(Bloomberg) -- The concept of beach traffic goes to extremes on summer weekends on Route 27.  The sole road that links the Hamptons to the Long Island Expressway — the busy pipeline to and from New York City — is one of the East Coast’s most traffic jammed thoroughfares from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

That traffic, not to mention the Hampton’s packed venues and sky-high prices, are some of the reasons vacationers are heading instead to Long Island’s North Fork on the other side of Peconic Bay.

This summer will bring additional reasons to visit the 30-mile stretch of northeast Long Island characterized by rustic fields and roads that aren’t teeming with Mercedes G-Wagons. Its bucolic environment has become increasingly attractive to notable New York chefs like Ryan Hardy, who heads up the popular Manhattan restaurants Charlie Bird and Pasquale Jones. He recently renovated the retro motel Silver Sands in Greenport with former interior design executive Alex Perros, and added noteworthy dining options, too. It’s not the duo’s only new Greenport project: This summer they’ll open the coffee shop and bakery Pip’s Cafe & Provisions. 

Another chef who is busy in the area is John Fraser, who took over the North Fork Table & Inn in 2020; this summer he’s turning the restaurant into an à la carte dining spot and also dishing out smash burgers from his food truck.

The North Fork scene has also lured in big names outside the hospitality industry. A few years ago, ABC News correspondent Dan Abrams was so taken with the peninsula’s laid-back energy that he purchased Laurel Lake Vineyards in Laurel and renamed it Ev&Em. This summer, he’ll be pouring the new 2022 vintage for visitors.

While the Hamptons may have notable new spots to eat and party—not to mention a potential Zero Bond outpost—the North Fork has retained a lot of old-school, fishing-village charm with farmland vistas and wind-swept beaches at which people can still park for free. Here are seven additional reasons why you should look northward this summer.

Hotels

Silver Sands Motel & Beach Bungalows 

One of North Fork’s newest and coolest hotels is a collaboration between chef Hardy and longtime friend Perros. They’ve renovated Greenport’s iconic, 1950s-era Silver Sands Motel, which includes 10 beach shacks and bungalows and 20 hotel rooms, giving it a contemporary, cream-and-white beach vibe. Not least, they’ve overhauled dining and drinking options to feature what Hardy describes as the kind of food he wants to eat when he’s sitting in the sand. 

He means it: At Eddie’s, the outdoor restaurant that launched last July, guests can snack on various raw and grilled seafood preparations with their toes in the sand. There’s also a pizza truck that slings the kind of pies served at Pasquale Jones, including the restaurant’s beloved Little Neck clam order, with roasted broccoli rabe and lemon. Another dining option is Nookies, a family-friendly diner which debuted last fall, sporting shiny chrome detailing and mint green bar stools. The menu is stocked with tweaked classics, from farm eggs prepped in myriad ways ($14) to local fish and chips ($26) and even root beer floats ($14). The property’s Lobby Bar serves cayenne-spiced margaritas that you can take to the beach to watch sailboats pass by. Rooms from $245. 

Hotel Moraine 

After revamping Greenport’s boutique Menhaden Hotel, husband-and-wife team Kristen and Dan Pennessi (co-owners of local Croteaux Vineyards) took over the 1960s-era Sunset Motel. Last summer, they unveiled it as the Hotel Moraine, an upscale retreat perched on a grassy hill overlooking Long Island Sound. The property’s 20 rooms amplify the beachy environment with neutral tones and blue accents with wallpaper featuring swimmers and Riviera-style striped beach umbrellas. The poolside lounge serves lobster rolls ($30) along with a glass of prosecco or a grapefruit spritz. Rooms from $225.

Restaurants

Pip’s Cafe & Provisions 

Greenport community staple D’Latte Cafe will reopen in May as Pip’s Cafe & Provisions, a coffee house and bakery from Hardy and Perros. The place will serve Counter Culture Coffee espresso-based drinks pulled from a La Marzocco machine along with both almond and chocolate croissants, sourdough batard bread and seasonal focaccias, some made with rye and wheat from an upstate farm. The space, which has 20 interior seats and 12 on a front patio, will also stock such grocery items as olive oils, house-made pickles, whole roasted chicken and fresh pasta. 

