Charity Robey

The season's batch of North Fork craft beers is anything but basic

The North Fork’s best brewers make beer like chefs make a meal, drawing on a palette of ingredients and combining them to achieve a unique experience of flavor. This year’s fall releases reflect the incredible creativity of North Fork brewers, and are packed with tastes and aromas that go beyond the humble pumpkin.

And like the brilliant fall foliage, they won’t last forever. From the lightest hefeweizen to a dark and tempting doppelbock, here’s a continuum of fall releases for you to savor while you can.

HEFE

Eastern Front Brewing Co.

Eastern Front Brewing Co. in Mattituck is a distinctive brewery with a mission: to preserve and emulate German brewing traditions in a time when adding sweet to beer is as on-trend as taking it out of chardonnay.

I Got a Rock is a fall squash ale with no cinnamon and no nutmeg. If you like cinnamon and sugar on the rim, manager Adam Slater will suggest putting it on one side, “so you can sip on the other and get the aroma, but no taste.”

Shown here is Eastern Front’s traditional, seasonal hefeweizen called Hefe (5.6% ABV), a golden beer made with a German strain of hefeweizen yeast that imparts a bright, crisp banana and clove flavor.

13100 Main Road, Mattituck

TASTY WAVES

Jamesport Farm Brewery

Sour beers are cold-season favorites that pair well with hearty food, and Jamesport Farm Brewery is brewing a blackberry sour called Tasty Waves (6% ABV).

A good American sour beer balances bitter and sweet, and this one uses late-season berries to balance the flavors and contribute a purple/pink hue to the beer.

5873 Sound Ave., Riverhead

LEAF PILE

Greenport Harbor Brewing Company

Leaf Pile (5.2% ABV) is one of the North Fork’s most popular seasonal ales because it’s one of the most drinkable. Brewer Pat Alfred describes Leaf Pile as “a versatile beer, spiced but very balanced.

People come back for more and more pours of Leaf Pile. It can be paired with hearty foods and it doesn’t skew the palate.”

Last year an even bigger beer sprang out of the pile and quickly developed an avid following: Leaf Pile Pie (8.5% ABV) is back this year. It’s made with more malt, plus brown sugar, and supplemented with Golden Naked Hops that give a gingerbread flavor and a creamy sweetness from lactose. “That’s where the ‘pie’ comes from,” said Arnold.

42155 Main Road, Peconic and 234 Carpenter St., Greenport

HARVEST NOTES ALE

Twin Fork Beer Company

Harvest Notes (4.9% ABV) is a seasonal amber ale with subtle notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger from Twin Fork Beer Co. It’s sold locally in cans, and you can enjoy it in their downtown Riverhead tasting room with or without the sugar rim.

807 Raynor Ave., Riverhead

BURNING DOWN THE FEST

North Fork Brewing Company

Oktoberfest season officially started in September, but almost every craft brewery is still offering an Oktoberfest brew well into the tenth month of the calendar. At North Fork Brewing Company in Riverhead it’s called Burning Down the Fest (5.5% ABV), with subtle smoky notes and a dark amber color.

Also available now is their annual fall brew, Butternut the Hutt (5.7% ABV), made with local winter squash and allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg.

24 East Second St. Suite A, Riverhead

YOU CALL THAT A CALCULATOR?

Übergeek Brewing

Übergeek is a tiny but growing brewery and tasting room in the heart of Riverhead’s Polish Town neighborhood. In September, they got their first distribution deal for an IPA called What If We Nuke Mars? (7.5% ABV) — so look for it on store shelves this season.

If you like a darker beer for autumn, owner Rob Raffa is brewing a doppelbock style, You Call That a Calculator? (7.5% ABV) whose flavor profile he called “plummy and clean.”

400 Hallett Ave., Riverhead

THE FEATURED FALL BEERS FROM LIGHT TO DARK. CREDIT: DAVID BENTHAL

 

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More stops for your fall beer crawl …

October is the ideal month to try a new tasting room…or a few! Try these East End spots for local brews and handcrafted cider.

Long Ireland Beer Company

817 Pulaski St., Riverhead

(631) 403-4303

longireland.com

Long Island Farm Brewery

663 Wading River Road, Manorville

longislandfarmbrewery.com

Montauk Brewing Co.

62 South Erie Ave., Montauk

(631) 668-8471

montaukbrewingco.com

Peconic County Brewing

221 East Main St., Riverhead

(631) 740-9797

peconiccountybrewing.com

Riverhead Ciderhouse

2711 Sound Ave., Calverton

(631) 591-0217

riverheadcider.com

Shelter Island Craft Brewery

55 North Ferry Road, Shelter Island

(631) 591-3250

shelterislandcraftbrewing.com

Southampton Publick House

40 Bowden Square, Southampton

(631) 283-2800

publick.com

Tradewinds Brewing Company

70 West Main St., Riverhead

(631) 591-3466

tradewindsbrewing.com

Westhampton Beach Brewing Co.

