Each year, Paumanok Vineyards hosts one of the loveliest end-of-summer meals around: the 10 Mile Dinner. Situated just next to the ripening rows of vines, it’s a beautiful alfresco evening focusing on what grows together and goes together on the East End, all sourced from within a 10-mile radius of the Aquebogue-based winery.
For years, famed local chef Tom Schaudel helmed the locavore-locapour dinner, but a scheduling conflict made for an interesting toque swap. This year, Chef Ryan Carroll will be bringing his own brand of hyper-local sourcing to the long, vineyard-bound table.
A Long Island native, Carroll’s love of the restaurant world started at the tender age of 14, when he started washing dishes in a local eatery in his native Sayville. It sparked something in the young man, creating a culinary compass that lead him straight to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and to a deep respect and drive for not just celebrating our local foodways, culminating in his farm-to-table-focused catering business, Wild Events by Ryan Carroll, but also in making sure no one goes hungry through his non-profit, Carroll’s Kitchen. Formed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Carroll’s Kitchen, is nearly at a million meals served to seniors, veterans and families experiencing the pain of food insecurity.
For Paumanok’s 10 Mile Dinner, his list of purveyors reads like a who’s who of East End agriculture: Sang Lee Farms, Deep Roots Farm, KK’s the Farm, Peconic Gold Oysters, North Fork Seafood, Catapano Dairy Farm, Crescent Farms, Treiber Farms and several other nearby favorites.
Paumanok’s 10 Mile Dinner is an end of the summer highlight, featuring ingredients sourced mere miles from the vineyard’s Aquebogue location. (Photo credit: Amy Zavatto)
“I think, honestly, working closely with the local venders and farms is the main goal and I’m sticking to that creed,” Carroll says of the event’s near, dear and delicious history. “That’s my game plan. I think what they do is so special. Small farms, fisherman, duck from Crescent, Braun’s for tile fish, watermelon from Sang Lee. It makes a huge difference.”
He’s also excited to be part of the continued drive to make the connection between locally sourced ingredients and pairing them with wines that are grown here as well.
“I think there’s a huge disconnect. I feel like there should be synergy between all three — the restaurants, the farms and the wineries,” he says.
This year, Carroll is also adding a new fun component to the evening: a farm-stand grazing station with local produce displayed in all its fresh glory to be snapped up as a sort of mezze/crudite way to whet the appetite.
“We continue to have a great partnership with long-time friend and supporter of Paumanok, Tom Schaudel. This year he was not available on the date we had in mind and we reached out to Ryan Carroll, as he has become known for celebrating the farms, fish and wines of the East End,” says Paumanok winemaker Kareem Massoud. “And of course, that is precisely what this event is all about.”
Paumanok’s 10-Mile Dinner will be held Friday, August 28 at 5:30 p.m. at Paumanok Vineyards (1074 Main Road, Aquebogue). Tickets are $220 and can be purchased here.
