Sunny summertime sustenance — and a new book — from Joni Brosnan, owner of Montauk’s morning to midday mainstay.
There are those of us born and raised in the towns that dot the South Fork, and there are those of us who visit every summer, like it’s a nonnegotiable, unmissable, federal months-long holiday. Or maybe the visits are just once or twice at the lucky invitation of a friend with a seasonal rental or parents with an extra bedroom near the beach.
And then there are those of us who came from away and adopted these places as our own, finding an individual path that knits into the fabric of the community to become part of its map and history.
Joan “Joni” Brosnan is the latter.
This is never an easy thing to do, and something that requires a wild, untamable, maybe even slightly unreasonable kind of love (even if it feels unrequited for a certain amount of time). I remember my own mother telling me stories of the struggle she had in making friends when we first moved to Shelter Island when I was just 2. Like Montauk, it’s a community similarly sequestered — the latter by distance and that long Napeague stretch; the former by ferries and water.
After living on the Island full-time for six years, my dad opened a grocery/deli/butcher shop; a joint for locals and visitors alike. It served standard deli sustenance for breakfast and lunch — sandwiches of the egg and cold-cut kind, homemade lunch salads (mac, potato, slaw), boxes of Entenmann’s donuts and cakes, plus his homemade sausage and freshly butchered prime meats. But it had its individual charms, too. Ask anyone of a certain age about the buck-a-pop “slurpies” from the ever-on-tap Michelob keg and you’ll definitely get some big smiles.
It was, certainly, the way my family wove themselves into our town via what can only be dubbed as the world’s Great Equalizer: food.
Moving to Montauk two decades ago changed Brosnan’s life, giving her the gifts of starting both a business and a family.
For Brosnan, acceptance in salty Montauk was served up with a smile, too, in scrambled eggs and tofu whole-grain wraps, cups of good coffee (although, she admits, not so good at first — but she figured it out) and a love for the place that grabbed her from the first time she stepped foot on its sandy terrain.
“It is a privilege to serve this community and I never take for granted that it’s a given that people will come. I think that is key to why and how Joni’s has been successful,” she says. “I have to be there, creating the space that people feel comfortable being in and the food they want to put into their bodies. And I have to do that a bit differently each year.”
This summer, she’s decided to put it all down for posterity — or, maybe, a little bit in the spirit of the way we used to make photo albums. “Joni’s: A Love Letter to Summer in Montauk” is more than just a bunch of recipes — it’s time captured in pictures and reanimated in the memories and conversations they inspire so deliciously.
Inspiration at The End
The notes of Bob Marley’s “Coming in from the Cold” drift from the front door at Joni’s (28 South Etna Avenue #9 Montauk); patrons at the mint-green and sunny yellow picnic tables out front sway their heads in time to the reggae beat. Surfboards decorate the inside and out, next to the front door, above the picture window and along the walls inside, punctuating Montauk’s storied pastime. Customers crane their necks at the chalkboard menus, neatly written in multi-colored hues — 10 options for fresh juices, morning-centric meals that are served all day, a kids’ menu, a baker’s dozen of lunches with smile-making names like Thai Me Up, Sorry Charlie and Gone Fishin’, and Counter Culture coffee served hot or iced. The open kitchen reveals the prepping and cooking for all to see.
Since Covid, a former communal table has become a counter of sorts, but as per Brosnan’s ever-joyful inclinations, it’s filled with eye-grabbing edible items, like vegan, allergy-sensitive Surf Sweets and homemade Rice Krispie treats. A necessary alteration, but one that may well change back to the way it was because, for her, a big part of the heart of the place is its ability to gather people.
“When I first opened Joni’s, the whole idea was to sit random people together at huge farm tables and see what would happen. It was the cool kids, diplomats, debutantes and derelicts all sitting, talking and eating together,” she says. “We had to create space for social distancing during the pandemic, so we went in that direction — but man, could the world use that big table again.”
A jar in the back corner, next to the picture window overlooking South Edison Street, which is lined with lemon-yellow wooden stools, offers free refills on water. Next to that sits a beach rock hand-painted with the words “Bee Happy.” It’s earnest all right, but legitimately so.
“I was a granola girl,” laughs Brosnan about her own eating proclivities hen she first moved to Montauk. “But it all had to taste good.”
Brosnan’s love for Montauk started as a kid in the early ‘70s, when her family would save up to vacation here, leaving behind the hot, cement-covered streets of Manhattan. Those sandy days on the beach at what felt like the beautiful end of the world imprinted on her in a way that she couldn’t, and didn’t want to, shake.
“Montauk was still wild, raw. It had that undiscovered feeling. I was so impressed by the natural beauty and how God was kind to Montauk in that way.”
She loved it so much that in 2001 she decided to make it her full-time home. She got married here; she raised and sent her kids to school here. She learned to surf here.
“I longboard and love surfing with my family. We have a local break called End Of The Road right down from our house. Our dogs wait on shore and there is something for each of us there. It’s magical. Four-, five-foot waves are my sweet spot. Warm water is a bonus.”
She also became part of a community that really isn’t easy to become part of. But it’s hard not to return a smile to Brosnan, especially when she’s handing you a bag of good, healthy food to keep you going all day.
Over the years, Joni’s has become a bit of an unwitting local icon, with famous fans like actress Julianne Moore and musician Chris Martin counted among its customers. But the core of the place hasn’t given way to the glittery, save for the waves on a sunny day. And while she could have called upon a famous name to write, say, the foreword of the book, instead she chose an old friend and one of her first employees, Christine Kittelsen.
“Christine knew what Joni’s meant to me and gave everything she had. Oh, and then she helped raise my kids, Liam and Grace. She was the first of many young women who have worked with me, gone on to have amazing careers and become totally awesome moms,” she says. “The most beautiful part of that is they all stay in touch. I am so lucky.”
Brosnan’s menu feels like a throwback to early health-food spots in downtown Manhattan or, maybe, hippie nourishment from Haight-Ashbury’s heyday. It’s filling, delicious, pick-it-up-with-your-hands or bamboo spork-ready food that you don’t have to think hard about — you can just enjoy it and not feel crappy afterward.
It’s all in the book, along with a hit of sweet nostalgia in the form of photos that make it feel at once like a memory of your own and a place you want to go to immediately, if not sooner.
“When I opened Joni’s in 2000, I was a true vegan. I felt Montauk wasn’t ready for that and there had to be a happy medium. There were so many misconceptions about healthy food: It tastes like dirt, it’s bland, rabbit food, and so on,” Brosnan says. “I was a ‘granola’ girl, but it all had to taste good. So I set out to make it good for you and taste good, and I think I got there.”