220 Roger’s Way, Suite I,

Westhampton Beach

(631) 998-0800

westhamptonbeachbrewingco.com

Woodside Orchards

729 Main Road, Aquebogue

(631) 722-5770

woodsideorchards.com

The Chequit now in previews, features an inspired menu from Chef Noah Schwartz

THE CHEQUIT IS BACK WITH A SOFT OPENING OF THE NEW RESTAURANT FROM CHEF NOAH SCHWARTZ. (CREDIT: CHARITY ROBEY)

A major renovation is ongoing at The Chequit on Shelter Island, but a sampling of the food during a soft opening of the restaurant gives us hope for the future.

The menu, conceived by Chef Noah Schwartz of Noah’s in Greenport and executed by fellow Chef Darren Boyle, features Asian and American cuisine. While the menu is also still under construction, it’s encouraging in preview mode.

Let us take you through our first trip there:

The view

The mahogany porch with original-design spandrels offers charming views of Dering Harbor and of the 19^th Century Victorian homes that dominate the neighborhood.  Nowhere in sight is a building constructed later than 1900. 

The drink

Winter on Washington Street ($16) is a sophisticated mix of Greenport Winter Harbor Gin, rosemary simple syrup, and lime served in an elegant, and shatterproof plastic cup. 

The starters

We started with tuna poke ($22) and an order of scallion pancakes ($12).  The crisp pancakes were layered thick with local spring onions, and the dipping sauce was excellent, soy sauce-salty with fruity yuzu and a chili-kick.

The main event

I ordered shrimp in the fried rice ($34) with sweet flecks of carrot and bright green edamame, with a fried egg on top and ate every grain. I thought I was going to skip the pork belly steamed buns ($15) that my dining partner ordered, but after one exploratory bite of the slightly sweet steamed buns wrapped around a savory slug of tender pork belly, perfumed with cinnamon, fennel, star anise and cloves, I soldiered on. 

Around us, orders of Double Kobe Smash Burgers ($20) sped by to other tables filled with diners who fell silent as they lifted their brioche buns and dove in.

The encore

What is it about good key lime pie that empowers you to eat it, even if you were well-fed already?  In this case, the refreshingly tart lime flavor and crumbly graham crust, paired with a tiny dab of whipped cream and candied walnuts were enough to inspire us to lift our plastic forks and enjoy the end of a meal that was a very good sign for the future of this beloved local inn.

The Chequit is located at 23 Grand Ave. in Shelter Island Heights.

It's the perfect time of year for a North Fork cruise

End of summer? Naaah, it’s the beginning of boating. The best time to float is here. August and September are prime-time for your water-based explorations, and the North Fork is surrounded by aquatic adventure on all sides, whether by motor, sail or paddle.  Here are some options for taking to the sea.

Take a narrated cruise to Bug Lighthouse

If you don’t own a paddle or boat shoes, all you need is two hours of calm weather on a Saturday night to go on a Bug Light Cruise with Bob Allen, great-grandson of the former lighthouse keeper. The Long Beach Bar “Bug” Lighthouse is the insect-like structure that can be seen from any East-facing vantage point in Greenport or Shelter Island. It was built to get mariners safely around a sandbar, just as the tour gets you and your fellow passengers safely from the dock at the East End Seaport Museum to the lighthouse, where you can disembark and take a look. On the way, you’ll see Greenport Harbor, Shelter Island and the most easterly part of the North Fork from a whole new perspective. Sailing dates are still available through September and can be reserved online. Bug Light Cruise and Tour, East End Seaport Museum, 103 3^rd St. Greenport. Saturdays through September. $49/adults, $19/children for a two hour cruise.

BUG LIGHT HOUSE. (CREDIT: JEREMY GARRETSON)

Book a private eco-friendly tour of Greenport Harbor

If you are looking to tread lightly on the environment as you explore local waters, pass up the stinkpots in favor of a vessel that has been operating on a battery since 1999. Glory, an environmentally friendly tour boat of antique design, runs on eight batteries charged by an array of solar panels installed on the roof of Preston’s at the Greenport waterfront.  Captain Dave Berson told me, “If the fish could vote, I’d be President.” Glory is a reproduction of a boat built for waterfront tours of an earlier era, and the back-in-the-day experience is part of what Glory delivers as she plies the waters of Greenport Harbor and Peconic Bay.  Glory is docked at Preston’s Dock, 102 Main Street, Greenport. Call 631-477-2515,  or visit http://www.greenportlaunch.com. $140 for a 45 minute private cruise for 4 people; $35 for additional adults and $20 for additional children, up to 10 people total

Live the yacht life without buying a boat

Vintage Yacht Kingfisher offers half-day, full-day, and multi-day charters out of Greenport on its beautiful 1959 50-foot Huckins Fairform Flyer. Each cruise is customized and can include extras like a private chef or tastings, said Dhardra Blake of Kingfisher Yachting and LuxuryDayCharters.com. She called an escape on the boat “the closest thing you can come to time travel”: Last fall, they even created a “Some Like It Hot” experience with retro food, music and the guests’ attire evoking the 50s era of the movie. You can also buy an annual membership starting at 30 hours of boat time. Book through October via www.yachtkingfisher.com or call 813.484.5663. Prices on request.

