Brew's Cafe

You may notice a common theme running through these conversations, but I promise it is purely coincidental: many of my guests have known what they wanted to do with themselves from an early age. Painter and visual artist Perry Burns falls squarely into this category. It's no surprise then, that when these people do end up in their chosen fields of discipline, that they become not only success...

It's hard to get through an episode without the topic coming around to housing. There appears to be something of a housing shortage throughout the country, as anyone who's tried to buy a home in recent years can tell you. But here on the east end, it's actually a crisis. Pierre Debbas is a partner at his eponymous law firm in New York City and Southampton, Romer Debbas, which specia...

I always feel a special kinship with those who've "grown up" in the restaurant business. It's hard. I don't mean just the restaurant business, though that is very hard. I mean growing up in the restaurant business. It's hard but I wouldn't change it for the world. I get the feeling based on our conversation that Robyn wouldn't either. You grow up different.....

One thing I've learned while doing these episodes, is that the last thing anyone wants to hear about from a couple of real estate brokers is... real estate. And since Patrick McLaughlin has made a name for himself not only selling real estate, but being at the forefront of the local goings on in the villages of The Hamptons-- particularly as concerns restaurant and nightlife comings and going...

The Talkhouse. Peter. Institutions. Very few establishments on the East End have had the staying power of Stephen Talkhouse. But the iconic bar and nightclub in Amagansett remains more vital than ever, even if Peter slips out by 10pm nowadays. The Talkhouse has become famous on a level that no one, especially not Peter, would have imagined 39 years ago when he bought the divey little bar with only...

On November 7, 2025, East Hampton High School's football team won a playoff game. For most of the schools that they competed against this year, that wouldn't be a big deal. But for East Hampton, this was something that hadn't happened in 34 years. In fact, only six or seven (see what I did there, parents?) years ago, there was no football program at all. It had withered and all but...

Ironically, it all started with the Girl Scouts. When Marit Molin couldn't find a scout troop for her daughter on the east end, she started her own. Now, many years later, she is the ultimate girl scout. Marit's organization is called Hamptons Community Outreach. Their mission is simple. If someone in our community needs something, Marit and her team find a way to fill the need. Sometime...

Paul Anthony is a funny guy. That's not just me saying that. Paul is one of those rare humans who makes their living in comedy, stand-up comedy, to be exact. Paul is the producer of The Long Island Comedy Festival, now in its 20th year. But that's an umbrella company of a lot of productions including Mom's Night Out, The 50+ Comedy Tour among others, and now The Ha Ha HAmptons Comed...

If print is dead, apparently Gavin Menu didn't get the death notice. Gavin is a newspaper guy. And he has no intention to change. As the owner, with his wife Kathryn Menu, of the Southampton Press, East Hampton Press, and the Sag Harbor Express, Gavin believes in the power of printed news. As much into modern media as I am, I gotta admit, there's still something special about picking up...

WE'RE BACK!! Kicking off Season 5 with a timely episode featuring JP Foster. JP recently retired from public service at the East Hampton Village 911 Call Center as Chief of Dispatch. On top of that, he's been President of the East Hampton School District Board of Education for 12 years, with a total of 13 years on the Board...  And now he's running for MORE public service, as he&apo...

For our 100th episode we have a very special guest. If you don't know Brian Cosgrove by name, chances are very good you'll recognize his voice. As a long time on air personality and DJ for local radio stations, his sound, his musical style and his personality are a fixture on east end airwaves. How did he get started in radio? How does he select his playlist? What's great about publ...

If the best things in life come with some difficulty, this should be an amazing episode!! As most listeners know, I do everything myself: scheduling guests and locations, setting up the recording equipment, recording, editing, publishing, promoting... Everything. Which, while economical, sometimes leads to difficulty. This episode is the second recording, since the audio in the first attempt was s...

