The holidays are full of contrasts — swells of joy from gathering friends and family balanced against the heightened stress of, well, gathering friends and family.
If accommodating as many dietary requests, food allergies and culinary aversions as political opinions and personalities is bringing you close to the brink, we’ve got you covered. We can’t offer group therapy, but we can take the cooking off your hands with a collection of beautiful private dining rooms across the North Fork. Whether you’re looking for a beachside dinner with a view, a cocktail party in a Gilded Age setting or a family-style Italian feast like Nonna used to make, our guide has something for every mood and appetite.
Touch of Venice
If your family keeps expanding, head over to Touch of Venice (28350 Main Road, Cutchogue, 631-298-5851), where their private room holds up to 48 guests but can be increased by opening the doors to a second room for seating up to 70. At this long-standing, beloved Italian staple run by the Pennacchia family since 1988, the menu stays fairly traditional, full of comforting Italian flavors with fresh ingredients sourced from local East End farms and waters. The feel at Touch of Venice’s private events is festive but casual, with sprawling buffet dinners with salads, an antipasti table, pastas and entrees — including signatures like stuffed artichokes, veal ricotta meatballs in a lemon-garlic sauce, crisp arancini stuffed with ‘nduja and classic eggplant parmigiana, plus overflowing pastry and dessert platters. If a buffet isn’t your vibe, they offer family-style feasts for smaller groups. Just like at Grandma’s, no one will leave hungry.
18 Bay
Italian-inspired North Fork farm cuisine is the hallmark of 18 Bay, now permanently located in Jamesport (370 Manor Lane, Jamesport, 631-809-3542) after its last longtime incarnation on Shelter Island. The restaurant is a charmer; chefs (and husband and wife) Elizabeth Ronzetti and Adam Kopels are known as much for their handmade pasta as their thoughtful hospitality. During the holidays, 18 Bay offers two second-floor private dining rooms; the smaller one can host up to 15 of your family and friends, and the larger up to 35.
Menus are four courses and change regularly to reflect what’s available from local farms, waters and the restaurant’s own garden. That means Peconic Bay scallop crudo with blood orange; hand-cut black pepper pappardelle with capon ragu; braised short ribs with crispy sweet potato and pickled cucumbers. The chefs, who received a James Beard semi-finalist nod for Best Chef Northeast, are also happy to work with you to create a completely custom menu. And for a festive holiday touch, the team also loves to curate custom beverage experiences like welcome cocktails, curated wine pairings, spritz menus and the like. Cheers, indeed.
Legends
For more than three decades, Legends (835 1st St., New Suffolk, 631-734-5123) has been a staple for sports and bar food. In 2024, owners Dennis and Diane Harkoff sold the restaurant to Andrea Tese, who also owns and operates Minnow at the Galley Ho across the street. She and head chef David Miguel, who’s been a part of the Legends family for 22 years — beginning as a dishwasher and moving up to top toque — have taken a more refined approach to the menu and transformed the space into an elegant yet comfortable and inviting room for dining and conversation. It’s wrapped in deep teal walls hung with paintings of whaling ships and rough seas, giving the intimate feeling of a gastropub on the rugged west coast of Ireland.
Legends offers a private dining room for gatherings of up to 60 guests with a customizable menu that nods to Miguel’s Guatemalan heritage and highlights local produce and seafood, letting the ingredients and seasons of the North Fork take front and center. Dishes include calamari served both fried and sautéed in butter and garlic with pickled peppers and scallions; baked clams with chorizo, onion, garlic, Parmesan breadcrumbs and herbs; roasted cauliflower with Greek yogurt, toasted pistachios and pomegranate molasses; and a Korean-style thinly sliced beef bowl with sweet garlic-soy bulgogi sauce over jasmine rice and seasonal charred veggies. With views of Peconic Bay, it’s as cozy as home but without the dirty dishes in the sink.
Silver Sands Motel
For a beachside holiday without the hassle or cost of a flight, book your dinner at Silver Sands Motel & Beach Bungalows (1400 Silvermere Road, Greenport, 631-997-1957), the thoughtfully rejuvenated 1950s-era boutique motel set on 45 quiet acres along Pipes Cove with 1,400 feet of white-sand shores.