Sail away for the day with the Layla

How about boarding a 45-foot sailboat for a day ride with a few of your choicest friends? Captain Liz Gillooly and the elegant ship Layla (a Fastnet 45, one of only 19 made) are ready to make that dream happen. Orient is Liz Gillooly’s hometown, and she knows the local waters intimately. A lifelong sailor and U.S. Coastguard Licensed Captain, she could get you across the Atlantic, but if your schedule doesn’t permit that, you can book anything from a two-hour sunset sail to a 6-hour full day circumnavigation of Shelter Island with stops at all the nicest beaches for a swim. You’ll feel like Cleopatra on the Nile. Layla Sailing, 1410 Manhanset Ave, Dock H4, Greenport, 631-319-0161. From $700 for a private sail with 6 guests.

CAPTAIN LIZ GILLOOLY ABOARD THE LAYLA. (PHOTO CREDIT: DAVID BENTHAL)

Get some alone time out on a kayak

If your idea of bliss on the water is a journey under your own power, Shelter Island’s Marine Water Trail is ideal. Put in your kayak at the Burns Road Town Landing on Coecles Harbor, or rent one from Shelter Island Kayak Tours and spend a few hours paddling around the North shore of Mashomack Preserve, one of the most unspoiled waterways on the East End. You will see birds.  You’ll glide over jellyfish. If it’s not windy, you may have the kind of meditative experience that helps you sort out some things.  Get a map of the Coecles Harbor Marine Water Trail, and if you rent, call ahead and reserve a boat from Adam Mills at Shelter Island Kayak Tours, 80 Burns Rd. Shelter Island,  631-749-1990 . $60/adults, $30 children for a 2-hour guided tour; rentals from $30/2 hours.

All the best ways to each local peaches on the North Fork

Peach season on the North Fork is now. The glorious local orbs are ripe, juicy and ready to ruin your favorite blouse.  (That’s what you get for wearing a blouse in August.)

If you’re all in for peaches, Wickham’s Fruit Farm has them by the bushel, $25 for enough fruit to keep you busy all weekend. Smaller quantities are available at farm stands everywhere.

Local chefs are taking advantage of the all-too-brief bounty.

At Noah’s in Greenport, peach puree is the key component of Peach Jalapeno a vodka-based summer cocktail that pairs peach with a punch.

Briermere Farms, voted one of the best places for pie in Northforkers 2021 Best of competition is celebrating this month’s peachalanche with a stunning array of possibilities:  Peach Pie, Peach-Cherry, Raspberry-Peach and Peach Cream Pie.

Lisa Murphy, a pastry chef who now owns Vine Street Café on Shelter Island with partner and husband Terry Harwood is making a Peach Blueberry Croustade w/ Pistachio Nut Crumble and Buttermilk Ice Cream. It’s a rustic layer of tender buttery crust filled with sliced peaches, and enough blueberries to peek out the top, adorned with a scoop of ice cream, and a scattering of toasted nuts.  

 

PEACH BLUEBERRY CROUSTADE W/ PISTACHIO NUT CRUMBLE AND BUTTERMILK ICE CREAM FROM VINE STREET CAFÉ. (PHOTO CREDIT: CHARITY ROBEY)

Amanda Hayward at Commander Cody’s on Shelter Island is partial to grilling her peaches. “I halve them, brush them with clarified butter and grill-not long, 4-5 minutes. It helps if the peach is just perfectly ripe and tender, so you get nice grill marks Then I serve with homemade ice cream and whipped cream flavored with bourbon.”

Grilled peaches are also favorite of Marie Eiffel, of Shelter Island’s Marie Eiffel Market. She likes to serve them alongside a nice grilled filet of local fish.

You should eat a peach, but that’s not the only way to get that sweet summer flavor in your mouth. Recently a customer came into Hook & Net in Greenport — where chef Gayle Scarberry has been cooking calamari and salmon burgers and smoking fish — and offered her a literal windfall: a tree’s worth of peach wood that was felled by a storm over the winter. “Now I’m curing peach wood out back,” said Scarberry. “For scallops, and a lot of sweeter seafood that I smoke, fruitwood is amazing.”

On the water with bayman Sawyer Clark

Sawyer Clark fishes off of Shelter Island. On this day he brought in porgies, weakfisk, blowfish, and bunker. (Credit: Randee Daddona)

When Sawyer Clark turned 16, he bought a boat and went into the family business: fishing. In the four years since, he has graduated from high school, given college a try and returned to the profession he was born for, despite having a pretty good idea of how dangerous and unpredictable the life of a bayman is. 

“I tried to stay out, but I fell in love with it,” he said. 

The Clark family has been fishing on the East End for so long, Clark’s great-great-grandfather took scallops in Peconic Bay with a sailboat before motors were used. 

“I’ve always been fishing,” Clark said. “From the time I was very small, with my uncles, my father and my grandfather. When I was 12, I had my first gillnets.”

Making a living as an independent commercial fisherman requires diverse skills far beyond the ability to operate a boat and throw bait in the water. Knowledge of meteorology, fish biology and animal behavior, as well as brute strength and the ability to sew, are requirements; all skills that were on display during days of watching him work.

I arrived at the Clark family dock in early May at 5:15 a.m. to find Clark’s boat loaded, with the motor running and his 2-year-old retriever Daisy ready for her fish breakfast. Clark had warned me that he intended to be on the water by first light to check his nets. 

