Standing near a pack of girls in miniskirts snarfing some knots, I overheard them saying some Knicks were rumored to be on their way. Like Justin Bieber, who rented a house in the Sagaponack area this summer, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart have become white whales. In June, the pair joked that OG Anunoby should float their Hamptons house, given his $212.5 million contract. Since then, Brunson has been spotted dining at Alex Rossi’s great new East Hampton spot Lion’s Nook Bar & Grill, at Duryea’s Montauk, and working out with East Hampton varsity ball players. Hart went to Babe’s Diner and posed for selfies. Something tells me they’re not staying in Anunoby’s guest room.

In other feel-good news, I was heartened by a North Fork couple buying 40 acres of Cutchogue land for nearly $10 million with plans to preserve it. Call them the anti-Solovievs. The Suffolk Times reports that their family trust is named “What Am I, a Farmer?” after a line from “30 Rock,” which makes me like them even more.

In today’s newsletter, for paid subscribers, a deep dive into the secrets of one of the most talked about home flippers in the Hamptons, Blythe Graham-Jones, plus our elite events of the week from Ballerina Farm matcha to rare Peter Hujar photographs.

Read more

The courts are buzzing too, with Chanel filing a new motion in its counterfeit case against New York and Southampton store Taroo. While the Upper East Side branch of Taroo is still open, its Job’s Lane outpost has closed. It was once The Hamptons spot to buy purses that resemble designer bags—for less.

You know who else doesn’t take an Aperol spritz break in August? THC. I’m hard at work on our second print issue of the season. In the meantime, here’s a juicy free newsletter, with updates from Bethenny Frankel’s viral East Quogue bagelry, The Hamptons Ten with Tinx, and the rarest grails from Long Island friends and vintage hounds James Acierno and John Troha.

Subscribe now

A Stop-Work Order at Bethenny’s Pop-up

Yesterday, Real Housewife turned businesswoman and chicken-salad influencer Bethenny Frankel opened her pop-up Supermodel Cafe in East Quogue. The shop is a way to test Frankel’s upcoming line of what she calls “better-for-you bagels, flavorful dips, schmears,” in partnership with Goldberg’s Bagels, launching this fall. As lines formed down the block, employees came out with samples, and Bethenny herself appeared in a pink lace gown. Real supermodel Molly Sims came by, and an endless stream of influencers filmed content. In a video, Frankel said, “It just felt very real, interactive and fun. We made friends on the line. The coffee and the cheesecake and the bagels are totally secondary.”

However, the Town of Southampton has issued the pop-up a stop-work order, Newsday reported. The violations cited include “dangerous and unsafe work conditions.” Frankel’s team said, “The notice does not require the cafe to close and there is no anticipated disruption to business.”

The pop-up was, by Frankel’s own description, hastily developed in four weeks. In a July video, she said, “I basically want the peoples’ opinion. This was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down even though I didn’t want to work this hard during the summer. I said, ‘Fuck it and let’s find out.’”

Tinx No Longer Shares a Bed in The Hamptons

Christina Najjar—a.k.a. Tinx—is part of the early wave of women who started as influencers and content creators and parlayed their fame into businesses beyond the feed. She went from creating “rich mom” satirical content on Instagram and TikTok to hosting the podcast “It’s Me, Tinx” on SiriusXM and writing two books: her self-help book “The Shift: Change Your Perspective, Not Yourself,” and her novel “Hotter in the Hamptons” (which was optioned by Sara and Erin Foster for TV). I’ve always been into Tinx’s funny, candid perspective and have interviewed her about everything from fancy flip-flops to diamond tennis bracelets. After many years sharing a bed with three or four girls in Montauk group houses, she’s graduated to renting a house in East Hampton. She’s the latest insider to complete THC’s signature questionnaire, The Hamptons Ten.

Describe your perfect Hamptons day.
I wake up next to my crush and we decide to go get coffee on our bikes. It’s a gorgeous day with low humidity and UV8. We drink iced flat whites by the pool and tan but don’t burn. My best friends come over for lunch and we grill hot dogs and have a dance party. After lunch, we swim in the ocean and drink margaritas. Dinner at Blue Parrot, then dancing at a house party all night long.

What’s your favorite spot for a drink?
A dirty martini at The Crow’s Nest.

What’s your secret shopping spot?
I love Amagansett Wine and Spirits. They always have some good funky oranges.

Who would you love to bump into at the farmer’s market?
Andy Cohen.

What’s your main gripe about the Hamptons?
All of the “hot takes” online. If you don’t want to come, don’t come, but I try to skip over the online debates as it will always be a happy place for me.

What would be your dream dinner: spot, order, company?
My backyard with a chef who makes crab dip and grills steak and all my best friends!

What’s your advice to newbies about a visit out East?
Have fun and don’t let anyone make you feel like you don’t belong. And check for ticks!

Where do you go in the Hamptons to be alone?
My bed.

What’s your go-to gift for hosts/hostesses?
Good quality olive oil.

Who makes the best lobster roll?
Lunch!

Who should fill out this questionnaire next?
Jennifer Fisher, ultimate cool girl.

Grail Tales

In THC’s first print issue, we ran a portfolio of some of the rare T-shirts sourced by Long Island friends James Acierno and John Troha of Old Soldier. Here’s an extended interview with the duo, who started their company as a side hustle in 2013.

What was the genesis for Old Soldier?

James: My dad has been in the antique boat business forever. As a kid growing up our family boat was a fully restored 22’ 1957 Chris-Craft Sea Skiff named Night Heron that we’d take to Talisman/Barrett Beach or Davis Park on Fire Island. I remember no matter where we went people would always come over and ask about the boat. He eventually sold it, but an appreciation for old boats, history and the bay were ingrained in me from the start.

Later, he bought a 1946 Consolidated, a type of commuter yacht originally built in New York, to restore, and the boat came with the name OLD SOLDIER. When John and I started talking about starting a brand around 2011, all of the inspiration and direction we were pulling came from the boat’s history and these earlier experiences, and so it was kind of inevitable that we landed on that name. We have a boat house on the Patchogue River, and inside is a life ring hanging from the Night Heron that my grandma, an artist, painted two crossed flags on. We ended up using those flags in our logo, which is what you see in the crossed ‘NY’ today. So it all kind of came full circle.

What is your connection to the East End of Long Island?

John: I’ve been coming out east since I was a kid, it’s always been a special place for me. My dad is a big fisherman, so we fish a lot out of Moriches, Shinnecock, Montauk, Orient Point. When I was in high school I worked some of the offshore fishing tournaments at Star Island Yacht Club, which was really cool to be exposed to big tournaments like that.

I’ve also spent a lot of time in Montauk over the years camping, running and biking. It’s become an annual tradition for me to do a big run or ride out to the lighthouse. Last year I ran from Fire Island Lighthouse to Montauk Point Lighthouse. I’ve also done Orient Point to Montauk Point through Shelter Island and I think you notice a lot more about a place when you’re seeing it on foot. There’s so much to take in.

Where do you find these pieces?

John: It’s really a mix of classic in-person thrifting, estate sales, private collections, and spending a lot of time online. I know the vintage purists would dismiss sourcing anything not IRL, but the reality is going online broadens your reach and definitely has led us to some great deals. We’ve sourced stuff from all over the country and it’s always interesting to me to see where in the world an item ends up.

James’ dad is also a part of our sourcing crew - he travels all over the country working on boats and sees all sorts of great stuff at boat shows. He recently pulled us 2 NOS (New Old Stock) antique wood boat show tees that the original organizer never sold through from the early 80s.

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙

It’s enough to make me nostalgic for the 32-ounce $4.50 Razzmatazz I’d order from Jamba Juice in Berkeley in the early 2000s. It lasted for several hours and was at least partially responsible for my freshman fifteen.

In today’s newsletter, for the paid subscribers who keep this smoothie-analysis factory running, a poetic profile of Chris Kelly, the Hamptons’ most in-demand beekeeper; a $90-million-dollar flip of Lee Radziwill’s former estate on East Dune Lane; and our Elite Events roundup, with everything from the star-studded “The Big Chill” to a pop-up of one of the best vintage stores in the world.

Read more

Jumping right into this free Saturday newsletter, because there’s so much fun stuff to share: a forgotten 2002 Hamptons documentary is streaming; a look at the secret east-end foraging scene; an update on the death of an Irish fashion designer on a Montauk boat; and the loud sweatpants sullying the quiet-luxury Hamptons aesthetic.

Watch a Lizzie Grubman-Era Hamptons Documentary

Barbara Kopple’s “The Hamptons,” a two-part documentary originally made for ABC in 2002, is screening on Le Cinema Club for the next few weeks. Despite receiving some pans when it came out (Slate said it was “as unfocused and disappointing as the Hamptons themselves”), it’s a fascinating relic of the pre-Blade, pre-Surf Lodge Hamptons. It’s also interesting to see how many of the players are still around, from Marilee Foster of Marilee’s Farmstand to Jay-Z to Alec Baldwin (whose home is back off the market as he bops around this summer).

Le Cinéma Club, which is run by cinematographer Darius Khondji’s daughter Marie-Louise, shows a rare free film online each week. It’s such a good idea. Chanel must think so too—it sponsors the project.

Watch “The Hamptons” Here.

