A 400-page, limited-edition coffee table book, Bar: The Story of the Stephen Talkhouse, was recently released on July 25, chronicling the nearly six-decade-long journey of the beloved Amagansett bar and music venue, the Stephen Talkhouse.
Featuring never-before-seen photographs, archival memorabilia and personal stories from staff, patrons and family members, Bar is a tangible account of not only the Talkhouse’s legendary and highly storied past, but its role as a community hub and local beacon for inclusivity.
Few Hamptons venues are as iconic as the Stephen Talkhouse. Originally opened in 1970, it’s been owned by Peter Honerkamp since 1987 and is currently managed by his children, Ruby and Max. The local dive bar-turned-music Mecca is legendary around these parts, beloved for both its consistent offerings of both local and mainstream live musical acts along with its equally cherished, no-frills identity as a local’s watering hole that’s helmed by a loyal, decades-long staff and that gives back to the people that live here.
“My family’s owned the bar for 39 years now, and growing up, just so many people around us in the community and artists and patrons have always said there’s so much more to this bar,” says Ruby Honerkamp. “There’s so much that happens here, and I think we’re just so protective over whether or not we’re doing too much because so much of the beauty and the charm of the bar is just the experience and the institution itself.”
Because of that, telling a story never felt like the right time or the right moment, until the family connected with Ted Delano, a longtime fan and collaborator of the Amagansett locale, founder of creative studio Made by Sea (based in Portugal) and the one who suggested and ultimately helped execute the coffee table book format.
Divided into four chapters, Bar tells the Talkhouse’s story, from its inception over 50 years ago all the way up to a couple years ago. (Photo credit: Liliana Mendes)
The family (and many others) spent the past two years gathering stories from artists, patrons and staff, archiving photos, and “trying to figure out how to put it all together,” Honerkamp says. “We kept coming back to this moment of even though everyone’s experience is different, it’s all kind of one and the same, interconnected in the values of what the Talkhouse kind of stands for. We struggled so much in the beginning. It’s like, where do you start, or how do you start? Is this a memoir? Is there a single narrator? Is this chronological? Is it music first? Because the big and small moments are all big moments. The small moments are sometimes bigger than the big, loud moments. And so, through multiple iterations, we kind of found the best way to tell the story was through multiple voices.” This resulted in Bar being a book “told by many.”
Published in Maia, Portugal by family-run Gráfica Maiadouro, 500 copies have been printed so far, as a first batch. Currently, the book is available online at the Talkhouse’s website here. It costs $160.
“We’re always a space that’s available to our community. We’re open year round. It’s not like we’re making money in the winter. It’s it’s more just to ensure there’s an establishment for locals, and we’re not like a big name pop up that’s just popping up in the summer and closing our doors the second Labor Day swifts away,” Honerkamp says. “We keep the lights on for the community no matter the occasion, and so I think between acceptance, staff, and community, we really are just invested so genuinely in these pillars, and I think the book does a great example of shining light to those moments and people.”