As he guided his 27-foot Novi-type broad-hulled boat out of Congdon Creek, he filled me in on the fate of his first boat, a 21-footer he nearly sank trying to fish during a nor’easter. “I had nets that needed tending, and the wind seemed to have died down, but I took on enough water to almost swamp it.” 

On this morning, the bay was placid as we passed Taylor’s Island and Reel Point to a spot just south of Split Rock, within sight of the South Ferry, and tied up at No. 93, the Clark family pound trap.

A pound trap, a device once used by Native Americans, is still one of the most effective ways to get high-quality fish with minimal bycatch. An enclosure of nets hangs from poles driven into the bay bottom just offshore. Fish enter through a maze-like opening and then swim inside the trap until the bayman shows up to cinch the nets, harvest the fish he wants and turn the rest loose. 

A vigorous school of bunker fish swam inside the net, chased by a cormorant. As Clark circled the trap in a dinghy, gathering nets, the cormorant departed, leaving the trap teeming with upwards of 20,000 fish, mainly bunker but also sea robin, weakfish, porgies, butterfish, flounder, fluke, striped bass and spider crabs. Using a large landing net, he transferred about 8,500 pounds of bunker, plus a few porgies, butterfish and a couple of flounder, into his boat under the watchful eye of an osprey perched on the edge of the trap. 

The view from bayman Sawyer Clark’s boat. (Credit: Randee Daddona)

It was too early for striped bass, and Clark doesn’t have a fluke license, so he released them along with the spider crabs and sea robins. An hour later I stood on the deck of his boat, knee-deep in bunker, while Daisy feasted on menhaden she caught for herself.

Later in the season, when conditions change and the pound traps are less productive, Clark switches to gillnetting, a curtain-like net set perpendicular to shore. Fish swim into the net headfirst and are caught by the gills. 

“The pound trap is more selective than gillnetting because with gillnets you catch whatever goes into them, and with pound traps you get to pick out what you want,” he said. “The fish are in better shape because they don’t die in the nets.” 

At 9 a.m. Clark was back at the dock with a boatload of fish. Armed with a large shovel, he unloaded his catch into square plastic containers, each the size of a hot tub, transferred each container to his trailer with a forklift, packed the load with ice and headed for the North Ferry. This load of bunker was bound for a distributor in Riverhead, to be trucked from there to Maine or Virginia and used for bait or in the manufacture of omega-3 oil.

In the winter, he goes for scallops, hauling 12 dredges, six on each side of the boat. In the spring, he fishes for bunker until the bluefish run, usually in May. After the bluefish come porgies, dogfish and the start of the striped bass season. Because every type of fishing demands special equipment, the maintenance of scallop dredges, pound traps, gillnets, rod and reel, boats, trailer and truck consumes many of Clark’s waking hours. Repairing dredges and nets is where skills like soldering and sewing come in handy. “It’s good because you can fish for other things but it’s bad because you have to fish for other things.”

Clark said the best part of his working day is being on the water. “When I’m out there, I’m generally by myself, and I’m a very simple person. I’m just thinking about getting the fish in the boat and getting them iced down. All the stuff that needs to be fixed, that’s what I’m thinking about when I’m lying in bed.”

In the afternoon, Clark was back on the water, this time at his second job with the South Ferry. Fishing is his occupation, but when the fish aren’t running, or the weather won’t cooperate, he still works. 

“I’ve put a lot of man-hours in fishing compared to anything else I do,” he said. “It’s an industry that you are married to. You can’t just leave, and not worry about it.”

A day on the water with North Ferry Captain Tom McGriel

Captain Tom McGriel aboard the North Ferry. (Credit: David Benthal)

When the 5:30 a.m. ferry left Shelter Island for Greenport on Jan. 13, 2018, Captain Tom McGriel was in his wheelhouse, figuratively and literally. Cloudy and raw, with the wind predicted to blow all day and the temperature dropping into the teens, the view through the windows of his perch was stark and magnificent. 

“Just another day in the office,” McGriel said, “but you can’t beat the view.”

McGriel, who lives on Shelter Island, has worked for the North Ferry for 16 years. He is one of a handful of ferry captains who work with two crew members to operate a 128-foot, 400-ton boat through eight hours of loading, transporting and unloading the cars, trucks, bicycles, schoolchildren, construction workers, teachers and tourists who make Shelter Island run.

On this day, the wind had blown a flat, white expanse of ice into the ferry’s normal path, and McGriel guided the boat through. “You search for leads where the ice is parting and slalom through it. You’re obviously traveling a longer distance, but these boats usually keep their schedule because they are so big.”

Snow was in the forecast, maybe one or two inches, posing a potential hazard since the crew would have to put down salt and drivers can’t see the lane markers — a danger for those working on the deck. 

“You just try to stay out of the way,” said crew member Mike Mundy.

On the first run to Greenport, the pilot house radio crackled with the voice of someone in the crew lounge looking for a newspaper. 

“Hey, you got any fake news over there?”

McGriel responded, “How fake do you want it?”

“Newsday?”

“No, we don’t have it.”

A sound reminiscent of the infamous baked beans scene from Blazing Saddles came out of the radio. 