The Secret Luxury of The Hamptons: Foraging

Arina Churbanova grew up foraging everything from mushrooms to marigolds with her grandmother in Siberia. When she moved to the East End to be a pastry chef at Carissa’s after working with Daniel Boulud, she wanted to tell the story of the place through its ingredients. She picks cherry blossoms to use in syrup, gathers magnolia flowers from a tree behind the bakery, pulls dandelions for jam, and uses spruce tips from Carissa’s co-founder Lori Chemla’s garden for winter tinctures. “It tastes like Christmas back home,” she says.

Churbanova is one of many young chefs taking an interest in cooking with plants that can be found underfoot. The popup restaurant PawPaw in Greenport sells out its dinners with a focus on local ingredients and foraging.

Ryan Carroll, a North Fork private chef, says he’s walked barefoot in the woods for decades as a way of decompressing from stressful life in kitchens. He forages ramps and morels on his walks to use in his farm-to-table cooking. Plus, he says, “It’s free product.”

Shane Weeks, a member of the Shinnecock Nation in Southampton, grew up foraging honeysuckle, wineberries, blackberries, native grapes for jam and wine, dandelion for wine, sumac for tea, or “Indian lemonade,” acorns, and seaweed. He goes clamming, and goes crabbing with meat tied to a string like they did in the 1600s.

Many of the medicinal, ceremonial, and edible Long Island plants used by Weeks's ancestors, like mugwort and wild roses, are no longer accessible to his community. So he formed the Meadow Walk Indigenous Collective to replant them across Shinnecock land, but also places like Queens Botanical Garden, LongHouse Reserve, and Oyster Bay.

One day at Carissa’s, Churbanova and Chemla proudly showed me some magnolia blossoms pickling in a container. Striped pale cream and magenta, they smelled sweet and spicy. “Foraging is not really a trend for me,” explains Churbanova. “It’s just something that feels familiar. Some ingredients changed when I moved from Siberia to New York, but the ideas stay the same. You just pay attention to what nature offers each season, and you appreciate it, and create, and work with what you have.”

Subscribe now

One year ago, 60-year-old insurance executive and Deadhead Christopher Durnan ran naked off his boat, “Ripple,” at the Montauk Yacht Club in the middle of the night. The 33-year-old Irish swimsuit designer Martha Nolan-O’Slattera had died under mysterious circumstances on the yacht. Durnan was an investor in Nolan-O’Slattera’s resort and swimwear line East x East with co-founder Dylan Grace (which is still operating). In a New York magazine feature last year, “The Mysterious Death of a Hamptons Fashion Star,” Jen Wieczner wrote:

“In her adopted home of the Hamptons, creating a glamorous brand can be an alluring pathway to the good life for someone who doesn’t have money. What doesn’t show up on Instagram or TikTok, though, is that this entrepreneurial scene is often gritty and harsh, full of questionable characters and messy choices, and the prize can always seem both tantalizingly close and frustratingly far away.”

On August 4, nearly a year to the day after Nolan-O’Slattera was found, her mother Elma Nolan filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Durnan in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan. It alleges assault as well as gross negligence. Suffolk County authorities have not released a cause of death.

In this week’s New York Times Styles section, I have a story about the resurgence of $168 Free City logo sweatpants in The Hamptons. These Y2K staples are everywhere these days—I’ve been told that frat boys and sorority sisters at Southern universities are obsessed—but nowhere is that more apparent than out east. They’re sold at The Row in Amagansett, and Blue and Cream. Jewelry designer Lisa Eisner (Ashley Olsen’s mother-in-law) told me she has a whole section of her closet devoted to Free City. When she’s done with her sweatpants, she passes them off to her sister and nieces in Wyoming, who fight over them. I do not own a pair.

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙

Today’s newsletter, for paid subscribers, is bursting with news you’ll read later in other publications. And you’ll think, thank god for THC, keeping me ahead of the curve on local happenings with global import. In today’s edition: a roundup of the best Hamptons food with a cult following and no storefront; a comical clam “crime”; our Elite Events section including the perfect Authors Night itinerary from Robert Caro to Neil deGrasse Tyson; a Sag Harbor institution returns; and a shocking blind taste test of Jamagansett’s $80 pie.

Damn Clams!

On July 30, a young man called 911 to report a pile of smashed clams on the pavement near Georgica Beach. Moving shellfish from one area to another, and dumping shellfish waste are both forbidden. The East Hampton police department reported “what appeared to be roughly eight crushed clams in the area.” (This may very well have been the work of a seagull.) The police report concluded: “Negative signs of commercial dumping at this time.”

Read more

In today’s THC, a Hamptons Ten with design impresario Reed Krakoff, the man who bought Shelter Island’s most expensive property; a murky blue-green algae outbreak; and a deep dive into the exploding Moke business. (Until this week I was pronouncing “Moke” with two syllables, and I learned the hard way that it is one, like “Coke.”)

Off I go to drop off more print papers. Tell me in the comments where you’d like them.

Moke Mania Hits The Hamptons

“People in the Hamptons love a toy,” says Katie, a 25-year-old publicist who loves to ride her black-and-white striped Moke to Sagaponack General Store for breakfast. It’s true: If you already have all the boats and cars you can handle, weekend playthings like $15k Seabobs or $28k-$46k Mokes are fun add-ons to your fleet. (The Moke is her family’s fourth vehicle.)

Mokes, which started as a vehicle rejected from the British army in 1959, may have failed their functional mission but went on to become pop-culture icons. Paul McCartney drove one in Montserrat, they’ve appeared in Bond films, and Drake vamped in a murdered-out Moke earlier this summer at an event for his brand Nocta. The Kardashians have over 15 Mokes. In resort areas like Palm Beach, the Caribbean, and particularly the Hamptons, they’re everywhere.

“It’s the ultimate car to have as a second or third car,” Todd Rome, CEO of Moke America, tells me. Moke America was launched as a licensee in 2016, and established its own factories. Until last year, the maximum speed was 25 mph, but the new electric Mokes can go up to 45 mph, which makes the car mildly more practical (there’s nothing more Hamptons than getting stuck behind an older pink Moke filled with Barbies and Kens taking selfies when you just want to get to the post office).

Moke sales are brisk, and so are rentals. There are Hamptons hubs in Southampton, Water Mill and Bridgehampton, plus on Shelter Island at the Pridwin hotel. The rental fees are: $125 an hour, $475 a day, $1949 weekly, or $6200 monthly.

The Mokes driving around advertise themselves and stoke demand. “It’s like a billboard,” says Rome. And brands use them as such. Brands from Capital One to Serena and Lily wrap the Mokes with their logos and parade around the villages. When Louis Vuitton opened its multifloor East Hampton store, it used a custom moke for deliveries.

“The Hamptons needs its own car and the Moke seems to be it,” says Rome.

Photos courtesy Moke America.

Subscribe now

Beware Blue-Green Algae

Another week, another exciting bacterial outbreak. Partly thanks to climate change, water everywhere is bursting with fun new bacteria. Just a few months after Vibrio vulnificus (so-called “flesh-eating bacteria”) was found in high-net-worth ponds like Georgica and Sagaponack, a new bloom of cyanobacteria has been detected in Silver Brook Pond in Flanders and Pond Lane Pond in East Hampton. Suffolk County says to avoid contact with these waters and keep children and pets away.

Let it Reed

Reed Krakoff, the designer who is THC-famous for buying Shelter Island’s high-ticket Norman Jaffe home, is a relentlessly busy guy. He’s currently creative chairman of jewelry company John Hardy, strategic advisor to its parent company, the private equity firm L Catterton, and executive director of accessories for Gap Inc. He and his wife, interior designer Delphine Krakoff, are house collectors, designing art-filled showstoppers in Paris, Amagansett, New Canaan, CT, and New York City. I respect that he doesn’t play the farmer’s market game.

Describe your perfect Hamptons day.
I would wake up early, and go fishing with my friend the extremely talented photographer and angler Adrian Gaut. I would come home to jump in the pool before a fresh summer lunch prepared by Delphine, then fall asleep for a long nap outside, after looking at a rare book that I have finally tracked down, about the furniture designer Axel Einar Hjorth. Dinner with friends, at Swifty’s at the Hedges Inn in East Hampton. Come home to watch something I have seen 1000 times (Blue Jasmine, Arthur, the Sopranos, Leaning Into the Wind—about the artist Andy Goldsworthy) while I sketch on my iPad for one of the brands I work with.

What’s your favorite spot for a drink?
I don’t drink but Delphine is addicted to ice cream so I can tell you that the best one is the Chocolate Peanut Butter from Big Olaf in Sag Harbor. It is absolutely worth the long lines.

What’s your secret shopping spot?
The beautifully curated home goods boutique E-E Home, in Amagansett.

Who would you love to bump into at the farmer’s market?
I don’t go, so whoever that is will definitely not bump into me…

What’s your main gripe about the Hamptons?
The traffic, but it is what it is, and after 45 years of summering here I thankfully have the backroads figured out.

What would be your dream dinner: spot, order, company?
Crow’s Nest or Léon 1909 with my family. The chicken is delicious at both places.

Where do you go in the Hamptons to be alone?
To my pottery studio.

What’s your go-to gift for hosts/hostesses?
Hand-thrown pottery.

Who makes the best lobster roll?
Duryea’s.