For many, the mother daughter relationship is fraught with all kinds of difficulty and dysfunction. But sometimes when it works, it really works. For Jessica Ambrose and Mansell Beverage (nee Ambrose), it works so well, that they've decided to turn it into a podcast. "Let Me Ask My Mom" will debut very soon on popular platforms, and you'll get to hear some of the many ways in w...

Bob Sullivan is in the 1%. And not because he's a multi-billionaire. It's because that's the small percentage of Americans who've endured a home invasion by a psychotic individual intent on harming anyone they come in contact with. Before we get to the harrowing story of how Bob fended off the homicidal intruder, we hear about Bob's current role as a school bus driver for...

Corey Senese is a surfer. I am not. Corey Senese wakes up in the morning thinking about surfing, goes to bed at night thinking about surfing, and spends most of the time in between.... Surfing. I surf whenever I can and the conditions work and the planets align and I don't talk myself out of it. So when I get Corey to (finally!!) join me on the podcast, you can pretty much guarantee, we'...

You gotta love it. You REALLY have to love the work. If you're going to work in restaurants, especially in the kitchen, and especially in The Hamptons, you really have to love what you're doing. Speaking with Damien O'Donnell, chef and partner of Bostwick's on the Harbor, you get no other sense than this kid loves the work. The way he describes the feeling of victory after a ha...

I had no idea what to expect when my guest for this episode met me at the studio to record. Tim Frazier is the Executive Director of the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Development Center in East Hampton. That's quite a mouthful for what we used to call "Nursery School" (which I famously dropped out of, but that's another story). But that's because this is far more than g...

It's one thing to watch tv and see the footage of whatever most recent disaster is in the news cycle. Jim Cantore has left whatever hurricane zone he'd flown into, on to the next one; the news crews have hit the scene looking for drama to send to their producers; we see a couple of reports and think "how awful". And then the sports reporter comes on to tell us what happened in...

He's Back!! Our resident science expert is here for a third time to help us understand the world we live in, especially here on the east end. Beach erosion, the eclipse, the earthquake, and, of course, the movement of water in the ocean all get his special treatment! Erik's unique perspective and expertise make him the perfect person to help us to know what's going on in the natural...

Who knew he was funny?!? For many of us in this community, Pete Cestaro is "Coach Pete"-- the guy who has been teaching our kids to love the game of baseball, as well as getting good at it. Many others know him as a guy we play golf with, surf with , have coffee with or just generally enjoy his company. And who knew he was funny? Well, all of us, and especially the kids he's taught...

For the Executive Director (i.e.-CEO) of such a sophisticated institution as East Hampton's very own Guild Hall, one might not expect to start the session with talk of "salty balls" before segueing into an in depth analysis of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". But Guild Hall is not like other arts institutions, and Andrea Grover is not your basic nonprofit CEO. Eventually the...

Think of the word "lifeguard", and one name typically comes to mind: Ryan. Think of the name Ryan and one word comes to mind: lifeguard. The Ryans have been protecting the beaches of East Hampton (and Southampton) for three generations. To prove it, we gathered three generations of Ryans to come to the Cafe and chat about lifeguarding. Of course, nowadays, lifeguarding in East Hampton in...

Get checked. And get checked again. And if you're not sure they checked correctly, have someone else check. Because the last thing you want to hear is that you have stage 4 cancer and they "missed it" on the mammogram, or whatever scan or screening they use. That's exactly what happened to Ty Wenzel. Ty was going about her highly interesting life as creator and editor, writer,...

You know those helpful signs at the East Hampton Village beaches that tell you how to get out of a deadly rip current? Or the surf cams that surveil the beaches 24/7, reporting data to surfers across the world, not to mention Stony Brook University and NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration). Ever wonder how they got there, and who monitors them? Wonder no more. Jimmy Minardi...

Twenty-three years ago, before "Women Owned Business" was cool, before pre-owned vintage clothing was more valuable than new, Tisha Collette struck out in business. In a small shop on Jobs Lane in Southampton, she opened "Collette", a consignment shop featuring a curated collection of previously owned, designer fashion goods. Not long after, she opened another outpost. Then ano...