“Welcome to the North Ferry!” McGriel said.

As the boat approached Greenport for the first landing of the day, McGriel explained how it’s done: “A lawn flamingo could drive it across. The challenge is putting it in the slips, without knocking anybody over and without knocking down the slips.” 

The brow protruding from the front of the Mashomack slid under the ramp with the solid “thunk” of the door on a BMW. “The boats are really quite maneuverable. But when the wind is howling, if you get it in, that’s good,” McGriel said. 

“1 down, 34 to go.”

The only thing that can stop the ferry is weather, and even that hasn’t suspended operations since Hurricane Sandy shut the North Ferry down as the water got too high to fit the boats under the ramp. McGriel was working that day, and remembers that service was interrupted for a matter of hours.

Unexpected weather? McGriel takes it in stride: “You can see it coming on the radar. That’s when everyone scrambles for their rain gear. If it’s really something dramatic, the Coast Guard will announce it over VHF.

To write this story, reporter Charity Robey wanted to get a sense of what it’s like to work on the ferry in difficult decisions. So early one January morning she met with Captain Tom McGriel and spent the day out on the water in icy conditions. This is one of her photos from her day aboard the North Ferry.

All creatures must eat, drink and visit the bathroom, but for astronauts and ferry crews, meeting basic needs takes some doing. On the question of how to use the bathroom when your workplace doesn’t have one and the closest is in the Greenport terminal, the captain is brutally frank: “There are times when you have to clinch. A discreet nod to the captain may increase the speed.”

About an hour after sunrise, McGriel announced to the crew that it was time to prepare for the breakfast run, timed to coincide with a daily schedule adjustment when the boat goes from three crossings per hour to four. The shift results in just enough time for a crew member to dash and grab a to-go order for all hands. The choice between Goldberg’s, located within sight of the Greenport ferry slip, and the lunch counter at the Shelter Island Pharmacy rests with the captain of the ship.

“Let’s go to the Pharm,” said McGriel, “I think I want a western wrap with ketchup.” As soon as the gate went down, Mike Mundy shot over to the pharmacy to pick up the grilled cheese, clam chowder, tuna melt and the Captain’s wrap. “On the next trip, we go at ‘food speed,’ so everybody gets a chance to eat,” McGriel said.

Running a ferry is known in maritime circles as being in the “flesh trade” and right after safety, great customer service is McGriel’s goal. “A more senior captain said to me, ‘There are two kinds of captains. One is the kind that lifts the ramp with his back to the road and the other kind lifts the ramp with his face to the road.’ If I can, within reason, get someone onto the ferry I will. But if we get backed up and the line stretches up to the Dory, the phones light up in the office like strategic air command.”

Keeping the schedule is part of customer service, and in the summer the captain’s job requires a sense of humor as well as punctuality. On a hot Friday afternoon, two women with the whiff of day-tripper about them, stood red-faced next to their bikes in the loading area. One pointed out a painted bird atop a wooden beam near the ferry slip. “Is that a pelican?” she asked Capt. McGriel.

“Actually, that’s not a pelican; it’s a pole-ican,” he quipped, directing the bikers to a safe spot near the stern of the boat.

Summer presents a different set of hazards, centered on the loading and unloading of the vessel. Facebook groups dedicated to stories of the dangerous antics of summertime ferry passengers can’t compete with what McGriel has witnessed. There was the guy with his legs hanging over the edge of the ramp as the ferry came into the slip, the weekly drunken exodus of merrymakers from the Wednesday cookout at the Pridwin and the driver who “whizzed by me, cellphone in one hand, iPad in the other and dog in his lap.”

McGriel has enough seniority now to work days — four on, then two off — and he’s grateful for it. “This is one of the great aspects of working on the ferry,” he said. “You can work on the water all day and sleep in your own bed at night.

“My motto is, go slow, crash slow,” he said, as he executed another perfect landing despite a stiff wind, with a comforting nudge as the ferry slid under the gate.

Marika's eclectic boutique: Shelter Island's hidden gem for furniture finds

The storefront at Marika’s Eclectic Boutique on Shelter Island. (Credit: David Benthal)

Published in the March issue of northforker magazine 

More than 30 years ago, Marika Kaasik and her sister Marion decided to open a store on a remote island reachable only by ferry. In those days, Shelter Island was inhabited by 2,000 people for 40 weeks of the year, and most of them already had plenty of furniture.  

At first, the boutique offered sportswear along with vintage furnishings, but as the clientele grew, its offerings narrowed.

Today, Marika’s carries mainly furniture and lighting — some refinished and some in need of TLC.

Kaasik’s eye for what makes a vacation house a second home is unwaveringly accurate. It’s the secret to her success.

Tell me the story of how and why you opened your store on Shelter Island.

I’ve been here since 1984, more that 30 years. I grew up on Shelter Island, went to school in Finland; and then my mother got ill, I came to see her, and my father said why don’t you open an antique store? My sister Marion was interested in antiques and I was doing sportswear and then we slowly were selling more and more furniture and less and less sportswear. You could take a nap on Route 114 in those days; there was nobody here.

What kind of furniture sells the best?

