The northeaster that dropped more than three inches of rain on East Hampton Town at the end of September moved more than the weather forecast. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation cited "the extremely heavy rainfall and extraordinary amounts of stormwater runoff." It then temporarily closed Three Mile Harbor, Hog Creek, Accabonac Harbor, Napeague Harbor and Lake Montauk to shellfishing. With nowhere certified to dig, the East Hampton Town Trustees postponed their annual Largest Clam Contest and moved it to Saturday, Oct. 10, from noon to 3 p.m. at the Amagansett Life-Saving and Coast Guard Station Museum.
The new date lands the contest in the middle of the Stephen Talkhouse's busiest run of the month. It also falls weeks after the LIRR made its evening Friday train from Penn Station a year-round service. Amagansett's fall has always relied on a few institutions that stay open after Labor Day: the Trustees, the Amagansett Library, two working farms and a music hall. This year the storm and the train schedule have pulled much of that calendar into one three-day stretch.
How the Postponement Changed the Contest
The Trustees oversee many of the town's beaches, bottomlands and waterways on the public's behalf. They have run this contest since 1990 to celebrate the Bonac tradition of clamming. The event is free. Offerings include clams on the half shell, chowder and clam pie tastings, live music and a live marine animal exhibit from the town's shellfish hatchery. The East End Classic Boat Society will sell tickets for its 2026 raffle boat, and the museum will be open for tours.
The postponement also stretched the harvest window. Residents with a valid town shellfishing license can dig hard clams from Saturday, Oct. 3, through Friday, Oct. 9. The entry fee is $5, with one clam per contestant. Entries must come from the certified waters of Accabonac Harbor, Three Mile Harbor, Napeague Harbor, Hog Creek or Lake Montauk. These are the same waterways the state closed after the storm. When the Star reported the postponement on Oct. 1, a deputy clerk of the Trustees, John Aldred, said the waterways were unlikely to reopen before that day. He added that weather and tides would favor clamming the following week. Check the closure status of your harbor before heading out.
Prize baskets go to the largest clam from each waterway, plus one for the largest clam overall. Shellfishing licenses are issued to residents 12 and older, and those license holders compete in the adult category. Parents or guardians may enter one clam for each child ages 4 to 11 in the junior category. Juniors get a prize basket for each waterway but no overall winner. The judges are Suffolk County Legislator Ann Welker and Stuart Heath, whom the Star calls a fisherman and clam-shucking legend.
The entry rules matter because a bagging mistake can disqualify a good clam:
- Contestants get a red mesh bag. Put the clam and the $5 fee inside and tie it closed.
- Staple on a completed tag with your name, phone number, shellfish license number, harvest date and harbor name.
- Junior tags must also show the child's name, age and the word "Junior," plus the parent or guardian's license number and phone number.
- Chowder entries for the red and white categories must arrive already heated, in a 32-ounce container, by noon on Oct. 10. Judging is blind and scores appearance, body, balance of ingredients and depth of flavor.
Three Days, One Stretch of Main Street
Put the Trustees' new schedule next to the Talkhouse calendar and the days line up neatly.
- Wednesday, Oct. 7, 5 to 6 p.m. Mitch Winston and the Band of Natural Selection play "Words and Music" on the Amagansett Library lawn.
- Thursday, Oct. 8, 9:30 a.m. to noon. Clam entries are accepted at the Trustees' office in the Lamb Building on Bluff Road. That evening at 8, Joe Delia and Friends play the Stephen Talkhouse.
- Friday, Oct. 9, 3 to 5 p.m. This is the second window for entries at the Lamb Building and the last day to harvest. Chaparelle plays the Talkhouse at 8 p.m.
- Saturday, Oct. 10, 9 to 10 a.m. This is the final window for entries, taken at the Life-Saving and Coast Guard Station Museum. Chowders are due by noon, the contest runs from noon to 3 p.m., and judging is public. Phantom Planet headlines the Talkhouse at 8 p.m.