What’s the perfect book to read in the Hamptons?
Steven Gaines' Philistines at the Hedgerow.

Who should fill out this questionnaire next?
Jodi Pollack, Chairman of 20th century design at Sotheby’s. Or David Netto?

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙

I was straining to identify other big fish at my first visit to The Bridge, one of the country’s most exclusive golf clubs, with a reported $1 million-plus initiation fee. I couldn’t tell the bigwigs on the golf course apart, but it was easy to spot the art: Founder Robert Rubin is pals with secret golf enthusiast Richard Prince (do read Nate Freeman’s great Vanity Fair profile of the elusive artist). As you drive into the club you’re greeted with a Prince billboard of “Vanishing Point.” The modernist clubhouse is filled with pieces by artists including Prince and Tom Sachs, much of it car-themed. The Bridge is located on a former race track and hosts a high-end car show in the fall.

The first print issue of THC is out, and I’ve been dropping it at coffeeshops and galleries and movie theaters all over the east end. If you nab one, please tell me what you think, and let me know if you’d like me to drop one at your business. (I’m putting every dollar I earn from paid subscriptions into printing the paper, so today would be a great day to upgrade!) In today’s newsletter, for paid subscribers, a look at the devoted tree stewards of East Hampton, the most extravagant valet situation in Southampton, and elite events from a Jocelyn Wildenstein documentary to a Belle Burden talk.

Read more

The Palo Alto-based Pivotal is doing a public demonstration of its one-person flying cars in the Shagwog Marina area through Saturday. In a promotional video, a Pivotal rep described driving as boring, and said, “If you want to see The Hamptons in a whole new way and really dial it in, this is the way to do it.” If you put down a deposit for a Helix, you can be trained in flying it in just “a few days.”Jenny Landey, a Sotheby’s real estate agent known for representing some of The Hamptons’ most elegant properties, has already expressed her disdain, posting to Instagram, “This cannot be legal outside my house?” I’ll pop down to Shagwog today to check it out.

In today’s free newsletter, a guide to East End hat symbology, a kerfuffle over a Rolex watch sign in East Hampton Village, and Aerin Lauder’s Hamptons Ten.

Subscribe now

Watch This Space

Is a Rolex watch face looming above Newtown Lane OK? At an East Hampton Zoning Board of Appeals meeting on July 10, a gentle skirmish erupted over acceptable signage in the village. A lawyer associated with 28 Newtown Lane, a historic building that currently houses a Rolex boutique, argued that it should be allowed to construct a discreet-ish archway with a watch face in front of Odd Fellows Hall.

Signs in the commercial area of East Hampton Village are highly regulated; they can only be 8 feet tall, with one per lot, and must clear the Design Review Board. The proposed Rolex sign/symbol is a watch face on a (10-11 foot-tall) slim archway. The London Jewelers-run Rolex boutique is in a gray-shingled historic landmark by Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe, who also designed Grey Gardens and Calvin Klein’s former estate—currently on the market for $165 million. When it was a Chanel pop-up store a few years back, an influencer told me, ““If you don’t take a selfie in front of the little Chanel boutique house-looking store, then I’m not sure if you even went to the Hamptons.”

Jameson McWilliams, an attorney speaking on behalf of London Jewelers patriarch Mark Udell, said she notified close to 70 neighbors about the variance: “We got a lot of phone calls but we didn’t get anything negative in writing,” she said. James McMullan, the board’s vice chairman, pushed back, saying, “This creates that undesirable look. It will block the view of a historical landmark building. The applicant could achieve this by another method.” The historic preservation committee will be consulted as Greenleaf Thorpe shudders in his grave. (He’s buried in Montclair, NJ.)

A Very Aerin Hamptons Ten

Aerin Lauder, granddaughter of Estée Lauder and founder of lifestyle company Aerin, has been a Hamptons fixture her entire life. She lives in a Greek Revival house in Wainscott she inherited from her cosmetics-queen grandmother, with much of it preserved in the just-so style of Estée (to the point that a guest once smoked a pungent vintage cigar that belonged to her grandfather). Today, Aerin has her own East Hampton store (a stone’s throw from the Rolex boutique mentioned above) that sells everything from candles inspired by her garden to the mahjong sets every Hamptonite is clamoring to buy these days. Lauder is the latest tastemaker, after Katie Couric, Jenna Lyons, Andy Cohen, Isaac Mizrahi, and more, to answer THC’s signature questionnaire.

Describe your perfect Hamptons day.
A day at the beach with a good book

What’s your favorite spot for a drink?
The Hedges Inn

What’s your secret shopping spot?
The ARF Thrift & Treasure Shop

Who would you love to bump into at the farmer’s market?
Ina Garten

What’s your main gripe about the Hamptons?
Traffic

What would be your dream dinner: spot, order, company?
Duryea’s with my two sons and my husband. I would order a lobster roll with French fries and a glass of rosé.

Where do you go in the Hamptons to be alone?
The beach

Who makes the best lobster roll?
Duryea’s

What’s the perfect book to read in the Hamptons?
Strangers by Belle Burden

Who should fill out this questionnaire next?
Christy Turlington

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙

The influencer crosswalk was in full effect this Sunday, as Sunset Beach set up a giant outdoor screen for the World Cup finals (a generous gesture that was only slightly undercut by the screen freezing at a few key moments). Sunset Beach upheld its “Mediterranean” reputation, with women in thong bikinis and men smoking giant cigars wandering by. The hotel’s proprietor, André Balazs, held court in yellow-tinted Jacques Marie Mage-ish sunglasses and striped sneakers.

High summer means stogies and skimpy swimsuits, but it also means a clusterschmuck of traffic—especially across Route 27. In addition to a car smashing straight into the beloved Elaia Estiatorio restaurant in Bridgehampton (everyone’s OK, minus some chairs and tables), Jay-Z and Beyoncé had an unexpected visitor at their estate. More on that, as well as a fire-sale of the Mugrabi mansion, for paid subscribers below. Plus: the launch of our “Elite Events” section, with a carefully curated list of things you’d actually want to do, including talks by Maggie Haberman, Derek Blasberg, and John Waters and a Julian Schnabel screening.

Read more

Tick-borne illnesses are one of the hidden horrors of life out east. The New York Times called the situation a “nightmare,” and MIT biologist Kevin Esvelt called it a “natural disaster” and a “plague.” With Lyme but also alpha-gal, Babesiosis, Anaplasmosis, and Powassan virus on the rise, and the Fordham Tick Index hitting a 10/10 this summer, I thought it was time for a THC SOTU on Lyme and the like.

In today’s jam-packed free newsletter, tick horror stories, the latest fads in tick protection, and local journalist Amanda Fairbanks on her upcoming cultural history of Lyme, “Tick Boom.” On a lighter note, we’ve also got a look at the summer’s reigning food trend, “cherries on ice,” and a Hamptons Ten with the queen of “sets,” Suzie Kondi.

Subscribe now

Are ‘Cherries on Ice’ the Next Butter Sculptures?

I’ve started seeing “cherries on ice” at Hamptons and North Fork parties and backyard gatherings. The dish—known as ciliegie su ghiaccio since forever in Italy—is more of a composition than a recipe. It’s just fresh cherries on ice cubes, the more photogenic the better. Food writer Alton Brown had the $9 cherries on ice at downtown New York wine bar Casetta a while back and declared it one of the best desserts he’s had. When the dish was served at a Puck dinner at Café Deco in Bloomsbury, London, this summer, it was photographed more than the guests were. Who better than the empress of party food, Laila Gohar, to weigh in on this non-dessert dessert trend? “We’ve reached peak everything,” she told me ruefully. “The internet ruins it all,” said the chef and artist who’s made a life-size carousel of vegetables and furniture made of bread. So she wouldn’t serve cherries on ice? “I would still do it,” she said. “But I wouldn’t post it.”

What to Know Now:

The New York War on Ticks is Ramping Up: This month, Senator Chuck Schumer announced that he’s seeking $273.5 million in federal funding to combat tick-borne diseases. Schumer, who has himself had Lyme, knows his demographic: New York state, and specifically Suffolk County have some of the highest rates of tick-borne illnesses in the world.

It’s Not Just Lyme. Great. New York recently confirmed its first case of Bourbon virus, yet another addition to a roster of several tick-borne illnesses to be cautious of, including: the common Lyme disease, bacterial Anaplasmosis, parasitic infection Babesiosis, bacterial infection Ehrlichiosis, red-meat allergy Alpha-gal syndrome, the rare but serious Powassan virus, rare bacterial infection Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Hard tick relapsing fever, and the rare Heartland Virus.

Is a Vaccine on the Horizon? Potentially. Pfizer and Valneva are in the late stages of development of a Lyme vaccine. Interestingly, there was a Lyme vaccine from 1998 to 2002, which was pulled from the market for low demand.

A Tick Book I Can’t Wait to Read:

Amanda Fairbanks, the Sag Harbor author of The Lost Boys of Montauk, just turned in her latest book, “TICK BOOM: A Biography of Lyme Disease, the Growing Epidemic Lurking in Plain Sight,” to be published in April 2027. The writer, whose own experience of chronic Lyme drove her to write the book, looks at the cultural history of Lyme through a personal point of view.