Silver Sands stays open year-round and keeps two of its restaurants open as well: Nookies and the Boathouse, both of which accommodate private dining. If you’re hoping to host an intimate gathering, Nookies can accommodate up to 22 seated, while the Boathouse space is larger and can seat 80 to 100 for standing cocktails (perhaps a New Year’s Eve fête) and up to 45 for a seated private dinner. Both restaurants offer a menu that’s fully customized to your tastes by chef Fintan O’Hara, who honed his skills in Manhattan spots like Osteria Morini, Cervo’s and The Four Horsemen — fish-forward, highly seasonal plates like marinated scallops with lemongrass, Peruvian green sauce and green apple; roasted local fish with salsa verde, olives and pine nuts; braised beef with collards, brown butter and sunchoke puree; and vegetarian plates like sweet potato in red curry with ginger and coconut milk.
Jedediah Hawkins
This historic 1863 Italianate Victorian estate turned luxury boutique hotel offers some of the most glamorous Gilded Age-adjacent holiday dining on the North Fork. The menu at Jedediah Hawkins (400 South Jamesport Ave., Jamesport, 631-722-2900) tracks the seasons as you would expect from a farm-to-table restaurant on the East End — Atlantic halibut with confetti potatoes and lobster nage; La Belle Farms air-chilled duck legs confit with bourbon cherry glaze and seasonal succotash; garganelli with pesto, cherry tomatoes, house-made ricotta and aged Parmesan. The restaurant offers three distinct private dining spaces: the formal main dining room (seats about 35), the glass-enclosed solarium (seats about 40) overlooking the inn’s 22 acres of manicured gardens, and a hidden subterranean speakeasy (seats 18) located in the basement, built using historical stone ballast weights once carried by the captain’s trading ships — the perfect spot for your Gatsby-styled New Year’s Eve cocktail soiree.
The Old Mill Inn
A former tidal grist mill, the Old Mill Inn (5775 West Mill Road, Mattituck, 631-621-2251) offers gorgeous views of Mattituck Inlet and several private dining options in a historic 200-plus-year-old local haunt, respectfully transformed in recent years by owners Anthony Martignetti and Angela Ledgerwood.
The restaurant offers private dining options in several tucked-away spaces: The Osprey Room (up to 26 seated/40 standing), their enclosed heated and covered porch (up to 26 seated/40 standing), or the entire restaurant buyout (up to 70 seated/100 standing).
The food is crafted by chef Joe Andrews, a Riverhead native who was executive chef at Cittanuova in East Hampton for 10 years before joining the Old Mill Inn last year.
Chef Andrews’ menu is hyperlocal with oysters plucked from the bay, fish caught daily by local neighbors and seasonal vegetables from North Fork farms. Cocktail receptions with views of the inlet feature passed canapés like rosé mignonette oysters and Montauk tuna crispy rice to more substantial bites like seared scallops with tarragon butter, fried oyster sliders and local mushroom tartlets with gremolata. For sit-down dinners, canapés during cocktail hour are followed by a multi-course menu tailored to your vision — think house-made biscuits and focaccia and fish and chips alongside refined seasonal dishes like grilled Point Judith squid, burrata with confit heirloom tomato and simply grilled local tilefish. To drink, the bar batches custom seasonal cocktails including the Old Mill Martini (classic or spicy), a house Negroni on tap, cucumber gimlet, and spiced pear margarita, alongside Martignetti and Ledgerwood’s Old Sound Vineyard wines and a curated selection of local and international vino.
Watershed Kitchen
Back in September 2020, Patricia Rincon and James Mangiacapre took over the South Jamesport Inn and Restaurant, opening The Watershed Kitchen and Inn (46 Front St., South Jamesport, 631-779-3454) with a menu that pulls from Rincon’s Dominican roots, Mangiacapre’s Italian heritage and chef Jorge Aparicio’s Mexican background. The restaurant is laid-back and luxurious at once, bringing a cottage-meets-boutique hotel vibe to the vineyard-strewn Peconic Bay coast.
Watershed’s private space comfortably accommodates up to 40 guests for a seated dinner and up to 80 for cocktail-style receptions and buffet dinners. If you’re picking your menu, don’t miss the Chubby Cheeks meatballs (based on a family recipe), the roasted guajillo chicken, or the chicharrón — fried pork belly, red onion and red pepper doused in Maggi sauce. This is the perfect spot to tuck in, sit back, relax and enjoy the holidays.
