Brew's Cafe

You'd think someone who'd private cheffed for British Royalty, cooked in some of the country's-- as well as the East End's--  great restaurants might want to spend a good deal of time flexing on that. And if that's what you're expecting from this week's episode with Bill Valentine, Pit Master at Town Line BBQ in Sagaponack, you're gonna be a little disappoin...

Susan Spungen is a cook, food stylist, recipe developer and cookbook author. She was the founding food editor at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia from its inception until 2003. She was the culinary consultant and food stylist on the feature films "Julie & Julia" , "It's Complicated" and "Eat, Pray, Love". She is the author of "Recipes: A Collection for th...

Well, this was an easy one, I wasn't sure what to expect when I showed up to record with brand new East Hampton Schools Athletic Director, Kathy Masterson. For one thing, I left all of my recording gear by my front door. And since we'd been trying to schedule this since September, I wasn't about to reschedule. So I was a little nervous. That lasted about a second and a half. Kathy M...

First off, I don't drink wine. Or at least, I haven't in a very long time. Because, if I did drink wine, I'd probably still be sitting where we recorded this episode. Deep below Amagansett Main Street, under the creaky floors of the Amagansett Wine and Spirits Shop, lives a vast wonderland of wine. Boxes upon boxes and bottles upon bottles of wines I've mostly only seen in maga...

Long before we spoke of "regenerative" farming, before "sustainable" was a thing, before "renewable", almost before "organic", there was "local". Local was a guy you knew. Who grew stuff. Maybe it was corn, or potatoes or flowers or milk. In the case of Balsam Farms, it was mostly corn, and it sat atop a flatbed wagon at the intersection of Windmil...

We all remember. For prior generations it was D-Day, or the day Kennedy was shot, or the moon landing. But for anyone alive on September 11, 2001, we remember where we were. What we were doing, how we felt. For Ray Brown, though, it's not a memory of sitting in a coffee bar uptown, or by the pool in Amagansett. Ray remembers that day very differently than the rest of us. Ray comes from a long...

Just so we're clear: Dr. Lea Lis, aka "The Shameless Psychiatrist", has a child psychiatry practice in Southampton; she also has a ketamine assisted therapy practice there; they are NOT the same thing! As one of the very few (as in ONLY) child psychiatrists on the east end, Dr. Lis is in very high demand as she works tirelessly to help ease our local mental health crisis, particular...

"Two Guys Talking Sports" might be a better title for this week's episode. And who better to talk sports with than the one and only Joe Gonzalez. As bartender at Rowdy Hall for over 25 years (currently working "the stick" at South Fork Country Club), Joe not only knows sports, but is eager to talk about it. We cover mostly baseball and football, and mostly from a Yankees a...

You might be excused for thinking that after a long, successful run in Hamptons Real Estate, one might want to take it easy. You know, play golf, sail the Caribbean, travel the world. Well, first off, even though Diane Saatchi has been as good as anyone in the local Real Estate game for as long as just about anyone, she's still quite active as a successful broker. And taking it easy? Well, I...

Chances are, if there's something going on at night in East Hampton, Amagansett or even Montauk, especially if it involves a popular live band, Nick Kraus is somewhere behind the scenes. Many have come and gone from the Hamptons nightlife scene, and very few have remained relevant. At the top of the latter list, though, is Nick Kraus. Whether it's scheduling bands, promoting the party, c...

What's news? Nowadays, with a 24/7/365 news cycle from nearly unlimited sources, pretty much anything. But what goes into a small town weekly newspaper?  The answer to that question is a little more nuanced. Add to that the fact that the "East Hampton Star" is not your typical small town newspaper, and David Rattray, Editor and Publisher of "The Star", often has some hard...

The week Jolie Parcher opened Mandala Yoga in Amagansett Square more than 20 years ago, Yoga was still in what she calls "Weirdoville". Two people showed up for the first few classes. The next week, Oprah declared on her show that Yoga was "a good thing'. And suddenly Jolie was looking for more space. All these years later, Jolie applies Yoga to every aspect of her life, and on...