How did your understanding of tick-borne disease change while reporting the book?
Prior to reporting this book, I don’t think I appreciated its history, or how and why it remains such a contested disease — perhaps the most controversial of the modern era. I was diagnosed with a CDC-positive test for Lyme in 2019, after being misdiagnosed the previous fall and consequently delaying antibiotics. Over the years I had become a quasi-expert, mostly because the disease kept disrupting my life in countless ways. But this book humbled me.

I’m not a science person, and I’m certainly not a medical writer. After two years of reporting, I’ve come to appreciate not only how complicated these tick-borne diseases are, but also how fast they’re shape-shifting, and how quickly the endemic map is growing. It’s one of those subjects where the more you learn, the more you understand how little anyone knows. I keep coming back to something Allen Steere — the brilliant rheumatologist who helped discover the disease, and who has a chapter of his own in the book — told me: “Our understanding is always incomplete. Always.”

Are Hamptonites too worried about ticks, or not worried enough?
We live in a beautiful part of the world that also happens to be the most endemic county in New York State. The best prevention is not getting bitten. Failing that, it’s starting treatment fast. The diagnostics are terrible. The antibiotics aren’t exactly new. And what the disease does to one person’s immune system versus another’s is something scientists genuinely cannot yet explain.

It may not be the deadliest disease of our generation, but it might be the most neglected. Hundreds of thousands of new cases a year, a test that misses most early infections, and no consensus about what’s happening to the patients who don’t get better. That combination — enormous, common, and unsolved — is what I can’t get over.

So, no, I don’t think we can be worried enough. One of my Instagram followers put it perfectly: the twentieth century was afraid of sharks, and the twenty-first is afraid of ticks. This is no longer a matter of six degrees of separation. If you haven’t been bitten yourself, you almost certainly know someone who has. And the symptoms are maddening in their range: swollen joints, a sudden allergy to red meat, psychiatric symptoms that arrive out of nowhere.

Every time I see a child rolling around in the sea grass, I have to physically restrain myself from becoming that woman on the beach, the one shouting about ticks at strangers.

What’s it like writing a book while still living with chronic Lyme?
This is a deeply personal book, and one I’d have had no interest in writing if I hadn’t gotten sick myself. The disease rewired my immune system in ways my doctors are still discovering, which makes it a daily lesson in humility. I can’t push the way I used to. My body won’t permit it. What it has given me is an enormous amount of empathy — not only for patients like me, but for the researchers trying to solve this maddening puzzle.

Chronic Lyme (or the less politically charged Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome) was the dress rehearsal for Long COVID, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia. For half a century, it has represented the frustrating reality of patients who are profoundly sick despite normal-looking lab tests. Medical science is still struggling to grasp that lesson.

I hope parts of this book speak to people with other chronic or undiagnosed conditions. Tens of millions of Americans. The thing that binds us together is as simple as it is awful: what it means to sit in a room with a doctor, describe your symptoms, and be believed.

Subscribe now

Suzie Kondi’s Easy Breezy Hamptons

Fashion designer Suzie Kondi spent 13 months sailing to New York from Australia in the late 1990s, and went on to create a fashion empire built on “sets” beloved by the likes of Jenna Lyons and Martha Stewart. Kondi, who’s one of the anchors of the Amagansett shopping district with her eponymous store, answers our signature questionnaire:

Describe your perfect Hamptons day.
Funnily enough, today was my perfect Hamptons day. It started early with a walk from Two Mile Hollow up to Indian Wells with the dogs, a long swim, watching dolphins playing just off the break. Then an infrared pilates class at Align in Amagansett and straight to Goldberg’s for flagels (a flat bagel), cream cheese, salmon and red onion that I caramelize at home to make extra delicious.

The middle of the day belongs to the store — backgammon with clients and friends, which is really what my shop is for. Then back to the beach with my book, home for a swim, more backgammon with my daughter Stevie, who beats me more often than she should. Balsam Farms for blackberries and blueberries picked that morning, then an early dinner for the houseful of family and friends out from Australia and the city, chicken pesto pasta, more backgammon.

What’s your favourite spot for a drink?
I’m not a drinker at all, but I love a French Bloom at Il Buco al Mare or Moby’s. Both are properly local — Moby’s is owned by Lincoln, a fellow Aussie, so always good for a laugh, and Il Buco is just up the street from the store, an easy stroll back.

What’s your secret shopping spot?
Honestly, Amagansett. EE Home for the most beautiful home things, essential and entirely non-essential, and The Row for the expensive but must-have leather flip flops.

Who would you love to bump into at the farmer’s market?
Paul McCartney. Always up for a chat, and the absolute loveliest.

What would be your dream dinner: spot, order, company?
HOME! Something home cooked from whatever Balsam Farms has that week, a long table, family and friends, no ceremony. The table doesn’t need to be beautiful, it just needs to be full.

What’s your advice to newbies about a visit out East?
The Hamptons is a bunch of small towns with year-round locals. Slow down and hit the beach, farm stands, and just enjoy the beauty. It’s the simple things here that are the best.

Where do you go in the Hamptons to be alone?
The beach at sunrise — the light does something to the water that I’m forever trying to get into my dye lab. Also my garden, as often as I can, just listening to the birds.

What’s your go-to gift for hosts/hostesses?
Pottery from Pãn Pottery. The potter is a friend, I’ve been collecting his work for years, and this year we finally collaborated — the glazes are extraordinary, which is obviously my weak spot. I also love Noén body oil by Natalie Mankarious, another Aussie out here, a collection built around Cleopatra and the ritual of taking care of yourself. Never a candle, we’re better than that.

Who makes the best lobster roll?
Carissa’s makes a pretty great lobster roll. But the best is Mary’s Fish Camp, newly reopened in the West Village — which does me no good out here at all. Please open in the Hamptons.

What’s the perfect book to read in the Hamptons?
Everyone needs to read The Song of Achilles, and then Circe. Not new, but a must read. I read constantly out here in summer, always from BookHampton.

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙

Upgrade for a bonus section on the true insider tick-prevention strategies.

This weekend, I stumbled over a young woman in Sag Harbor who was, for some reason, crouched on the ground balancing an iced coffee and a ludicrously tiny Jacquemus purse. Her friend/photographer was dressed in an identical baby-blue minishorts outfit.

Speaking of performative social media, the New York Times wrote about the Hamptons Chicken Finger Boom. I’m not sure this trend is specific to the Hamptons. Adults who spend a lot of time at the gym love eating off the kids’ menu on cheat days wherever they are, from Miami to L.A. But I understand the urge to story-ize the $150 Popeyes chicken-finger tower at Surf Lodge. Elsewhere in tender content, is anything cuter than this tween-friendly Babe’s nugget served at the Olive & June and Katie J event in Sag Harbor a few weeks ago?

This weekend gala season hit its peak, with David Burtka and Neil Patrick Harris hosting a God’s Love We Deliver fundraiser at their home complete with synchronized swimmers performing in their pool. New York City Hamptonites come east to relax, but that often dovetails with their businesses: In today’s newsletter for paid subscribers, Soulcycle co-founder Elizabeth Cutler talks about her latest venture, and the New Yorker’s Ken Auletta previews his doubleheader of media events with Tina Brown, Tom Freston, and Maureen Dowd.

Read more

If you have kids, consider heading to the Southampton Playhouse on Sunday morning, where they’re showing “Shaun the Sheep” along with a meet-and-greet with a “real sheep from our local farming community.” Cute idea. The Southampton movie theater, revamped by real-estate developer Aby Rosen and his son Charlie, is yet another example of an ambitious billionaire-led project in the Hamptons.

Happy 40th birthday to Lindsay Lohan, who celebrated at Le Bilboquet in Sag Harbor. I’m sure the staff enjoyed cleaning up from the confetti cannons which were part of the party.

In today’s (free) newsletter, local drama galore, including the ongoing war against gas-powered landscaping tools and an escalation of tension between East Hampton and Max Levai’s art institution The Ranch. But first: a Hamptons Ten with none other than our Belgian-shoe-wearing king (not Madoff!): fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. He’s on a mission to save the Bridgehampton Carvel from its eventual fate as cannabis dispensary “Budhampton.”

Subscribe now

Isaac Mizrahi’s Not-Fabulous Hamptons Guide

This week, the news broke that Isaac Mizrahi’s 1995 documentary “Unzipped” would return to theaters in September. I consider it to be one of the best fashion documentaries of all time, along with “Dior and I,” so I’m delighted. Mizrahi and I did a live Q+A at a screening of the film in Brooklyn some years back, and I’d like to manifest a redux at the Sag Harbor Cinema this fall. Mizrahi, who was just announced as the first creative director at large of Target, has been a Bridgehampton denizen for decades. A dog lover, every year he draws the artwork for the Animal Rescue Foundation’s Stroll to the Sea Dog Walk. Here’s his Carvel and canine-filled guide to his cozy corner of Bridgehampton.

Describe your perfect Hamptons day.
A long bike ride / breakfast at Bridgehampton Candy Kitchen / farm stand / beach late in the day / solitude / pasta / tomatoes / barbecue.

What’s your favorite spot for a drink?
Elaia Estiatorio.

What’s your secret shopping spot?
Comerford Collection (which is not such a secret).

Who would you love to bump into at the farmer’s market?
I would love to bump into Parker Posey who I used to bump into all the time at Pike’s farm stand.

