I'm usually at a loss for much dish on the topic in May. The seasonal dining scene changes drastically from year to year, and most new projects only get their cooking legs by June. And besides, some of my favorite meals inevitably happen in the most unexpected places.

Like the luscious blueberry pancakes we breakfasted on last year at the old White Horse Pike filling-station-turned-luncheonette called Gilchrist's Offshore in Cologne in Galloway Township. Or the lovely Southern lunch boxes (filled with deviled eggs and "upcake" - cupcake tops) that we toted to the beach from Dixie Picnic in Ocean City. Or a sophisticated meal at Dune in Margate, which turned out to be one of the best New American BYOBs I've visited down the Shore.

Dune opened for its fifth season in May with a new head chef behind the stove - so I'll be curious to taste its new menu. If there is a constant in the Shore dining scene, it is chef change.

The early rumblings from this summer's new restaurants promise a host of ventures from familiar names. And a surprising number are getting on the "green" train of a local-food movement that, at last, has found some traction here.

Restaurateur Cookie Till recently won a contentious zoning battle to bring a weekly farmers market to the parking lot of her popular Margate restaurant, Steve & Cookie's. On Thursdays, starting June 26, she will host up to 17 stands selling goods ranging from heirloom produce to Barnegat Light seafood. It will be a boon of freshness for home cooks who have long suffered the Shore's sub-par supermarkets. But as many as 10 other restaurateurs also have plans to source ingredients at the Margate Farmers Market, too.

Among them are Lucas Manteca, who hopes to build on the success of his innovative Stone Harbor BYOB, Sea Salt, with his casual new Quahog's Seafood Shack nearby. Intended as a fresh take on a New England seafood house, Quahog's will feature simple preparations on sustainable fish such as red drum, croaker and barramundi, as well as clam bakes and a $26 deluxe take on the lobster roll.

"I've already got complaints about the price," Manteca says, groaning, "but it's almost a whole lobster."

Mike and Jennifer Bailey also plan to use organic farm market ingredients at their new spot, 4th on 1st, which is a relocation of their popular Ocean City scone temple, the 4th Street Cafe (which has new occupants). Like the old 4th, this laid-back breakfast cafe will morph into an ambitious dinner spot at night.

But while I've always liked their adventurous New American cooking, I'm most curious to taste a bottle of the Rhone-style rosé of roussanne wine the Baileys produced at their new California winery, Cosol Vineyard. Of course, there will be no drinking that wine in the restaurant (after all, Ocean City is a dry town), but you should be able to acquire a bottle soon for private consumption at Circle Liquor Store just across the bridge in Somers Point.

Veteran chef Neil Elsohn also is making a comeback bid this summer at Gertrude's in Ventnor. He has squeezed decades of good flavors from Cape May's Water's Edge and shorter-lived 1919 into the tiny confines of this 24-seat BYOB. But the ever-inventive Elsohn's early menu is already vast, ranging from jerk-grilled shrimp with coconut-chipotle pie to dayboat cod with creamy clam sauce.

Speaking of Cape May, the once-gourmet mecca that has been quiet in recent years, there's an ambitious new tenant for the former Daniel's on Broadway space: Moonfish Grill. The owner is Joel Dincher, former chef at the Palm in the Tropicana, and his wood-fired grill is searing up what he calls "serious steaks." Still, the focus of this wide-ranging menu is on the sea, from roasted Cape May salts to sushi and grilled mahimahi with coconut curry broth.

Dincher also assured me that the ghosts who famously haunted Daniel's old Victorian building are still rattling around upstairs.

So, even though the quality of this summer's meals is still unknown - stay tuned for the verdicts in my annual July report - it is good to know that at least some things can still be counted on, even in the spring.

Craig's Cuisine

Gilchrist's Offshore

734 W. White Horse Pike, Cologne (Galloway Twp.), 609-965-3433.

Dixie Picnic

819 Eighth St., Ocean City, 609-399-1999.

Steve & Cookie's

9700 Amherst Ave., Margate, 609-823-1163.

Quahog's Seafood Shack

206 97th St., Stone Harbor, 609-368-6300; www.quahogsshack.com.

4th on 1st

100 Asbury Ave., Ocean City, 609-399-0764.

Gertrude's

7309 Ventnor Ave., Ventnor, 609-823-3003; www.gertrudesventnor.com.

Moonfish Grill

416 Broadway St., Cape May, 609-898-1600; www.moonfishgrill.com.

Circle Liquor Store

1 MacArthur Blvd., Somers Point, 609-927-2921.