Everything made in Scandinavia sells really well. I’m Estonian, and I’ve been looking at furniture for 35 years, so I know what I’m looking at. Pairs of night stands, because a pair is harder to find.  Large furniture always takes longer to sell than small; good lighting sells fast. In a beachy community, white sells, except wicker.

What do you think of discount retailers who offer antique-like furniture?

Walmart makes mid-century-style furniture. Does that hurt me? Absolutely. When Bombay & Company got started it brought the antique market down because they were so cheap. Now, West Elm is doing antique-style, but it is not cheap. For a real Danish modern credenza, I’m still better on price than West Elm.

Kaasik inside her store in December. (Credit: David Benthal)

Do you consider your work to be one part recycling, one part selling?

What I do is very green. Instead of this furniture going away, it’s being used again. I don’t want anything thrown out. I get great pleasure from finding the right home for something.

On an island, it’s not so easy to get rid of things you don’t need anymore. Does that affect your business?

When I buy the contents of a house, I often have to buy the whole thing, and I don’t want to throw things out. My dumping fees are high, but it also costs me a small fortune to save things. Like this beautiful mahogany set. This row of furniture cost me $400 just to move it in here.

When is the store open?

I don’t really close at all. In the summer people come over on the ferry every weekend, and never miss a weekend. If they missed, I knew they were sick. Some weekends 100 people come through, but a lot of them just like to socialize. They come because there is always something interesting here.

You are open anytime. Really?

Yes, that’s right. You can shop anytime you want. Once a guy who came over on the first South Ferry of the morning called me up at 6 a.m. and said, “I want to buy that statue.” He was standing in front of the store and he saw some statuary in the front and wanted it. I said, just leave the check in the back door. I don’t know how he lifted it into his truck, but he took it.

True to its name, the store offers an eclectic array of antiques. (credit: David Benthal)

FAVORITE FINDS

These are just some of the items we enjoyed on our recent visit to Marika’s.

• A pair of Herman Miller Eames reception chairs and Bubble lamp in the window of the shop.

• A Finnish Domus chair,  an example of Marika’s eye for quality Scandinavian pieces.

• Solid construction and Art Deco touches are characteristic of the Heywood Wakefield chests the store carries.

• An elaborate, folding traveling chest that opens into a vanity and is definitely not a carry-on.

Opening day for scallops brings memories–and a good catch

CHARITY ROBEY PHOTO
Steve Lenox on Sunrise Sunset heading out of Congdons Creek Monday at dawn, opening day of the 2017 scallop season.

In fishing, as in real estate, it’s all about location, and on opening day of scallop season, there is no more appropriate or beautiful place to embark for prime scalloping spots than Congdons Creek, the heart of the Shelter Island scallop fishery since the 19th century.

For baymen with a slip at the Congdons Creek Dock, or waterfront property nearby, the Sunday afternoon before New York State waters opened for scallop fishing on Monday morning was a scene of organized and orderly anticipation.

Rich Surozenski went back and forth between his black pick-up truck parked by the dock and his boat in the slip, completing a last-minute repair. Asked where he was headed, Mr. Surozenski said, “Nobody’s talking, nobody’s talking.” But then he allowed he “might go out” to Northwest Harbor.

At daybreak Monday, that’s where Steve Lenox was headed in his boat the Sunrise Sunset. Other Islanders like Wayne and Donna King, Keith Clark and Don Walther motored out for the same destination, while a few boats went to Sag Harbor and a few to Orient. But by the end of the day it was clear there were scallops everywhere — and big ones.

Once a livelihood, scalloping is now a fishing sideline for the winter months, but a tradition among some families of going out on opening day is still strong. The scallop dinner that so many East Enders sat down to this week is a connection to the past, and a reminder of how sweet and good this place is at the nexus of land and sea.

Mr. Lenox brought in the first of his dredges — one of five — with a heavy load of enormous scallops, a very good sign for the season. Before 9 a.m., he had three bushels.

A green New York State Department of Environmental Conservation boat with four officers aboard pulled alongside Mr. Lenox’s vessel. DEC Officer Benjamin Tabor jumped aboard to check on the size of the scallops and the number taken. Carefully stepping over the culling board to avoid crushing any scallops, he peered into each neatly-marked bushel bag.

The DEC boats had been making the rounds all morning, he said, visiting every scallop boat in sight.

When the inspection was complete, Mr. Lenox quizzed the officer on the best spots. “Where are the guys doing all right?” he asked.

“All over the place,” Officer Tabor said. “Seems like over here in Northwest is doing good.”

“How about Sag Harbor?” Mr. Lenox asked.

“The Clarks have it all tied up over at Sag Harbor,” the officer responded.”

By noon, Mr. Lenox had his limit, which he described as “the number of scallops that Pat and I can open before dinner time.”

He carefully tucked almost five bushels into the cockpit. “I once saw a whole row of bags go over the side when a guy came around Cedar Point and hit the wind,” he said.

Sunrise Sunset turned toward home, around the lighthouse, past Taylor’s Island and along the peninsula where the Clark family homes, docks and a former scallop shack sit on a finger of land surrounded on three sides by creek and bay.

At the entrance to Congdons Creek, Mr. Lenox pointed out a well-cared for home at the very tip of the peninsula. Every window on the broad east side of the house faced Coecles Harbor. It was once the home of Eddie and Louise Clark, Mr. Lenox said, and still is in the Clark family.

