saturday night at The Palm, East Hampton

My parents took turns picking restaurants, and my dad's standby was a steakhouse. Old-fashioned steakhouses are hard to find these days; I love Peter Luger's steaks, hate having to get a guy to call the reservation (believe it!) Of

the others, my next favorite is The Palm. But without cigar smoke… without Pop… WTH, Pop would be the first to agree, a good steak's a good steak! And The Palm has had a branch (a frond?) in East Hampton for a long time.The front-of-house crew rotates from resort town to resort town with the seasons, housing provided. No reservations for groups of less than 6. Trust me, you don't want to sit next to a group of 6 or larger here. We came with friends one night a few years back and there was a well-known actress with entourage of 5 guys. We of course pretended to be too cool to notice. Until they had a contest to see who could flip the most butterpats to the ceiling and have them stick. I hope the bald guy onto whose skull a soft butterpat fell was her agent. Well, that was a cultural highlight to remember. The Palm is located in a charming old inn. No idea what the rooms are like, we've always been able to drive or be driven home.

Nobody gets dressed up for The Palm out here. I'd been decluttering earlier,

and happily found some old jewelry I'd forgotten about, which was very glad to get an outing. Picture of newly liberated necklace and bracelet right. Otherwise, jeans and shirt. This is not necessarily the way a decluttering effort should end, but I'm ok with it.

Starter: a shared Gigi salad. This is one of those things that anyone could make provided they get the ingredients right. Shrimp, tomatoes, bacon, string beans, onion, vinaigrette. Solids cut into small chunks. If the shrimp are fresh, the tomatoes red and tasty, the bacon crisp and the beans tender and not overly fibrous, you're good to go. A whole serving is a summer main course. Our company had the Wedge - iceberg lettuce with blue cheese dressing - and was very happy.

Our main courses: me, 12-ounce strip steak, rare; Himself and company, grilled lamb chops, medium rare. Side: creamed spinach. Still loving us, Dr. Atkins? I had a 9-oz glass of something red and smooth, he remained true to Jack. The waiter dragged around the dessert samples. We declined. This Atkins business better work.

A lot of people complain that the staff has a general surly attitude. I've found that if you show up sober, sit up straight and order decisively, you will have a lovely night. Oh, and don't flip butterpats to the ceiling.