Turn it to 11
LBI rentals, Little Maven, Porter House, Fern, Barber at Wildflower Auberge, gourmet holiday shopping, Madonna, MORE
REAL ESTATE • Jersey Shore Report
Six miles at sea
With only 202 days until July 4, it’s time to start thinking about summer getaways. This month, FOUND is checking in on the rental markets in key localities (see last week’s Hamptons report). Next up: Long Beach Island, NJ.
After three years of pandemic-induced frenzy, the Jersey Shore summer rental market normalized in 2023: demand returned to earth, while inventory remained inflated. Local marketplace Vacation Rentals Jersey Shore told NJ.com that they’d added 500 new properties this year, almost a 25% jump.
Not all the new landlords are getting what they’d hoped for, but in Long Beach Island, the market effects of boom times remain apparent, at least in a scroll through the season’s listings — large, renovated or freshly constructed properties are asking Hamptons-level rental fees.
Nonetheless, the sunsets and beaches are still pristine, as are the pizzas at Black Eyed Susan’s. Here, three properties (two north end, one south) available for a mid-July stay:
→ 25 Buckingham Ave. (Harvey Cedars) • 5BR/3.5BA • Peak-season weekly rent: $17,500 • new construction, bay access with pool.
→ 81 Bayview Dr. (Loveladies) • 6BR/3.5BA • Peak-season weekly rent: $16,800 • open bay views plus pool.
→ 4901 South Long Beach Blvd. (Holgate) • 5BR/4.5BA • Peak-season weekly rent: $22,800 • new construction, oceanfront with pool on the second-floor deck.
NYC REAL ESTATE LINKS: More luxury apartments near Wall Street: leasing begins at rental conversion Pearl House • New 36-story skyscraper rising on East 77th St. • Robert A. M. Stern-designed Claremont Hall wraps up construction in Morningside Heights • With construction complete, admiring One High Line in Chelsea.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine
Vino et veritas
MICHAEL LOMONACO, chef, Porter House Bar and Grill (above)
Neighborhood you live in: Yorkville
It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
The start of the weekend means checking Porter House’s reservations for regular diners, special requests, VIP’s and special events, assuring all the food deliveries arrived on Friday, and placing any extra orders from our purveyors for the Saturday delivery (to be certain we’re ready for the week’s busiest meal periods). So much of our advance preparation and butchering is done on Friday and Saturday mornings that reviewing our weekend game plan with the chef team is vital. Friday’s also an opportunity for me to review my previous week’s work on the memoir I’m writing.
Where are you dining this weekend?
First, some time spent cooking with family: roast magret duck breast with confit, classic side dishes, and flourless chocolate cake. Later, dinner with friends at Sandro’s, a true Roman trattoria in Yorkville, where the cacio e pepe can’t be beat and the Italian wines will flow like the Fontana di Trevi.
How about a little leisure or culture?
Theater, museums and gallery tours are a constant source of entertainment for me on Sundays. Last week was Waiting for Godot with Michael Shannon, this past weekend was Sabbath’s Theatre with John Turturro, and next weekend I’ll get a chance to visit The Whitney, for the Henry Taylor and Rose B. Simpson exhibitions, and MoMA for the “Ed Ruscha / Now Then” exhibition.
Any weekend getaways?
The Hudson Valley’s been my great passion for a quick getaway for years. I love Minnewaska State Park, for a hike along the old carriage trails, where I can do some birding or take photos to add to my personal, visual diary; photography’s been a favorite pastime since I was 12 years old.
What was your last great vacation?
This August, I spent some time in Italy, in Florence, a Tuscan hill town, and Milan. It was simply beautiful, delicious at every turn. In Florence, the Cantinetta dei Verrazzano is a lovely and delightful bakery and wine bar, featuring their own wines of Verrazzano, and Cibreo is one of Florence’s consistently great restaurants. It’s a splurge, but they leave nothing to chance, and you won’t be disappointed.