What’s your main gripe about the Hamptons?
Obviously that there are too many people. My solution is I don’t spend much time there on July and August weekends. I’m usually in the city on weekends. Also I stay off the roads. I mostly stay home with my dogs which I LOVE to do.

What would be your dream dinner: spot, order, company?
This is the pipe dream: some day I will have a party pavilion somewhere on the beach in Sagaponack. (Not where I live, but a separate residence where I can host a dinner party and leave when I feel like leaving.)

What’s your advice to newbies about a visit out East?
Relax. Drop the idea that the Hamptons are fabulous. I’m not into The Fabulous Hamptons. Take a bike ride, go to the beach with a sandwich, stay home, cook, rescue a pair of dogs from ARF.

What’s your go-to gift for hosts/hostesses?
A package of “flying saucers” (ice cream sandwiches) from Carvel in Bridgehampton. Which is closing soon which breaks my heart. I feel like we need a cause to keep it there across from King Kullen forever and LANDMARK IT.

Who makes the best lobster roll?
1. Loaves and Fishes in Sagaponack 2. Lunch in Montauk.

What’s the perfect book to read in the Hamptons?
Andy Warhol’s Diaries.

Who should fill out this questionnaire next?
Sarah Jessica Parker.
[Ed. note: I’m trying!]

Go see Isaac’s cabaret residency, ‘Hooray,’ at 54 Below in New York on August 12-15.

An Embattled Buddha

Not all locals are excited about the latest installation at gallerist Max Levai’s The Ranch, near the former Andy Warhol estate in Montauk. Los Angeles artist Matt Johnson’s monumental sculpture, “Meditating Figure,” was made from 12 decommissioned shipping containers, reassembled as a peaceful cross-legged meditator. “Each container logs about a million miles before being retired,” noted Johnson on his Instagram.

Townspeople were already buzzing when cranes began installing the shipping containers on the property. “Would have been easier to tape a banana to the wall,” said one social media cynic.

At this week’s East Hampton Town Board meeting, the board voted to authorize legal action against The Ranch for failing to submit the sculpture to the building department. Town attorney Jake Turner said, “By definition, this is a structure. They’re welding large pieces of metal together. It needs to go through the Building Department for applicable safety standard checks. If we don’t take action, then we are compromising the safety of the residents.” The Ranch did not respond to a request for comment.

Subscribe now

Emma Cline wrote her novel “The Guest” partly while staying at Larry Gagosian's Hamptons guest cottage. In it, she writes: “So much effort and noise required to cultivate this landscape, a landscape meant to invoke peace and quiet.” (Thanks to one of my cleverest readers, David Roberts, for reminding me of that quote.) The book identifies one of the great headaches of the Hamptons: landscaping noise.

Despite heavy restrictions on gas-powered landscaping tools, including leaf blowers being completely banned from May 20 to September 20 in East Hampton and Southampton, the noise has still been “out of control” recently, said one resident. In the past week, the police blotter has been filled with reports of gas-powered weed wackers being used at unsanctioned times. Fines can be up to $5,000, which, one hopes, are being paid by Georgica Road homeowners and not their gardeners.

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙

Over at Lulu Kitchen & Bar in Sag Harbor on Sunday, a group called East End for Peace and Justice staged a protest against the restaurant’s owner, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan. The billionaire Rowan also owns Duryea’s Montauk and Duryea’s Orient Point under his hospitality umbrella Montauk Asset Holdings. The activist group, which describes its gathering as a “weekly vigil demanding an end to the U.S.-supported Israeli occupation of Palestine,” chanted anti-Rowan rhetoric while distributing “menus” supporting their position.

Somewhat calmer was Jane Lauder Warsh’s Independence Day dinner party at her oceanfront home in Wainscott. The former Clinique president turned pet-longevity investor, whose birthday is July 1, goes big on Fourth of July, with an elegant dinner for over a hundred—including dogs and ladies who lunch—right off the beach.

In today’s THC, for paid subscribers, a deep dive into the personal microvineyard phenomenon; the return of Amagansett fashion legend Tiina Laakkonen; and a shoplifting epidemic.

Read more

If you are hosting a party today, may I suggest that you wear a black bodysuit and black tights to perform the Little Edie flag dance, one of the great moments of “Grey Gardens.” I’ve had the classic East Hampton documentary on my mind thanks to Apartamento magazine’s lovely story about Jerry Torre, who arrived at the mansion in 1972 as a 16-year-old runaway. He moved in with Little Edie and her mother Big Edie, who called him “the Marble Faun.” Buy it in print, because Apartamento is always worth properly paging through.

In today’s special holiday edition, a report on the watches and wonders of Michael Rubin’s white party; the legendary fashion titan Andrew Rosen’s incredibly macho guide to the Hamptons; and a nerdy chicken salad buzz o’ meter chart. This post is free! But as you may have noticed, some posts are now available only to paid subscribers—join the club.

Subscribe now

The Second-Biggest Party of the Week

I was considering doing a Breaker-style pap stakeout of Michael Rubin’s Bridgehampton white party this week, but I was having too much fun at the nearby Hedges Inn that night to make it over. No promises I won’t be lurking outside next year in a fedora, though.

Even with Rubin’s shift of the date from July 4 to July 1—which, he insisted, was not a concession to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s nuptials—the Royal Wedding had an effect. Some of the (real) paparazzi I’m in touch with were skipping the Fanatics CEO’s extravagant beach party this year because they were prowling around New York City trying to capture any signs of Swift’s wedding. Cheat-day caterers were torn in two directions. Rubin got Lucali pizza, Red Hook Tavern burgers, sushi, and caviar, while Sartiano’s was seen loading focaccia into MSG.

Rubin still managed to pull in the heaviest room imaginable, with guests including Jay-Z, Martha Stewart, Tom Brady, Alix Earle, Ivanka Trump, and Teyana Taylor, a “pussy posse” reunion with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, and performances from Snoop Dogg and Alicia Keys. I imagine the scent of the evening was a mix of cigar smoke, Cristal, and spray tan.

The white party has become a nexus of wealth, celebrity and also, critically, dealmaking. “Everyone who comes to that party knows they’re going to meet people around them that are really good for their business,” said Rubin on The Burnouts podcast. Many guests recognized the promotional power of the party, with Todd Graves of Raising Cane’s chicken fingers cross-posting his party pics with his company’s main account, and Mimi Moritz and Kylie Rubin of Y2K-inspired brand Kymi World wearing a $220 white terrycloth set that’s available to buy for only 48 hours.

“It felt like summer camp,” Lucy Guo told me. An AI entrepreneur and Barry’s enthusiast who was for a time the youngest self-made female billionaire, Guo said the white party was a great occasion to see her friends who are “constantly traveling and never have overlap.”

Guo, like other guests, took the party’s dress code seriously. She wore Louis Vuitton pants, a Dior cape, Dior heels, a Dior ear cuff, and a Jacob & Co. ear cuff. She also wore a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5980/1400G-010. Outside of the Watches and Wonders Geneva fair, the white party is one of the major spots for collectors to flex their watches. Celebrity Watch Spotter rounded them up, from Rubin’s “super rare” white ceramic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak (which he angles toward the camera in many photos) to Jake Paul’s Jacob & Co. Billionaire Mini set with 492 diamonds.

Whether or not it was intentional, the date shift paid off. The world’s most in-demand guests, including Jay-Z and Tom Brady, were able to attend both Swift’s wedding and Rubin’s watch junket.

Subscribe now

Fashion-industry soothsayer and fisherman Andrew Rosen never sits still. The son and grandson of garmentos, he was CEO of Puritan Fashions Corp by 26, later ran Anne Klein, and co-founded Theory in 1997. Today, he’s a co-founder of TWP, global executive chair of rag & bone and Alice + Olivia (Brands: What’s wrong with the word “and”?). The part-time Southampton resident is on the board of the brands Skims, Good American, Frame, Veronica Beard and Westman Atelier. A racehorse aficionado, Rosen is a sort of Hamptons racehorse himself, roaming his stores in the villages, crunching diner bacon, and fishing the high seas.

Describe your perfect Hamptons day.
First, I’d do some sort of short exercise after waking up, to loosen up my back. I’d then go to Sebonack [Golf Club] to have breakfast and play some golf with my buddies. After that I would head back to my house in Southampton and enjoy lunch by the pool with my wife and dog and see my grandkids. Next stop would be fishing...ideally in Montauk for some striped bass. The striped bass have been amazing this year. After that, I would head to the TWP stores with my wife to check out the flow.

What’s your favorite spot for a drink?
Not for drinks, but my favorite spot for a meeting is breakfast at Sip’n Soda. The owner Mark and his team make the best breakfast in the Hamptons. I’d have eggs, bacon and some oatmeal.

What’s your secret shopping spot?
Tenet. I like to browse there and see what is on offer. I also like to go to Round Swamp, I like their display and how they do everything.

Who would you love to bump into at the farmers market?
There are two places I always run into people: Sant Ambroeus in Southampton, and the car dealership. Last time I was at the dealership I ran into Calvin Klein and Stan Herman.

What’s your main gripe about the Hamptons?
The season is too short! I don’t think it really gets started until mid June because of the weather and ends in September. I wish it was longer. I do love September and October in the Hamptons though, that is really my favorite time. [Ed. note: Me too. Team September.]

