive raw bar?

The gala was more than a month out when putting together this critical piece, but event planner Diane Tucci of Main Street Agency already had several purveyors confirmed with Oysterponds Shellfish Company working to organize shuckers to shell 2,000-plus oysters from half a dozen local growers at two or three raw bars throughout the space.

“Our company was started in 2003 and I joined in 2013,” said Phil Mastrangelo of Oysterponds Shellfish Co., whose bivalves with a distinctively deep cup will be among those offered. “We have a healthy working company and a lot of oysters in the water [providing] a lot of environmental benefit. Our nursery where we start our seed is in Oysterponds Creek in Orient and once they are within about six to eight weeks of maturity, they get moved out to the bay. ... Right now we’re growing them out of Pipe’s Cove in Greenport, but we just took on another two leases in Orient.”

Oysters won’t be the lone example of culinary bounty borne from local waters. Among the offerings confirmed for the evening provided by area chefs was a shark chorizo prepared by ANKER restaurant’s Chef Diego Garcia, a dish Garcia said was inspired by his childhood growing up in Puebla, Mexico.

“It’s an Oaxacan chorizo made with local dogfish that takes me back home with its smoky flavor and Mexican spices,” Garcia said of making sausage from a local shark commonly tossed aside by commercial catchers. “It’s sustainable and it’s delicious. We cook from fin to tail at ANKER, so we try to use all of the fish, especially those that others might be scared to use like dogfish or porgy.”

Porto Bello — a beloved waterfront restaurant found just outside the village in Safe Harbor’s marina — also plans to bring the sea to the celebration, and though co-owner Bruce Garritano wasn’t sure whether the staff would be bringing lobster rolls or tuna crudo, neither option seem an unwelcome addition to the menu.

“The community and the vibe have been amazing for the past four years that we’ve been part of it,” Garritano said of the Land and Sea Gala. “It’s great to see all the local faces and business owners. It’s a lot of fun.”

Though the local restaurant industry was being hammered by summer business and doing its best just to make it through when The Express came a-calling to talk Maritime Fest, many, like Andrew Werts, owner of Ellen’s on Front, were gracious enough to respond with love about the locally focused and deeply loved annual tradition.

“The Land and Sea Gala is always a ton of fun, and some people really go all out on their outfits,” Werts said. “My son is 6, so I am excited to bring him down to the water for some of the fun family events.”

The Land and Sea Gala takes place 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. on September 22 with V.I.P. access from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Visit eastendseaport.org for tickets and more information.