On cold January nights, when Main Road traffic thins and restaurant dining rooms turn into warm pockets of light, Christie Moore’s North Fork Supper Club starts to make a lot of sense.

The locals-only dining membership, launched last fall, was created for long winter nights when restaurants stay open more out of commitment than profit, and year-round residents who increasingly feel priced out of their own dining scene get an added incentive to go out to eat.

Moore, who lives in Southold, comes from a family of restaurateurs.

“My father had a restaurant. My grandfather had a restaurant. My aunts and uncles are chefs. Hospitality has always been in my blood.”

After years living in New York City, she moved full time to the North Fork with her husband and children, whom she homeschools. What she found was a dining scene shaped increasingly by summer volume and tourist demand.

“In the summer, there are so many people coming through,” she said. “And I think something gets lost. You go into a restaurant over and over again, and you still don’t feel recognized as a local.”

At the same time, inflation and rising costs have made it harder for restaurants to offer traditional loyalty perks without hurting their bottom line, and harder for local residents to justify going out as often as they once did.

For an annual membership fee, full-time North Fork residents receive a digital membership card that unlocks rotating perks at participating restaurants — discounts, complimentary items or special offers chosen entirely by the restaurants themselves. The benefits apply only to the member, protecting restaurants from large group discounts while still rewarding local loyalty.

“I wanted restaurants to decide exactly what they’re comfortable offering,” Moore said. “I don’t want this to hurt their bottom line. I want everyone to win.”

That low-pressure structure has proven successful with North Fork restaurateurs. So far, participating restaurants include Maroni, Front Street Station, North Fork Table & Inn, Panoramica, Southold General, The Halyard, Little Fish, Tucker’s Taproom & Chophouse, Greenport Harbor Brewery, and Nookies and The Boathouse at the Silver Sands Motel.

Southold General’s Rob Anthony said versions of the idea have floated around the North Fork before.

“People talked about it, talked about it, talked about it,” Anthony said. “But we could never come up with a good solution, especially around how you verify who’s actually local.”

Moore’s system solved that problem.

“Once she explained how it worked, it made perfect sense. It’s a win for everybody.”

At Silver Sands Motel & Restaurant in Greenport, owner Alex Perros said the key to year-round operations is retaining a loyal, reliable staff.

“To keep people employed year-round, especially people in the front of the house who need tips, but also back of house — it’s hard to justify filling a kitchen with employees unless you have the patrons.”

Programs like the Supper Club, he said, help keep kitchens staffed, employees working and dining rooms alive during the slowest months, while deepening bonds with year-round regulars.

He said winter is when hospitality becomes most tangible.

“You’ll get a different hospitality experience and a better hospitality experience,” he said. “The chefs will come out and spend more time with you. They’ll touch the tables. They’ll be able to interact with your other guests or with the team. To me, those are the warmest hospitality moments.”

Moore believes the real value is in breeding more familiarity between restaurateurs and their local clientele.

“If people come in during the winter, when things are slower, and then walk in again in July, suddenly it’s ‘Hey, Jim, hey Judy,’” she said. “That changes the experience.”

The Supper Club has also been intentionally limited to full-time residents, a choice that Moore said she considered carefully.

“This needs to be a subset of the population. If it’s everyone, it doesn’t work.”

She hasn’t ruled out future tiers for part-time residents, but for now, the focus is strengthening the year-round community. The same philosophy extends beyond restaurants — to the farms that supply them.

A portion of Supper Club proceeds will benefit KK’s The Farm, the Southold biodynamic farm long associated with Ira Haspel and his late wife, “KK” Haspel. Moore said supporting local agriculture was nonnegotiable.

“I think every business should be giving back in some way,” she said. “We are so lucky to have these farms and this produce, and people don’t always realize how special it is.”

Moore said she has been inspired not only by Haspel’s farming philosophy, but by the next generation now helping lead the farm, and hopes Supper Club proceeds might eventually support community dinners or events that introduce younger families to local agriculture.

“I want this to evolve organically,” she said.

While it began as a dining initiative, she hopes it can become a foundation for something broader.

Wineries have already approached her about joining. More ambitiously, Moore envisions curated off-season dinners, member meetups and community gatherings — perhaps even a true “supper club” in the traditional sense.

“What I think could be really cool is actually curating intimate dinners in the offseason, through restaurants, where we could have exclusive invitations for North Fork Supper Club members to dine together as kind of a community dinner.”

Each Sunday night, Moore sends a weekly email to members outlining current perks and participating restaurants — a nudge that she hopes encourages people to plan their week around dining out locally.

“I want it top of mind,” she said. “So people say, ‘Let’s go here Monday, let’s go there Tuesday.’”

Trained in marketing at Indiana University, she spent a decade in advertising in New York City before launching LeYo Yo Kids, a children’s summer cooking class designed to teach young kids about food, health and self-sufficiency.

Her children are often with her as she builds these businesses — meeting restaurant owners, listening to conversations, watching ideas become reality.

“I’m hoping that it allows them to grow up with that in mind,” she said. “That if you have an idea, you can bring it to life, if you work for it.”

For Perros, the appeal is simple.

“In the winter, this is when you make friends,” he said. “Restaurants become congregation points in the off-season, where it’s not just about eating food. It’s a more well-rounded experience.”