How Pop-Up By Rocco Is Tempting Southampton Palates

Fresh ingredients. Its the major driver behind the menu of Pop-Up By Rocco, the seasonal Southampton restaurant whose namesake, Rocco DiSpirito, is entering his third season on the East End with this culinary endeavor. With a menu that changes daily and is framed by “…Italian coastal flare with a lot of focus on seafood, pasta and [vibrant] sauces…” DiSpirito’s eatery is open Thursday through Sunday. DiSpirito admits the combination of the East End’s beauty and the knowledgeable foodies who come out to dine is a major reason why he’s set up camp at 136 Main St. for the second consecutive summer.

“I’m out here every summer and love cooking out here at home along with the access I have to the local ingredients, local seafood, the local tomatoes, the local berries—these are all such inspiring elements to have to work with,” he said. “I always thought it might be fun to cook out here and it turns out that it is a lot of fun. You get to interact with some of the greatest eaters in New York and you get the greatest ingredients. The tomatoes out here really get me. The fresh tomatoes are in half the dishes. We make fresh tomato sauce, fresh tomato and burrata salad. There are tomatoes on toast. They’re everywhere.”

The menu is clearly no joke with mouth-watering entrées ranging from linguine vongolo and spaghetti pomodoro to sweet nut encrusted halibut and paccheri pesto rosso. Throw in an extensive wine selection, intimate atmosphere and an attentive wait staff and you have the recipe for the kind of curated dining experience DiSpirito conjured up when he was running his storied Manhattan restaurants Union Pacific and Rocco’s. For DiSpirito, the pull of the East End dates back to the mid-‘90s when he was asked to participate in one of the first James Beard House Foundation’s summer events at Wölffer Estate Vineyard.

“I remember thinking everything was very beautiful and I also remember being stuck in traffic for hours,” he said with a laugh. “The story of that weekend has a lot to do with traffic, pulling over to take breaks and that kind of thing.”

But long before DiSpirito took advance courses to graduate early from Cathedral Prep Seminary in Elmhurst to attend the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) up in Hyde Park, the Jamaica, Queens resident’s culinary passions were stoked by memories of family and food.

“Some of my earliest memories are of watching my grandmother peel and can tomatoes,” he recalled. “Also, watching various relatives prepare homegrown rabbits, pigeons, guinea hens, tomatoes again, garlic, peppers from the garden and turning into some of the most delicious food I’ve ever had to date.”

What sealed the deal for DiSpirito going down this cooking path was getting a job as a tween at a local pizzeria.

“Food has always represented safety, warmth, society, happiness and joy to me,” DiSpirito explained. “I think part of what attracted me to the business was that first of all, they would hire an 11-year-old in a restaurant. What other business is going to do that? And they paid me to eat food basically. As an 11-year-old working in a pizzeria, I was able to eat pizza, Italian ice and get paid to do it. I really enjoyed commiserating with customers and fellow employees and experiencing the joy you can feel in the restaurant business.”

Over a career that’s found DiSpirito owning and running restaurants, writing cookbooks and eventually becoming a television personality, he’s been able to boil down the basics of going beyond being a mere cook. Among the ingredients he admits go into becoming an exemplary chef are being a great teacher and a really good technician who “…knows how to cut, slice, dice, sauté and deglaze so when you show people how to do it, they will first of all recognize there is skill and they understand there is some skill to respect.” It’s a gastronomical tool kit DiSpirito gladly brought to the East End for a clientele that isn’t so different from his New York City customers, who oftentimes make that jaunt eastward either for a weekend or the entire summer.

“It’s the heart of Southampton, so you’re talking about some of the greatest diners in the world,” he said. “People who have traveled and understand and love food and chefs. I think as a chef out here in the summer, I think you’re very blessed. It’s such a wonderful crowd of people supporting you.”

Chef Rocco DiSpirito’s Pop-Up By Rocco Restaurant is located at 136 Main St., Southampton. For more information, visit popupbyrocco.com or call 631-488-4570.