“Louise used to sit out here,” he said. “She’d wave to all the scallopers coming back on Opening Day.”

Island Profile: Tom Hashagen, sparking joy, music and food

CHARITY ROBEY PHOTO
Tom Hashagen is never far from a stringed instrument, or a kitchen.

In 1979 an itinerant guitar-playing chef named Tom Hashagen decided to quit his rambling ways, move to Shelter Island, and stay for good.

He’s brought a lot of joy to the life on the Island since then, cooking, making music, teaching and producing musical events. He’s done all this with the aid of some very specific tools: a mandolin, an ear for musical talent, and a certain way with turkey chili.

Tom, along with his wife, Lisa Shaw, will soon spread some joy on the other side of the moat, presenting mandolinist Mike Marshall and violinist Darol Anger in a performance at the Bay Street Theater on Friday, October 13 at 8 p.m.

More joy arrives on October 21, when Tom creates the white chili, laced with turkey (and some blend of spices known only to him), that has fueled the Shelter Island 5K post-race party for all 18 years of its existence.

The race, which benefits, among other things, patient care for women living with breast cancer, is also known by some zealots as “the run for the chili.”

Tom grew up in Glen Rock, New Jersey in a family with four brothers and sisters. His dad commuted to the city to work for a printing company, and his mom worked near home for an insurance company. He went to Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks and graduated in 1970 with a degree in hotel administration.

He spent most of the next decade traveling with a chef’s crew — a roving team of restaurant workers led by a head chef, who moved from one hotel to another with the seasons. The first year the crew worked at the Clearwater Beach Hotel, a classic grand hotel in Tampa Bay, then on to Cape Cod in the summertime, and to the Allegheny mountains of Pennsylvania.

Over the years he moved up, going from a relief cook who filled in for guys on their days off, to sous chef at the Chatham Bars Inn in Massachusetts.

One day, seemingly out of the blue, while working in Florida, Tom received a letter from James Eklund, the manager of the Shelter Island Yacht Club, inviting him to consider a job as their new chef. Tom’s father had seen the club’s ad in the New York Times, and took it upon himself to send his son’s resume. Tom found out about his dad’s intervention when he got the job.

He rolled off the North Ferry for the first time on May 5, 1979, drove directly to the Yacht Club, and spent six years there.

The decision to leave Florida for Shelter Island was easy. “I was tired of traveling,” he said. “I knew that I wanted to settle down and have a family, that part of my life was missing.”

As he got to know the Island, he realized it was the place for him. “I loved the good food out here and fishing and the isolation of it,” he said. “These are down to earth, hardworking people and I’ve never been afraid of hard work, so I got along.”

He made his living as a chef in the season, and carpentering in the off-season. He also did a stint with the North Ferry Company in the winter of 1981, removing rust from the bottom of a ferryboat at the shipyard.

That job required him to go down into the vessel with a ball-peen hammer in temperatures as low as 15 degrees and remove layers of rust that had been painted over repeatedly. He worked alongside a man who would be convicted (later overturned) of murdering his neighbor with a shotgun —the only official homicide in Shelter Island history.

“He was a little strange,” Tom said, “and yes, he also had a ball-peen hammer.”

Tom had played guitar since the 1960s and picked up the mandolin in 1980 when he began playing in a band on the Island with Paul Shepherd and Penny and John Kerr. One day Penny arrived with a friend named Lisa, and announced “This girl is now in the band.” Tom, who was not enthusiastic about the prospect of Lisa joining the band, let her and everyone else know what he thought.

In spite of the extremely poor first impression they made on each other, Tom made a pass at her soon thereafter at a Valentine’s event at the Legion known as the Cherrypickers Ball, and was delighted to get a positive response.

Their first child, Sara, was born in their home on Marc Street about a year later. Lisa was attended by a barefoot midwife who Tom drove from her place in Baldwin to the Island while Lisa had contractions in the back seat. It was close. Tom and Lisa’s son, Adam, was also born at home, in September of 1983, 17 months after Sara.

As their family grew, Tom and Lisa realized the house they were renting was for sale. Tom remembered a customer and guest he knew from the Yacht Club and Country Club who had told him if he ever needed anything he should ask her. Their benefactor agreed to lend them money for a down payment on the house, they closed in 1983 and started working on it, “eventually changing every wall,” he said.

Sara lives in Winnipeg, with her husband and three children; Lucy, 6, Sam, 4, and Max, 7 months. Adam is engaged to be married next September at Sylvester Manor.

Tom worked as chef at the Gardiner’s Bay Country Club from 1986 to 1989, and then he and Lisa attempted to run their own restaurant for a year and failed. Knowing he needed to start thinking about retirement and benefits, Tom took a job in adult education at BOCES, drawing on his extensive hotel and restaurant experience.

Eventually he went back to school for the certificate he needed to teach 11th and 12th graders about the challenges of the culinary arts, and the joys, “of watching someone eat something very good, that you prepared.”

Starting in 1994 Tom produced a series of concerts in the Shelter Island School auditorium often featuring performers who were about to be very well known, such as Nickel Creek with soon-to-be-stars Chris Thile and Sara Watkins, and Tim and Mollie O’Brien.

