Featured Story

Easter Island: Where to eat, take out and shop this weekend

JOANN KIRKLAND PHOTO  Cornucopia owner Mary Lou Eichhorn showed off the many Easter-themed gifts available at her shop.
JOANN KIRKLAND PHOTO
Cornucopia owner Mary Lou Eichhorn showed off the many Easter-themed gifts available at her shop.

It must be spring, weather notwithstanding, since Islanders who want a holiday meal at a restaurant this weekend won’t have to take a ferry to find several choices for Easter dinner.

The new Vue Restaurant at Shelter Island Country Club opens its door Friday at 5 p.m. in a refurbished space.

The new dining spot will be open Saturday for lunch from noon to 3 p.m. and dinner  from 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday, doors open at 11 a.m. with service through to 7 p.m.

On Easter Sunday, diners will have several choices, including herb-crusted rack of lamb, pan-roasted salmon, sauteed shrimp, lump crabcakes and even omelets and poached eggs.

Ram’s Head Inn has a brunch menu from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then dinner between 5 and 10 p.m. The restaurant will be serving all weekend beginning on Friday night.

Appetizers include spring pea and tarragon soup, classic caesar salad, roasted baby beets and steamed littleneck clams. Entrees include broiled flounder, grilled lamb loin, roasted free range chicken, zucchini rollatini, Crescent Farms Long Island duck breast and grilled lobster with garlic and herbs.

The Shelter Island Tavern will open its bar this week at 4 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday. Dinner service starts at 5 p.m.

Easter Sunday  at the Tavern will feature a brunch between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. and a dinner menu from 4 to 8 p.m.

Owner-chefs Elizabeth Ronzetti and Adam Kopels won’t be open at 18 Bay on Easter Sunday, but they will be serving dinner Thursday through Saturday nights beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Want to host the holiday at home, but not have to slave over the stove? Marie Eiffel has the answer with Reddings ready to provide choices including boneless leg of lamb, roasted chicken, roasted duck and ribeye steak. That leg of lamb can be roasted for you or you can do it yourself. Prefer fish? Let Ms. Eiffel know what you want and she’ll order it for you.

She will also provide side dishes, including carottes vichy, Brussels sprouts and potato gratin, and desserts, such as flourless chocolate cake, tarte tartin and brownies. And if you want a message on that flourless cake, Reddings speaks and writes several languages — English, Hebrew, Spanish, Russian or French.

Get your order in as soon as possible, Ms. Eiffel advises.

Vine Street Café will be serving Easter dinner beginning at 5 p.m., co-owner Lisa Murphy said. Among the menu features will be grilled lamb t-bones.

The restaurant, which has been operating Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, begins service on Thursdays as of this week.

Schmidt’s will be open until 3 p.m. Easter Sunday with plenty of take home choices.

Whether it’s a gift for your dinner host or hostess or items for children, you can find plenty of items at Mary Lou Eichhorn’s Cornucopia. From “plush animals” and Easter baskets to chocolates and jellybeans, Ms. Eichhorn will fill your needs.

If you’re eating at a restaurant or at home, you still might want to bring a little spring into your surroundings, and Becky Smith at Shelter Island Florist has just the right assortment.

Easter is a big plant holiday, she said. It’s also a time for cut flowers more than arrangements and she has tulips and daffodils shipped in to help lift your spirits from the winter doldrums.