One of my favorite things I got to do for this fall issue of Southforker was talk to John Kowalenko, co-owner with his wife and business partner, chef Cheryl Stair, of the Art of Eating in Bridgehampton.
In the push to get a magazine issue done, when my brain is firing on all cylinders and I’m working crazy long days and there are a million and one pieces to pull together, I get caught up in the stress of getting things done on time and done well (or as well as they can be on deadline — it’s not ghosts that haunt my house; it’s mistakes in print). I get lost in the forest of tasks to push off my desk, forgetting that these are my favorite things in life: stories and the people they belong to.
The conversation I had with John started out as an alert on my phone; a job to complete — do the interview, transcribe the conversation, write the story, schedule the photo, push it through copyediting (giant props to amazing Decia Fates and ever-clever Luke Sisson — the latter, who is leaving us for a full-time position in the Long Island wine realm, gets a very special shout-out because he and his good work will be MISSED!) package it up and send it to the designer. Boom, boom, boom.
But when we got on the phone, I found myself belly laughing and smiling, reminiscing about days gone by on eastern Long Island, about when I briefly worked for the Art of Eating when I was in high school, picking up extra cash on the catering circuit. We talked about what the East End was like back in the day and now, the good and bad of both past and present. We talked about the things we love here. He told me a bit of his really amazing life story, and I eagerly listened to it all. It was the most natural, lovely chat with a really cool, kind person and I was reminded about why we do this in the first place. People. Storytelling. A love for a place.
Now that we’re heading into autumn, it does feel like we’re getting a little second to breathe. Less houseguests, shorter days that make my husband and I feel less inclined to run around and very, very interested in doing some of the slow-down things we didn’t get to over the high season:
Linger over a beer at Kidd Squid and maybe hit ‘em up for trivia night, actually get a table without waiting at Bobby Van’s, go see a great, new movie (it’s time for the Hamptons International Film Festival!) and maybe grab a whiskey-based something-or-other with a friend and talk about the plot afterward — or, perhaps, just whip one up at home. And most definitely hit up Sawyer Clark’s fish cooler here on the Island and know it won’t be empty; instead it’ll have neatly fileted and bagged servings of just-caught striped bass (don’t miss Charity Robey’s awesome cover story on fishing for stripers), that I’ll slip into my car’s cold bag and pay with cash on the honor system. Summer is great, but fall always feels like a gift.
In our conversation, I asked John what his favorite time of year was here, and he unequivocally picked the fall. Why? For all the reasons probably most of us like it:
“… because you can walk on the beach and be by yourself and take a ride someplace and stop and get a cup of coffee or lunch and see your friends; the people who’ve been working their butts off all summer long.”
Amen to that.
Amy Zavatto, Editor-in-Chief, Southforker