The concerts were sponsored by the town at first, and later by the Shelter Island Historical Society. In 2009, Sylvester Manor Farm became the sponsor, and Tom became musical events coordinator for the farm.

Tom is also an active volunteer for the Lions Club, serves on the board of the Shelter Island Library, and is an active member of Grace Presbyterian Church in Water Mill.

He said there have been times in his life when he has struggled with drinking and drugs. “I’m just thankful that when I let go of God, he did not let go of me,” Tom said. “I have a weak faith and a strong God.”

He’s grateful for the joy he’s been able to make. “I think I was blessed with a really good set of taste buds and ear buds,” he said. “I have a common taste, which means that if it tastes good to me, other people like it too. When I hear what I think is good music, then a lot of other people will too.”

Lightning round

What do you always have with you?  A flatpick.

Favorite place on Shelter Island?  Montclair Colony, the old neighborhood there.

Favorite place not on Shelter Island?  Barbados

Last time you were elated?  When Sara’s third kid, Max was born.

What exasperates you?  Overregulation.

Favorite movie?  Raiders of the Lost Ark

Favorite food?  Pastrami

Favorite person, living or dead, who is not a member of the family?  Tim Keller, who was head of Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

Most respected elected official?  Fred Thiel

Sea Adventures Marine Camp in Southold shows kids why it’s better down where it’s wetter

A Diamond back terrapin named Swimmer is ready to welcome this year’s campers to the Sea Adventures Marine Camp

 Shark Week at the Sea Adventures Marine Camp in Southold is not a screen-mediated exploration of nature. Like every other experience at the camp, it’s hands-on, and that means you may touch the shark.

If you dare.

At the Camp, operated by the Cornell University Cooperative, kids ages 6 to 12 not only observe actual sharks, they dissect sharks (a small, local species acquired through the Center’s fisheries team) in an effort to understand the biology and anatomy of this important and misunderstood creature.

Shark Week is the most popular of several themed weeks that make up the season of day camping that starts July 10 and goes until August 18, but Marine Mammals Week is close behind. That week seals, whales, and dolphins take center stage, and when a kid wonders about that thing in the classroom that looks like the propeller of a ferry, well, it’s a whale vertebrae.

Now in its fourth year, Sea Adventures Marine Camp operates out of a building located on a wide, pebbly, and pristine beach overlooking Shelter Island Sound and adjacent to the salt marsh of Cedar Beach Creek. The building is drab and utilitarian on the outside, but inside, thanks to a renovation this winter, it’s an exciting stage for educating the public, and especially children, on the importance and wonder of the marine life all around us on the East End. 30 campers each week are guaranteed to get wet, whether they are indoors or out.

In addition to studying marine life and learning first-hand what marine scientists do, the campers get their hands dirty with habitat restoration; growing spartina, a marsh grass, from seeds and planting it on the beaches. They also participate in eelgrass restoration by weaving shoots of eelgrass into burlap discs that are then planted underwater by divers.

The renovation of the touch tank room includes extensive storage and microscope workspace, all of which was donated by California Closets. One of the most exciting additions to the room is a virtual reality sand table, that allows kids to make rivers and oceans using actual sand that is then digitally flooded to show three-dimensional changes in sea levels, and the elevations of different environments.

Director Christine Tordahl with the newly-installed touch tanks in the renovated space for young marine science enthusiasts

The touch tank room is dominated by four vessels like enormous horse troughs.  Placed in the middle of the room, these tanks will be filled with sea water right out of the bay and will be stocked with creatures from the bay and the nearby salt marsh, including whelks, common spider crabs, red beard sponges, sulphur sponges and the Northern lined seahorse. 

All are local, and safe to touch. “The horseshoe crab; that’s a big favorite. When the kids see it they get really excited, and say, ‘No way, that lives out there?’” said Tordahl.

Tordahl said the camp draws children with a wide range of prior experience with marine biology, including some from the city who have never gone fishing or seining. “Some are very outdoor-geared kids who know about science, and will call out Latin species names before I can even finish my sentence,” she said.

The Center is in the middle of two distinct marine environments, a beach and a salt marsh. Campers get to go on a beach ecology hike and do beach seining that same day, allowing them to capture and observe marine life as they learn about its particular habitat. The next day, campers might go on a salt marsh hike and then cast their net in the marsh. Tordahl described that teachable moment, “Although you can see the salt marsh from the bay, campers observe very different animals in those two habitats.  They learn that a salt marsh is like a nursery for animals.”

One of the educators, Rachel Neville, is applying her artistic talent to a large mural in the newly renovated classroom. She is painting a huge representation of the habitats and animals that surround the facility, to bring those habitats indoors and provide context, showing what the animals look like as well as where they live.

Last year the Camp invited local artist Cindy Pease Roe to show kids her marine debris sculptures, and help them make their own creations. Tordahl described the assignment that came out of Roe’s visit as “Go for a hike, remove the garbage that collected on the beach, and make whales.”

Tordahl’s formula for the Sea Adventures Marine Camp, experience is, “A little bit of art, the science we do here, and a whole lot of fun.”