Claudio’s

Claudio’s—a cluster of four very busy Greenport restaurants comprising Crabby Jerry’s, Claudio’s Tavern & Grill, Claudio’s Pizza and Claudio’s Waterfront—spent the offseason updating its properties’ looks and menus. Leaning into the dockside landmark’s history of more than 150 years, managing partner Celeste Fierro updated the predominantly outdoor restaurants’ aesthetic with a modern, nautical blue- and white-stripe look and a wall made of local buoys sourced from those who supply the restaurant with fish. Black-and-white photographs dating back to its 1870s add atmosphere.

New chef executive chef Darren Boyle, an alum of Shelter Island’s Chequit hotel, is serving fried green tomatoes with crab ravigote, as well as whole steamed lobster. A new sushi selection offers such options as spicy tuna with crispy rice and hamachi crudo made with fish fresh from the dock.

North Fork Table & Inn 

Arguably, the North Fork’s most refined restaurant is chef Fraser’s seasonally minded American spot in a white, colonial-style boutique hotel decorated with hydrangeas. After three years of serving only prix fixe menus, Fraser will go à la carte starting on May 16. (The six-course tasting menu will still be available.) Dishes change often according to what’s in season, but you might find littleneck clams laced with sun-dried tomatoes and garlic butter and cauliflower tatin with vermouth-poached raisins and vadouvan crème fraîche. The property’s food truck has been reconceived to sling smash burgers inspired by the seasonal topping-loaded ones at Big Grin, Fraser’s Boston kiosk. 

Legends Restaurant 

In summer 2023, ocean conservancy advocate Andrea Tese opened the buzzy restaurant Minnow in the North Fork’s New Suffolk. A few months ago, she bought Legends sports bar directly across the street. For the new incarnation, she’s kept the flatscreen TVs and U-shaped bar intact in the main room, and is holding on to staples from the vast American menu as clam chowder and a half-pound burger. 

But Tese is changing up other aspects of Legends. She recently acquired a commercial fishing license, enabling her team to catch rod and reel seafood like local fluke and black sea bass for the restaurant, with traceability on its sourcing, she says. Some of that fish will be woven into specialty maki rolls like the New Suffolk Roll (tempura fried white fish of the day, fresh shiso, plum sauce) and the Dayboat Roll (spicy scallop tartar, crispy sweet shiitake, scallion). They will be served at the new nine-seat counter in a small side room helmed by chef Hyun Soo Pak (formerly of Bondi Sushi), as well as at the restaurant’s roughly 20 tables. 

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Biggie’s Lunch 

In January, North Fork-based chef Steve Ammirati unveiled a lunch-focused casual American restaurant and bar in the former Erik’s Breakfast & Lunch space on Country Road 48 in Southold. (It’s a quick two minute drive from the popular Southold General cafe.) The space has a refreshed contemporary farmhouse aesthetic complete with an exposed beam ceiling. Ammirati also added a full bar where guests can order glasses of local Macari rosé, a Shelter Island pilsner, or raspberry coconut mojitos. The menu is stocked with sports bar fare like buffalo wings and mini bacon-cheddar wagyu sliders as well as ample sandwich options such as his pork belly-fortified Cubano.

Winery

Ev&Em Vineyards 

Three years ago, journalist Abrams bought quaint Laurel Lake Vineyards and embarked on a yearlong renovation with partner-sommelier Vanessa Price. The scenic winery now boasts picnic tables across a sprawling, manicured lawn, as well as sapphire blue- and white-striped sofas under a net roof that filters light. The partners invested in new oak barrels and overhauled the tasting room with a minimalist, neutral-toned look and are now pouring a lineup of wines, from gewürztraminer to pinot noir, all made with estate-grown fruit. 

Reservations to try the new 2022 vintages are encouraged but not required. You can sample predesigned wine tasting flights or order à la carte. Snacks include charcuterie and cheese made from local dairy farms such as Old Chatham Creamery and 5 Spoke Creamery.

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