What would be your dream dinner: spot, order, company?
My ideal dinner at home would be with my dog Minnie. I’d have a nice steak. Then Minnie would have some bites. Minnie loves steak and to eat with me. She’s a 14-year-old Schnauzer.

What’s your advice to newbies about a visit out East?
Stay north of the highway. It’s easier to get around.

Where do you go in the Hamptons to be alone?
Fishing, of course. Fishing is one of my favorite things to do, and the fishing in the waters off the Hamptons is great.

What’s your go-to gift for hosts/hostesses?
My go-to is always a bottle of wine.

Who makes the best lobster roll?
Clam Bar, right on the way to Montauk. And their clam chowder isn’t bad either.

What’s the perfect book to read in the Hamptons?
I prefer to read the Racing Form. Horse racing is another one of my passions. I race a lot of horses during the summer and love to bet on the races at Saratoga, so I read the Racing Form to keep current on it all.

Who should fill out this questionnaire next?
Mickey Drexler, no one knows the Hamptons better than him. Want his cell?
[Ed. note: Yes, please.]

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙

And finally, I’d like to share the first THC Index on the buzziest chicken salads in the Hamptons, a painstaking collaboration between myself, Taylor Gabrovic (my wonderful babysitter and a photographer and reporter in her own right), and my husband Nathaniel Kilcer. I will admit that the fixation on chicken salad is a bit of a mystery to me. Blame it on Bethenny Frankel, blame it on carb-free lifestyles, blame it on an aversion to post-beach cooking—whatever the reason, it’s unavoidable. Here’s our guide to navigating $20 plastic containers of chicken.

But sweet strawberries are no longer the main indication of peak summer in the Hamptons; brand activations are. Peppy ambassadors hand out electrolyte water and “functional coffee” samples at workout classes, and alcohol companies clamor to pop up at liquor stores and bars. Skincare brands compete to be part of gift bags given to women who will pass them directly to their nannies.

Now we’ve hit Peak Branded Car. They’re everywhere, from Jamagansett’s green vintage Benz to the Via Carota Cocktails wicker-seated Fiat to the Jones Road pickup truck to the Dune Skincare dune buggy. Last week at the NOMAD art fair, I saw designer Stuart Parr’s 1961 Coca Cola Fiat, which was used by the soda company as a promotional car, a precursor to today’s rolling ads. Charming in the sixties, cloying in the 2020s?

In today’s newsletter, for paid subscribers, some only-in-the-Hamptons curiosities: the wild story behind Multi Aquaculture Systems, a hidden Amagansett hatchery with great food; a be-toweled alley flasher alarms an East Hampton woman; Jennifer Fisher trusts her gut for her new collaboration with Maison Close in Southampton.

Read more

Bobbi Brown introduced Molin to a crowd drinking rosé and munching on pigs in blankets. The restaurant’s owner Alex Rossi, known for keeping former Pollock and De Kooning haunt Springs Tavern alive, seemed excited to christen his new spot. Molin spoke about some of the work the organization has done, including coordinating dental work, building homes, and helping provide basics like food and clothing. The crowd, which included Brooke Shields, Candace Bushnell, and Molly Jong-Fast, wept—and hopefully, will open their checkbooks.

I’m headed to the NOMAD fair shortly, for a picnic by Cove chef Flynn McGarry hosted by exhibitor Giorgio Armani. As it’s raining, hopefully there will be some chic umbrellas. (Speaking of which, the great designer Patrick McGrath once recommended the Serena and Lily Lake Stripe Fringe Umbrella and the Tuuci Ocean Master Hexagon Umbrella to me when I was looking to replace my outdoor umbrella. I ended up getting one from L.L. Bean.)

In today’s The Hamptons Chronicle, Andy Cohen’s favorite spots, a whale washes up on the shore near Montauk’s $3 million trailers, and our very first Hydrangea Award. This post is free! But as you may have noticed, some posts are now available only to paid subscribers—join the club.

Subscribe now

Andy Cohen’s Hamptons Haunts

Andy Cohen is my celebrity imaginary friend. I fantasize about walking out of a dinner at the Corner Bistro with Andy*, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Amy Sedaris to newfallen snow, or rocking out with Andy at a Dead and Co. show at the Sphere. This week’s Architectural Digest feature on Andy’s beachfront Amagansett house was catnip to me, but it was also torture. Lines like this gave me an irrational sense of FOMO: ”When he entertains, long cocktail hours unfold on the roof terrace, tequila and Fresca flowing, before everyone migrates to the dining tables—one indoors for 14, the other outdoors for eight.” That’s room for 22 people. Surely sometimes Kelly Ripa drops out—I can cook.

I’m a disciple of Andy’s diaries, which are Warhol-esque in the sense that he writes about knowing everyone and appearing everywhere at once. The author, radio host, and Bravo impresario behind Watch What Happens Live and The Real Housewives franchise has the indefatigable energy of a winner—but the Hamptons is where he goes to unwind. In his diaries he often talks about arriving out east late on Friday night and going straight to Sam’s Pizza in East Hampton where he orders a medium mushroom-and-onion pizza, well done.

I was thrilled when the King of Sam’s, the Daddy Deadhead, and Anderson Cooper’s bestie agreed to participate in The Hamptons Chronicle’s signature questionnaire, where we ask insiders about their favorite east-end spots.

Describe your perfect Hamptons day.
Take the mini convertible to Goldberg’s in Montauk for flagels with the kids, hang on my beach all day, Sam’s Pizza for dinner.

What’s your favorite spot for a drink?
My jacuzzi.

What’s your secret shopping spot?
The Ladies Village Improvement Society.

Who would you love to bump into at the farmer’s market?
SJP.

What’s your main gripe about the Hamptons?
The traffic!

What would be your dream dinner?
It’s always Sam’s Restaurant in East Hampton for house salad and a medium mushroom/onion pizza.

What’s your advice to newbies about a visit out east?
Have friends to hang with… don’t go chasing glamour.

Where do you go in the Hamptons to be alone?
My beach.

Who can’t you live without in the Hamptons?
My friend Fred knows everything and is handy.

Who makes the best lobster roll?
Lunch!

*I broke my own self-imposed THC style guide of using last names on second mention, because Andy is my imaginary friend and it feels weird to call him “Cohen.”

Other Hamptons Ten participants have included Estelle Bailey-Babenzien, Katie Couric, and Jenna Lyons.

Subscribe now

A Whale of a Smell

Today, a stench is wafting across Montauk’s so-called trailer park, where billionaires pay over $3 million for beachfront mobile homes. A juvenile humpback whale washed up in the shallow water near Ditch Plains beach, creating an odor that local surf instructor Corey Senese called “the worst smell I’ve ever smelled.”

Humpback whales feed on menhaden fish close to shore, following baitfish into nearshore coastal waters. They can get hit by boats, entangled with fishing equipment, or die of natural causes. The rock embankment that protects the trailer park may make the traditional sand burial difficult as authorities figure out what to do with the whale today. Meanwhile, surfers are stressing. One told me, “The problem is sharks will be trying to get to shore to feed on it. And once sharks get a habit of checking for food in a certain spot they always just come to check just in case.”

Normally, humpback whales can live up to 90 years old.

Best Pie: Briermere Farms Cream Pie

I’m not shy about calling out the best things; just ask my friends. The best red nail polish? Essie’s A-List. The best tote bag? Pacific Tote Company’s Catalina. So as I wade through endless press releases, social-media posts, and testimonials, I will endeavor to bring you The Best of the Hamptons. This is an extremely subjective—yet informed—process. The winners will be bestowed a “Hydrangea Award,” which, for now, will be an Instagram post and bragging rights. But I could see a gala awards ceremony in our future.

This week, the Hydrangea Award for Best Pie in the Hamptons goes to Briermere Farms in Riverhead, NY. While researching my story for New York’s Hamptons issue on bougie baked goods, I went to a lot of farmstands and bakeries and interviewed the area’s most legendary hosts and hostesses. Many of them named Briermeres’ cream-fruit pies as the ultimate east-end baked good. Philanthropist and jewelry designer Brooke Garber Neidich, personal chef Robyn Henderson-Diederiks, bookseller Cleo Le-Tan, and photography agent Skylar Pittman all swear by Briermere’s pies.

Clark McComb, the Yale-educated oldest brother of Briermere’s farming family, crankily declined my interview request. But that won’t stop me from driving an hour to pay $45 for his blueberry, strawberry, and peach cream pies.

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙

I spent part of my weekend undertaking the Herculean mission of ordering fried shrimp and ribs at Shelter Island’s legendary Commander Cody’s fish market. Commander Cody’s, which was opened by Jimmy Hayward in 1993, is a rustic seafood and barbecue spot with long waits and great beach grub. (I have a group chat whose signature emoji is the “🍤” in honor of Cody’s.) Hayward, who is 91, still mans the cash-only till. My father’s day gift to my long-suffering husband was handling our Cody’s order and the subsequent wait, while he had a massage at another Shelter Island institution, the Bonheur Supreme Spa across from Sunset Beach.