Not many locals know the story of The Miegs Raid and its importance in the American Revolutionary War. Some, but not many, might know of the Battle of Sag Harbor, which was the same event. But if Bryan Downey-- photographer, cinematographer, musician, carpenter, local historian, civil disruptor, are among the many hats he wears-- has his way, we'll all know a lot more about this crucial battl...

Ron White is one of those guys who uses up every available character in his job description: Successful Real Estate Agent, Head Coach of the Bridgehampton HS Boys Basketball team, President of the BH School Board, plus husband, father, brother and generally great guy. Whenever Ron and I get a conversation going, two things are inevitable: it's going to be interesting, and we never know where...

If your legal knowledge is limited to "Better Call Saul", or even "Law and Order", and you're curious whether either of those are remotely accurate, you might want to check this one out. As a Former Prosecutor, Public (and private) Defender, as well as a practitioner of all aspects of the law (including real estate!), it's hard to think of a person better equipped to...

I'm always a little intimidated when I interview a guest who's actually a real journalist, but in this case I was a little extra intimidated because not only has Amanda Fairbanks written a highly successful book, "The Lost Boys of Montauk", but she's been interviewed by countless real journalists, book writers and other literary intellectuals. Of course, my misgivings were...

Anyone who's ever worked in an Honest Man Restaurant, which includes Nick and Toni's, Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, Coche Comedor, Town Line BBQ and a few others which have come and gone over the years, knows if there's one phrase which describes the owners here, and Mark Smith in particular, it's "hands on".  At any given time you might find Mark at one of the restaurants...

It seems hard to believe that it's been 12 years since Della Femina in East Hampton closed its doors, but if anyone would know, it'd be Walter Struble. Walter was perhaps more synonymous with the iconic restaurant of the 90's and 00's than its namesake himself. Ever present, overseeing the door, the dining room, the bar, the staff, the customers, the phone, the books and every...

You know that old story about the beautiful young girl walking on the beach in Hawaii and someone comes up to her and says "do you want to be a model"? It's either a fairy tale or an intro to a "Criminal Minds" episode, right? Either way, that never happens in real life. Well, don't tell that to Leilani Bishop. Of course,  nothing happens overnight, in modeling or any...

If you don't know what 20,000 vinyl LP's looks like, then you've never been in Gian Carlo Feleppa's basement slash recording studio slash office slash record depository. Add to that many hundreds, even thousands of reel to reel tapes, numerous and various machines to play them on, speakers to listen to them through, mixers, recorders and other various and sundry music recording...

Considering how long Jimmy Minardi has been a valuable member of this community, and how many athletes, semi-athletes and non-athletes (he'd say they're all athletes but since I've done some training with him I'm equipped to say they're not!) he has trained on the beach, on the roads, in the ocean and in the gyms and yoga studios of the east end, you might think you'v...

Most American high schoolers do exchange programs in places like France, or Spain, or maybe Japan. Mark Crandall went to Zimbabwe, a small country in southern Africa that didn't technically exist just a few years earlier. What he experienced there-- a way of living known as "Ubuntu"-- set the course of his life's work from that moment until today. Mark's organization, Hoop...

Today I visit Jack Luber in "The Cave", a very special place that might double as  Jack's Garage, if it weren't filled with surfboards, bicycles, PA Speakers, vintage advertising signs, weights, a couple of old leather couches and a bunch more surfboards. Many know it as the home of Jack's nightly Covid parties, where he spun records and entertained us in quarantine as his...

I hadn't ever met Springs Artist Chris Kelly until we sat down to do the podcast, so forgive me if I hogged the mic a little more than usual, since we were both getting to know each other and have quite a bit in common. Chris makes gorgeous paintings and sculptures in his Springs studio, and you'll be able to see them for yourself later this month.  The Colm Rowan Gallery in East Hampton...

You don't so much visit Dalton Portella's as you enter his world. Large scale oil paintings hang on the walls, above works still in progress. An array of gorgeous vintage guitars stand ready in front of an assembly of amps, cables, pedals, microphones and stands intertwine between them. A colony of drums occupy a full corner of the oversized room. In the side room computer screens, print...