Maizeat pop-up restaurant opens at Southold hotel
Waterside dining with a global menu at the Maizeat pop-up at The Shoals in Southold. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
If you wanted to design a dining experience that mixed local, global and idyllic in equal measure, you might well conjure up the Maizeat pop-up in Southold. This summer, North Fork chef Cheo Avila has teamed up with the owners of Southold’s 3-year-old suites hotel, The Shoals, to offer Thursday-through-Sunday dining on a manicured lawn overlooking its marina and Peconic Bay.
Avila and co-chef Ai Ito create magic in their tiny truck-borne kitchen. He hails from Venezuela, she’s Japanese and the two of them spent the winter tooling around Asia. All of these influences — and many more — are evident in their regular menu.
Gochujang chicken wings from the Maizeat pop-up at The Shoals in Southold. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
The complex — low-slung and luxuriously weathered — is also the home of Little Ram Oysters, so you might see that crew hauling their catch into the processing shed. Certainly you’ll want to start your meal off with their oysters on the half shell, which Avila serves garnished with local celery leaves and tiny fish-shaped bottles of katsuobushi (cured tuna) ponzu sauce. Other starters include tuna tostada on pappadam (indian lentil cracker); sweet plantains with crema, salsa verde and cotija cheese; local clams, barely steamed open, and showered with chili crisp and fresh herbs and the equally finger-licking chicken wings with gochujang (fermented Korean chili paste), sesame seeds and scallions. There are also smashburgers and arepas, Venezuelan griddle cakes made from corn — "maize" is Spanish for corn, a mainstay of the Latin American diet. Most items are less than $20.
Now, regarding the irregular menu: Most Saturday nights are devoted to a theme. Recently Avila and Ito created a fish thali (South Asian sampler plate, $52) inspired by a visit to Goa on India’s west coast. Centered around a magnificent piece of halibut rubbed with the chefs’ signature masala, it featured a mount of coconut-steamed basmati rice, a curry of vegetables from KK’s The Farm (down the road), fresh mint chutney, spicy-crunchy laccha onions, a dal salad with beluga lentils, dried shrimp chutney and a pappadam.
A special Goa-style fish thali meal from the Maizeat pop-up at The Shoals in Southold. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
This Saturday will be a salute to Seville, with seafood paella, tapas, music and dancing. This is a ticketed event, $75 a person, and reservations are required. Future Saturday-night feasts will celebrate Brazil (grilled meats, caipirinhas and samba) and Havana (Cuban cuisine and a Buena Vista Social Club-style quartet).
Avila's first North Fork gig was Kontiki in Greenport (2017 to 2022), after which he went on to open Minnow at the Galley Ho in New Suffolk in 2023 and Nookies at the Silver Sands Motel in Greenport in 2024. Maizeat started last year as an empanada-centric pop-up at Lumber + Salt in Jamesport and Little Creek Oysters in Greenport.
Maizeat, 61600 Main Rd., Southold 631-765-5121, maizeat.com. Open Thursday through Sunday noon to 9 p.m., closed Monday through Wednesday.