Under the original plan, the contest would have fallen on a Sunday, apart from these Talkhouse dates. Now the hamlet's most locally rooted daytime event and three straight nights of music share a single weekend.
The Friday Train Makes the Stretch Easier to Reach
Getting to Amagansett for this stretch is easier than it would have been a year ago. According to the MTA, the 5:13 p.m. train from Penn Station to Montauk used to run east of Speonk only in summer. Since September 2026 it runs year-round, giving riders a permanent one-seat ride from New York City to the East End. In past Octobers, a household with one member still in Manhattan on Friday had no direct evening option. Now that person can leave the city after work and still make the weekend.
The bigger rail change is still a few years away. The Montauk Branch has a 27-mile stretch of single track between Southampton and Montauk, which limits how many trains can run. The MTA plans to extend the Amagansett siding by 14 train-car lengths. That would cut the single-track runs to 16 miles between Southampton and Amagansett and 11 miles between Amagansett and Montauk. Work is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2028 and finish in the second quarter of 2029. After that, the LIRR will look to increase or improve Montauk Branch service. For now, the change residents can actually use this fall is the 5:13 train.
The Revived West End After the Summer
The west end of the business district came back to life this summer. In July, the East Hampton Star's Irene Silverman wrote that the area was "once dead as a desert." New businesses had opened in and around 136 Main Street, a 1920s building beside the Mobil station at the entrance to the business district. The corner gives anyone in town for the clam contest a short list of places to stop.
Sett Coffee serves doughnuts, croissants and cinnamon rolls, with a few tables inside and out. It was founded by Joan and Kelly Piccinnini of Springs, who also own the Clam Bar on Napeague. Next door, Sea Dragon Books is owned by siblings Tricia Hoefling and Charles Billings with their mother, Kristen Billings, all of Sagaponack. The family has a two-year lease on the space. Jamagansett, Lena Kristy's shop, opened in a passage across from the parking lot. It sells small-batch jams and pies made with fruit from farms on the South and North Forks, and its jams are carried at Amber Waves. One Stop Pet Shop is still there, as it was before the newcomers arrived.
Behind the Main Street building stands the rebuilt Lester livery stable, a three-story barn of about 9,700 square feet. Jenny Carmona moved her salon, LaParlour, into its ground floor after losing her space next to the pet shop last winter. She has since become a student of the building's history.
"The horses came through our double doors! The building was like a taxi. The New Yorkers would leave their horses here and be taken to the train station!"
In the 19th century, this building connected Amagansett to the trains to and from the city. This October, it sits a short walk from a hamlet that has just gained a year-round Friday train. All of these businesses opened during the summer, and we have not seen confirmed fall or winter hours for any of them, so check before you go.
After Oct. 10, the Calendar Keeps Going
The rest of the fall depends on the same few institutions that hold the hamlet's year-round calendar together.
At the library, "Get Movin' with Lisa" runs Wednesdays from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., Oct. 7 through Nov. 18, skipping Nov. 11.
Amber Waves Farm holds "Stone Soup," a children's musical cooking event, on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 11 a.m. Its outdoor classroom at 375 Main Street hosts the Little Farmer class on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. through Nov. 11. A cooking class meets at the farm's Outdoor Kitchen, also at 375 Main Street, on Fridays from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. through Nov. 13 and requires pre-registration. Farm play sessions run Thursday afternoons through Oct. 29.
The Talkhouse closes out October with The Cherry Bombs on Halloween night.
Then the season shifts to the farm on Old Stone Highway. Quail Hill Farm is at 660 Old Stone Highway. According to the Peconic Land Trust, the winter season of the farm's 39th CSA year starts on Friday, Nov. 6. Pickups come every other week on Fridays and Saturdays into February, with greens from the greenhouses and root vegetables.
Many East End owners treat October as the start of their year-round season and plan their homes around it. The Lori Schiaffino Team can help you think through how your Amagansett property works from the clam contest through the winter CSA, quietly and on your schedule.
