Baby, you’re a firework! That’s right, don’t look over your shoulder — I’m talking to you, and every single awesome person and business in this July ‘Food and Drink’ issue of Southforker.
Joy doesn’t just spring from nowhere; it comes from people. The way we interact with what and who’s around us, and in showing up for each other and for all the great things going on in our communities.
It’s easy for that kind of thinking to get a little lost in the shuffle in the summer, stuck in traffic, not able to get a foot in a door at your favorite restaurant or watering hole, and maybe even getting that awful Truman Show-like feeling that this place feels like a made-up, pricey playground.
But I’m diving in. I want to send out snaps to some sparks around here, starting with my most excellent firecracker of a staff writer Emily Toy, who I can’t live without (seriously) and the story she did on the owners of Silly Lily in East Moriches — seen in the photo above — a place that keeps fun days of lobster rolls, family fishing for all and shore exploration alive and well as one of the last standing fishing stations on Long Island. Emily got owners Jay Scott and Steve Chiros on the hook to talk about how these two — a former advertising creative director with a longing for any day that includes lures and lines, and a veterinarian — took their passion for a seaside escape and turned it into a life’s work (not to mention sustaining a Long Island pastime for a few more future generations). Check it out on p. 40 of the print issue.
Another local sparkler: Joni Brosnan, owner of Joni’s Montauk, who took up residence at The End 20 some-odd years ago, made a family here and continues to serve healthy, delicious food to keep us all smiling. We got a first look at her first-ever cookbook, and boy, is it a fun ride. Grab the issue and flip to p. 72!
If you can’t get through a summer without collecting a tee or hat or some other seasonal souvenir from your favorite eat and drink haunts, you’re going to really dig the story Doug Young shot and wrote on p. 20, where he got the stories behind the swag, so much of which is really an extension of what goes into making these places memorable.
I got to get rosie with two of my favorite winemakers, Roman Roth and Christopher Tracey, two super-passionate wine peeps who make the pink you oughta be drinking (p. 56). Rosé and summer are certainly synonymous, but the stuff these guys are making are no perfunctory porch pounders. They’re a celebration of the South Fork’s soil and sea. And damn delicious.
Roving real estate writer Lana Bortolot learned how an open mind and wandering soul led to growing roots on Shelter Island for landscape artist (yup, she really is one) Vickie Cardaro of Buttercup Landscape Designs (p. 86 in the mag).
We talk tacos at K Pasa (p. 24; a Southforker fave if there ever were one; Emily and I meet there for scheduling chats and breakfast tacos sometimes — say hi if you see us in the back booths!), fishmongers, “Gilmore Girls,” and the surprisingly good Colombian brewed coffee at the Montauk 7-11 with chef Melissa O’Donnell (p. 32; hey Melissa!), the lovely allure of a day spent in Amagansett Square (p. 29), Shark Bar’s ridiculously excellent fish sandwich (p. 99)and so much more.
We’ve got a whole lot of sparkle on the South Fork. I wish we could make five July issues just to pack it all in! (I don’t really mean that, Em — don’t worry, we’re sticking to our regularly scheduled issues and tacos.)
Happy Fourth, happy summer and happy days on the South Fork, friends.
Amy Zavatto
Editor-in-Chief