In today’s newsletter: the jetsetter art fair NOMAD—complete with a Giorgio Armani exhibition—arrives in Water Mill; Alex Gilbert; Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte; Robert Wilson; the cocaine chronicles; a Montauk cab driver; Lizzie Grubman; Stefan Soloviev; New York’s Hamptons issue; Jamagansett’s $80 pie; Sam Pezzullo; Kristen Wiig; Rukmini Callimachi; Marit Molin.

Read more

On “Heart of the East End” radio this morning, leather daddy Peter Marino was encouraging visitors to come to his Peter Marino Art Foundation in Southampton while the roses are in full bloom in June (“A deer tried to devastate them,” he noted). Marino, who pretty much invented the look of the contemporary luxury store with his designs for Chanel and LVMH boutiques, opened the museum in 2021 to house his extensive art collection and rotating exhibitions. He called the current slate, including painters Betty Parsons and Robert Nava, a “smorgasbord of taste.”

Read on for an exclusive report on Meredith Shumway’s expansion into the city, the surprising star of the U.S. Open, and Estelle Bailey-Babenzien’s Hamptons Ten.

Subscribe now

A Hamptons Workout Queen Lands on the UES

Former Tracy Anderson fitness instructor Meredith Shumway sells out her $55 dance-cardio workout classes from Memorial Day to Labor Day—no small feat in a cutthroat, crowded Hamptons fitness scene. As I reported last year, boutique fitness classes from Quogue to Montauk are known for wait lists, parking lots stuffed with vintage Land Rovers, and buff arms stacked with gold jewelry. “The Formula X Meredith” is one of the scene’s stars.

Working out of her mother’s modest dance studio, Shumway created a grassroots alternative to the branches of Equinox and Soulcycle right across the street in Bridgehampton’s Bermuda Triangle of Elite Fitness. Meredith’s classes, which are full of local women year round, have a cozy, independent feeling. That said, they’re still a scene: The music is so loud, ear plugs are suggested, and the handbags in the cubbies would rival the ground floor of Saks Fifth Avenue. Shumway, who just ramped up her business by opening a new studio on the Upper East Side, shares the secrets to her success.

On opening Formula on the Upper East Side:
After my first summer, so many clients kept asking the same question: “What am I supposed to do after Labor Day?” A huge portion of our summer community lives on the UES and it felt like the natural next step. The Upper East Side is filled with ambitious, busy women who prioritize their health and that’s exactly who I built The Formula for.

How she’ll manage working in two places:
A lot of time in the car and a very organized calendar! I’ll continue classes regularly in both locations because I feel most alive when I’m teaching, coaching and sweating with everyone. The Hamptons will always be home, but New York is an exciting new chapter. The goal has never been to replace one community with another, it’s to grow both. In the fall I will be in NYC two to three days a week and the Hamptons the remainder.

On the overlap between the UES and Bridgehampton clients:
Many of our Hamptons clients live in Manhattan during the week and head east on the weekends and in the summer. One of the things I’m most excited about is giving them a Formula home wherever they are. It’s been so fun watching our city and Hamptons communities start to blend together and realize they’re really part of one larger family.

On building a sold-out business:
I actually checked the schedule before this interview, and every class I’m teaching is sold out through Labor Day. There are a handful of 8:15 a.m. classes with one or two spots left, but that’s about it. The support from this community continues to amaze me.

What everyone’s wearing in class:
I’m a huge fan of onesies- I love layering them with shorts or track pants. That’s my staple formula uniform with a classic trucker hat. But I’m still seeing a ton of capri pants in class which are having a moment. And seeing a lot of matching sets so far this summer, beautiful neutrals, soft blues and classic black.

On the song of the summer:
My ultimate pump-up song changes almost weekly, but currently it’s Until The End (feat Raphaella) the VIP Mix by Henri Pfr. It’s the most played song in my classes right now!

Shockingly, golf is one of THC’s first recurring sections. I still find the sport to be an elitist bore—sorry!—but the circus around the U.S. Open is compelling. One star of this week’s tournament is Jon Jennings, the appealingly earnest superintendent of Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. It’s Jennings’s time to shine, like Michael Scott hosting the Dundies on ‘The Office.’ And I cannot get enough of the content about the perfect “syringing” (misting) of blades of grass, and the bonkers calisthenics he leads his staff in every morning (see below at minute 4:16).

Mockumentary jokes aside, Jennings’s job is undeniably complicated, and it got me thinking about the economics of golf clubs. Top clubs like Shinnecock have 6 or even 7-figure initiation fees on top of hefty yearly dues, but the cost of retaining top staff like Jennings and maintaining a course like Shinnecock is staggering. Private clubs generally operate as nonprofits under the Section 501(c)(7) tax exemption, so Shinnecock’s finances are public. With $10.7 million in revenue in 2024 but $10.2 million in expenses, the club is essentially breaking even.

Subscribe now

Our signature questionnaire where we ask Hamptons insiders about their favorite spots. This week, Noah co-founder and founder of The Dream Awake Design Estelle Bailey-Babenzien, who has been coming to East Hampton since 2001. Along with her husband and collaborator Brendon Babenzien, Estelle has set the tone for an instantly recognizable brand of unexpected prep. Her Hamptons is a Lisa Frank vision of dolphins and sunsets.

Describe your perfect Hamptons day.
The perfect day would be three hours longer so I could fit all my favorite things: wake up to blue skies and sunshine, make matcha and go to meditate barefoot in my moss garden, make breakfast for my family, enjoy some gardening and then head to the farmer’s market in Springs where I pick up goodies for the day, then pack a cooler and head to the beach. The waves would be perfect for my husband and daughter to surf, and the beach isn’t too busy, just friends and people we always see. We spot whales and dolphins, take a long walk, and even have a nap. Then it’s home for an outdoor shower, reset, rest and then dinner with people I love.

What’s your favorite spot for a drink?
Sagaponack Farm Distillery is great for a martini. I really like overlooking the water, so I imagine the newly open Lighthouse Cafe in Montauk will be a great spot.

What’s your secret shopping spot?
Amagansett overall has the best boutiques. I have scored some gems at the ARF Thrift and Treasure shop. Love Adorned is great for unique new and vintage jewelry and gifts. For art, Galerie Sardine is a treasure for those ahead of the curve.

Who would you love to bump into at the farmer’s market?
Running into chef Daniel Humm would be great, as he would give me tips and inspiration on what to buy. I mostly love to bump into friends and their kids I haven’t seen in ages for spontaneous catch-ups and plan making.

What’s your main gripe about the Hamptons?
There are not enough places to eat quality food, especially at reasonable prices.

What would be your dream dinner: spot, order, company?
My favorite dinners are usually at home, or at the homes of friends who love to cook and host beautifully with farm ingredients from Balsam Farms and Amber Waves Farm, meat from Mecox, fish from Stuarts, and tomatoes from the garden. Those meals are always freshest, simple and delicious. A beach potluck is always great, when we all bring food—I love to pick up the Freddie Bowl or Leilani Bowl from Doubles—to our favorite bay beach spot for a sunset dinner and bonfires. The kids play freely and we feel totally present, on our own time and terms.

What’s your advice to newbies about a visit out East?
Take it slow, get in flow, dress down not up, enjoy nature, cook new recipes and forget the rest.

Where do you go in the Hamptons to be alone?
Beach walks or the hammock in my garden.

What’s your go-to gift for hosts/hostesses?
Anything from E-E Home is a spectacular gift. The owner Elizabeth has a perfect range of special items that are hard to find. The matcha chocolate with soba crunch by Kettle is divine, I bring it with a good bottle of tequila. Cans of Aplos Ume spritz are fantastic alone or as a mixer with tequila.

Who makes the best lobster roll?
My friend Fifi owns the Crabby Shack in Brooklyn and that’s the BEST lobster roll I’ve ever had. So, when she comes to stay she always brings a bunch of lobster and makes rolls for us at the beach. It’s heaven!

Can you recommend a favorite summer read?
A good memoir is always insightful. Currently I’m listening to “The Telepathy Tapes”’ podcast. It’s incredible.

Subscribe now

This weekend! If you have a little LoveShackFancy-wearing Drunk Elephant-smearing person in your house, be sure to take them to Sage and Madison in Sag Harbor on Saturday from 2-4pm for nail company Olive & June’s collaboration with KatieJ. It’ll be tween heaven, with free nail art and hand-painted bows, bag charm making with BaubleBar, ice cream from A La Mode, snacks from Babe’s, and dirty sodas from Fontaine’s.

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙

Today, we start with some darker news—everything we know about the death last week of a 35-year-old Substack writer in Montauk.

Subscribe now

A Niche Internet Writer Dies on a Montauk Trail

On June 11, a body later identified as Lauren Balik, 35, was found near the Montauk Point East Overlook at Camp Hero State Park.

The state police said that the investigation is ongoing. No further details have been released.

Balik was a financial writer and data engineer in niche Internet circles who wrote about obscure connections between finance, tech, geopolitical intrigue, and Kabbalah symbolism for her Substack, and on her Twitter account with over 33,000 followers. On June 9, she posted what appears to be biographical details to X: “Steven Charles Balik, Born October 13 1990, Reston Virginia.”

Balik’s brother Brian posted a tribute to social media saying, “We sadly have lost one of my siblings this week after a long battle with mental health challenges.” Brian nodded to the family’s love of hiking and the outdoors in the post.