GETAWAYS • Upstate Intel
LITCHFIELD COUNTY: A FOUND correspondent checks in from Fern (above) in Lakeville, which opened in September:
The old fire station has been redone in a rugged wooden-industrial vibe, with a large wood-fired oven in the back turning out pizzas. The Italian menu is familiar, with a couple successful twists (Roman bread, for instance, a subtle update on the ubiquitous focaccia starter). The pizza is solid. But better were the grilled octopus starter and the gnocchi, served with shrimp and mushrooms. The main space is fronted with glass roll-up doors, and I imagine this will make for a fine indoor-outdoor dining space once warmer weather returns.
→ Fern (Lakeville, CT) • 9 Sharon Rd. • Reserve.
HUDSON VALLEY: Mel’s The Bakery, Nora Allen’s popular Lower East Side spot that closed earlier this year is opening in a new, much larger space on Warren Street in Hudson. Its first day is tomorrow; service is weekends-only to start. Eater has the scoop on what to expect, including lots of breads.
→ Mel’s The Bakery (Hudson, NY), 324 Warren St. • 9a-3p.
HUDSON VALLEY: In Rhinebeck, entrepreneur Rachel Petach produces the liqueur C. Cassis, made from locally-grown blackcurrants. This fall, she opened a tasting room inside her production facility. The space is seriously chic, packed with product and merch, with a three-seat bar for tastings and a changing menu of sandwiches and snacks.
→ C. Cassis Tasting Room (Rhinebeck, NY) • 108 Salisbury Tpke. • No reservations.
CATSKILLS: The Auberge Resorts property Wildflower Farms is now accepting bookings for a special weekend with Blue Hill at Stone Barns chef Dan Barber, Jan. 19-21, 2024. The collaboration with Barber’s Row 7 Seed Company includes a Saturday night tasting menu dinner by Barber ($398 per). Other events throughout the weekend can be purchased à la carte.
→ Wildflower Farms (Gardiner, NY) • 2707 Main St. • Reserve.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Soho House to stop admitting new members in NY, LA, London • JetBlue plans to retrofit Mint cabins • Amex expanding new premium vacation-rental platform • Brazil to require visas from Americans starting next month • Chartering a sailboat in the Caribbean.
RESTAURANTS • First Word
All the things
The Skinny: Chef Josh Capon, who ruled the roost at Lure Fishbar in Soho and Bowery Meat Company in the East Village for years, returns to the dance floor.
The Vibe: Little Maven is a nightly party hosted by Capon, who works the two dining rooms with unbridled joy. (Also making rounds the night we visited: entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, who — along with Capon and two other partners — runs VCR Group, the restaurant group behind Little Maven and the forthcoming Flyfish Club.) Throw in an active bar scene up front, and the volume here hits 11.
The Food: Capon knows how to please a crowd with seafood. See, especially, the scallop crudo served with caviar and a spot-on Thai-infused steamed red snapper. But there’s also a killer agnolotti stuffed with pumpkin miso (and buried in grano padano cheese) and a dry-aged roast duck that was the dish of the night at our table. Leave room for Capon’s playful desserts, here including “chocolate mousse from the 80s” and a banana split “with all the things.”
The Verdict: More fun that anyone should be allowed to have on a nondescript block in Flatiron. And if you didn’t get a photo with Capon, did you even go? –Lockhart Steele
→ Little Maven (Flatiron) • 30 West 18th St. • Reserve.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Feats of Strength
Big Apple Circus, Damrosch Park (Lincoln Center), Sat @ 7p, VIP ringside, $228 per
'Twas the Night Before... by Cirque du Soleil, The Theater at MSG (Midtown South), Sat @ 830p, section 205, $76 per
Madonna, Barclays Center (Flatbush), Sat @ 830p, section 8, $430 per
CULTURE LINKS: Pop-up performance/tasting menu opens at Maison Premiere • Takeaways from Art Basel Miami Beach: ‘the sell is harder,’ ‘it’s definitely slower’ • How WTC became a premier hub for visual artists • BAM announces a dance-heavy season • Field trip: Warhol x Basquiat at the Brant Foundation • Hyperalleric’s art book gift guide.
GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines
Holiday shopping, gourmet foods
Patisserie Vanessa (Upper East Side), canelé that rival the best in Paris
Kalyustyan’s (Kips Bay), institution of Middle Eastern and Indian spices, sauces, and more