Camp Hero, now a state park, was a WWII-era coastal defense site disguised as a fishing village, later used as an Air Force radar station until 1981. The 754-acre park surrounding Montauk Point Lighthouse looms large in speculative conspiracy theory corners of the internet. It served as an inspiration for the supernatural TV show “Stranger Things,” which was originally called “Montauk.” There’s no immediate indication from Balik’s writing that she had any connection to the east end. A resident of Brooklyn, she often hiked in the tri-state area.

Balik’s Substack, “Lauren Balik’s Almanac & Revue,” was a sporadically updated chronicle about the hidden patterns behind finance and tech. The last post to her 2,200 subscribers, in April, was a pitch of herself for “wholesome projects.” In a description of her skillset, she wrote, “I run large parts of the digital space.” She also spoke about “Banksy-style digital projects which had the power to create real world outcomes with real humans here on Earth firing up output back into the digital cloud in feedback loops.” A few of Balik’s subscribers pointed me to a lengthy post she wrote in November 2025 about “esoteric assassinations.” The post describes people who went down online rabbit holes which ended badly.

Balik had many followers around the Internet, including establishment figures like Joe Weisenthal of Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast, who called her a “true original.” One of Balik’s Substack subscribers told me, “Lauren was a detective of sorts who clearly understood some secret things about the world and was willing to share them in her own odd way. They spoke in code often and also translated code that was spoken out in the world and taught us how to translate it.”

This is a developing story and it will be updated as we learn more.

Subscribe now

The beloved East Hampton Gardens center is in peril. Fashion-world alum Michael Giannelli, who’s run the Gingerbread Lane shop for ten years as well as doing garden design, says his landlords have sent an abrupt notice that he must vacate the premises by October 31, or December 31 with an extension. Giannelli wrote a letter to the EH Star explaining, “There was no first right of refusal, no meaningful discussion about our future at the property, and no opportunity to negotiate.” In an Instagram video titled “Devastated,” he said, “If anyone knows of anything adorable and fabulous out in the Hamptons that we could possibly reinvent keep us posted.”

“It’s so heartbreaking,” says Giannelli’s client Gwen Whiting, the founder of The Laundress and The Fill and a resident of Bridgehampton. “Michael is the kind of quintessential Hampton person that we love and need more of…he’s preserving the type of beautiful business that we love that are dropping like flies.”

“All the cool, fabulous, charming things are disappearing at a rapid pace,” adds Whiting, who also cited Estia’s restaurant.

The U.S. Open begins this week at the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, bringing a transportation quagmire, football fields’ worth of merch, and thousands of men with alcohol-induced rosacea. The first round of championship play is June 18, but the site is already mobbed (one man in the Sag Harbor White’s was complaining today that the traffic made it hard to get to his other golf club). A few notes:

• Architecture: The Open is a wonderful occasion to check out the 1892 club house designed by Stanford White, one of the great east end architects (he also designed Montauk’s Seven Sisters). Normally, cell phones are not permitted—outside of one’s car or the telephone room—at the club house.

• Merch: The USGA pulled in a record $333 million in 2025, much of that attributed to the U.S. Open. While that doesn’t break out merchandise, men in polos are already lining up this year to buy more polos. North Carolina brand Peter Millar is the official outfitter. Something tells me that no one from the nearby Shinnecock Reservation will be buying one of the official Smathers & Branson needlepoint belts embroidered with Native American chief heads.

• Transportation: The tournament recommends LIRR, which has added a temporary “Shinnecock Hills Station” on the Montauk line (my spies say the trains are already standing-room-only). If you drive, you’ll need to park in a distant lot that requires a shuttle. There are just a few spots left for Thursday’s Blade helicopter rides from the city, which take less than an hour, cost around $1,480, and deliver you steps from the links. The entrepreneurial Captain Chip Cheek is offering scenic boat rides from the North Fork. Inevitably, jokesters are saying that they’ll just swim to the event.

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙

Another hotly anticipated item in the calendar is the reopening of Galerie Sardine tomorrow. We have the scoop on what Amagansett’s resident earth mother Valentina Akerman is planning this summer for the Hamptons’ premiere art destination, below. Plus, scroll further for the ongoing saga of Alec and Hilaria Baldwins’ house sale, and some very East End Knicks merch.

As the weekend winds down, I’d love to see you at our second “office hours” coffee date: Monday from 9-10:30am at The American Hotel. If you plan to have a Bloody Mary, make sure you have Edward Burke’s number on speed dial.

Subscribe now

How Galerie Sardine Has Stayed “Odd” While Reinvigorating the Hamptons Art Scene

Valentina Akerman wasn’t sure she would be able to open Galerie Sardine again in Amagansett this year. After two summers showing art and hosting dinners with guests like Cindy Sherman and Elle Fanning in a 1701 farmhouse on Main Street, her lease was in jeopardy. The owners, who had bought the house without immediate plans to use it, suddenly wanted it back. But Akerman pleaded her case in a heartfelt letter, secured it for another summer, and got to work.

With her zen demeanor and chic, casual look—navy sweatpants, The Row Mary Jane shoes—you’d never know that Akerman pulled together an ambitious roster of programming for Galerie Sardine’s summer in less than a month. Her husband, artist Joe Bradley, who co-founded the gallery with her, helped out, as did a few art handlers and helpers (the Colombian Akerman says speaking Spanish is helpful on the East End). This weekend, the gallery reopens with an exhibition of delicate, haunting fabric pieces from Kritika Manchanda and Rafael Prieto. Most of the pieces are made of white cotton, evoking the textile’s complex, colonialist history in India. At the opening tomorrow, the multitalented Prieto will present an edible shirt made of Mexican chocolate from Chiapas.

Although Akerman was originally planning on a “mellow” summer by the beach with her four children, she says “I guess it’s not in my nature.” The rest of the season is stacked, with a show pairing the work of ceramicist Jane Yang-D’Haene and Brazilian painter Allan Gandhi, an exhibition by Japanese-born, Brooklyn-based artist Susumu Kamijo, and outdoor screenings with artists including Shaniqwa Jarvis and Margarita Jimeno. Sprinkled around the gallery is furniture from Somerset House, like the Pierre Chapo double chair where Akerman and I sit in to chat face-to-face on a recent Saturday.

A lot has happened since last summer. Akerman opened a gallery in Tribeca on Lispenard Street. She’s shown work in Paris and Los Angeles. And she began representing a small group of artists, including Justin Bradshaw, known for his painting of unmade beds. Akerman wanted a physical space to instill trust in collectors: “I’m allergic to the term ‘pop-up.’”

It may not be strictly a pop-up, but Galerie Sardine has a certain undefinable quality by design. Akerman says she wanted the name itself to be disarming. The sardine is a little silly, a lot maritime, and shape-shifts from the sea into a can. “There’s opportunity in being a bit odd,” she says.

Akerman and Bradley drew the gallery’s wavy logo at their kitchen table, and it’s gone on to grace a hat that became accidentally viral. The gallerist says she gets inquiries about the cap constantly, asking if it can be shipped as far away as Sri Lanka. She thinks the playfulness of the logo is universal: “Children like it, which is always a great litmus test.”

That sense of offbeat play has been part of Sardine from the outset. Akerman wanted to create a place that reflected the early days of the Hamptons mid-century art scene, when Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning fled the city to have a more bohemian existence. She says there are still nuggets of that world to be discovered, even amidst the “uber capitalism” of the Hamptons today.

Part of that barefoot lifestyle shows up in Galerie Sardine’s dinners and parties, where Akerman cobbles together tables and chairs from neighbors and invites chefs like Mina Stone of “Cooking for Artists,” and Borgo’s Andrew Tarlow’s son Elijah to cook. Rather than the “cardboard salmon” that she says you typically get at an art dinner, she’s passionate about serving “a good plate of local food.”

Along with the creative types you’d expect would gravitate toward such a scene, it’s also the Hamptons in high summer, which means the serious art world has taken note. Larry Gagosian has come by and bought a piece, and David Zwirner has stopped by too.

“The exclusivity of the Hamptons unavoidable,” says Akerman. Shopping at places like Prada is part of the texture of the place, she says, and it’s “very chic, very wow-factor.” But, she adds, “It’s nice to have culture too.”

‘Here, When’ by Kritika Manchanda & Rafael Prieto is on view at Galerie Sardine from June 13-July 8.

Alec and Hilaria Baldwin are still trying to offload their home in Amagansett. First listed in 2022 for $29 million, the price has been lowered multiple times, most recently to $18,995,000. Two years ago, longtime Hamptons resident Alec appeared in a wry YouTube video to promote the house (“I fell in love with this place the moment I came here”), and Hilaria recently added her own Instagram video peddling the house. The listing emphasizes all the expansion possibilities, from a proposed tennis court, guest house, and upgraded septic system (septic is an unglamorous and unavoidable aspect of Hamptons life). The couple is reportedly house hunting in Montclair, New Jersey.

Subscribe now

The Knicks merch craze has hit the East End. Of course real estate agent and North Fork style icon Janet Markarian’s Orient Linen Company is on the case, fast-tracking a Brunson apron ($85, above), and limited-edition Knicks totes for the Sagaponack General Store. Katie Couric’s favorite, the Monogram Shop in East Hampton, is advertising a preppy Knicks-emblazoned roll-neck sweater.

If you know someone who would like The Hamptons Chronicle, please share it with them! Support local news. 💙