East Magazine

There’s nothing quite like the sound of the English-handbell choir during the Christmas season at the First Presbyterian Church in East Hampton, when gloved hands ring gleaming bells and chimes at exactly the right moment to create songs that evoke angels.

These are the hands of the community: everyday people who come together to make music — and magic and the holiday spirit.

Those who frequently drive along Noyac Road will be familiar with a pair of signs along the route: a chicken and an egg. They’re just around the bend from the marina at Wooley Pond and welcome people to North Sea Farms. It’s actually a rooster and not a chicken, hinting at the lighthearted farm humor at play.

“Did you notice the turkeys when you pulled in the driveway?” asks Richie King, who owns the farm with his wife, Robin.

Berton Roueché and his wife, Kay, lived on the north side of Amagansett in the early 1970s. Nearby was Quail Hill and its doyenne, Deborah Light Perry, who tended a covey of 36 cats — inspiring Roueché's pulp horror novel, Feral. David Rattray remembers a time, a place, and an incredible cast of characters from a less-tame past

Everyone knows what a turkey looks like, right? Sure. However, when tasked with illustrating a magazine story about the King family and their poultry farm in Southampton, Kym Fulmer, the Springs artist whose bright-eyed gobblers are on the cover of this edition of East, wanted to make sure she got it exactly right, so she paid a visit to North Sea Farms to look at the birds up close.

Hidden among hostas and ferns in the corner of a private garden — tucked behind an old house, away from the world — you find them: humble but magical backyard sheds. Nick Sambides Jr. talks to a lucky few East Enders who use their shacks for writing, for work, for art, for chickens, for contemplation, or for hardly anything at all.

It's a rough job but someone has to do it: East has taken one for the team and taste-tested the season's most delicious-sounding beverages in search of the ultimate, definitive cocktail for the summer of 2024. We found it at Townline BBQ: the strawberry mezcalita.

On a freezing December day in 1988, Frank Ganley pulled a Bonac school buddy — unconscious and sinking fast — from the icy underwater of Gardiner's Bay, after he fell overboard from a lobster boat called the Captain Kidd. Little did Ganley know that the near-death incident would drive a lifetime of ocean lifesaving.

The long, mischievous friendship of a pair of culinary legends, Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey, lives on in the lore and legend of East Hampton. Irene Silverman recalls their escapades, recipes, and dinner-party glory.

Intimidated by the specialty mushrooms you see at the grocery or farmers market? Sarah Alford shares your curiosity and hesitation. Here's how to overcome your fears and get cooking.

This is based on Andrew Zimmerman’s recipe for Baltimore-style crab cakes, originally published in Food and Wine.

The word, technically, means language without meaning or ideas that are unintelligible. Around here, nonsense is the very Hamptons collision of small-town sensibilities and V.I.P. egotism. J Brooke has been taking notes on Hamptons pettiness — the everyday absurdity of life on the South Fork — and lived to tell the tale.

Remembering Allan Weisbecker: longboard surfer, author, drug smuggler, Montauk legend.

What's an "inversion table"? What's the deal with that "sound bath" business? Carissa Katz, Jason Nower, and Christine Sampson tried out some trendy wellness treatments to give you, the reader, an honest opinion.

Who isn’t instantly transported back to childhood when they see a sand castle? Some of the most epic creations can be seen every summer at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett, where the Clamshell Foundation — for going on 33 years now — hosts an annual contest that pits friend against friend for beachy bragging rights in support of charitable causes.

The indie film scene here has become a vibrant playground for emerging talents pushing the boundaries of independent filmmaking.

Eiji Shiga and Colin Lillie, best friends for 35 years and bartenders for 25 of them at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, have quite the friendship origin story.

Look down. “Geodetic Survey” markers have triangulated the coastal landscape since the Thomas Jefferson administration.

A wild-foraged seaside flavor can add Michelin-star power to a summer dinner.

Hot Girl Summer? Nah. This year calls for a hashtag that’s a little more grounded in reality. For summer 2024, our preoccupations have less to do with bikini bodies (having one or desiring someone with one) and more to do with good, stupid laughs, heart-to-heart confessions, and a hard seltzer with our bestie by our side. This is our pitch: make this your #bestfriendsummer, and tag us along the way. We wanna see the selfies.

Throughout Candace Ceslow’s work, there’s a central presence: the water. Through Candace Ceslow’s eyes, it contains multitudes — vast stretches of shifting emotion that push her to keep putting it down on canvas. The rhythm of the waves can be calming and meditative, as she notes in an artist’s statement on her website, or it can be fearsome. “The waves are ready to be worshiped. They are deities ready to crash and pull you under as sacrifice.”

The tug-of-war boys, here, didn’t come to play; they were really putting their back into it. This is the sandy strip beside the windmill, at the foot of Sag Harbor’s Long Wharf. It’s still there, 48 years later, but the wharf itself certainly looks different, doesn’t it? No mega-yachts in sight, no landscaping, no mood lighting. Would you go back and pull, if you could?

The story of John Wick dates back to the very earliest days of Bridgehampton. We gleaned what follows from later newspaper articles as well as historical documents. It is the story of a Bridgehampton gentleman of some means who, during his lifetime, was, seemingly, a fairly normal, honorable citizen, but who, after his death, was remembered as a killer, monster, and sadist.

There's no substitute for that tangy crunch — best for burgers, synonymous with sizzling long-weekend cookouts. EAST decided to throw a staff pickle party, to taste-test Long Island makers' brined best.

Steaks are the simplest thing to cook — but also, to many of us, something of a nailbiting mystery. (Will it be shoeleather?) Nina Dohanos talks to her favorite butcher to unlock the secrets of Prime.

Connecting life as a child of immigrants to her modern-day cooking practice, Kristina Felix offers an inside look at the making — and meaning — of corn tortillas.

Local makers are really delivering the goods on the current fun-in-a-can cocktail trend. Pop open a cold one, we say!

What are the most beautiful views a tourist — or staycationer — can seek out? Here's a bit of autumnal travel intelligence, with the help of ChatGPT.

Ahoy, there, electric boats! Susan Lehman sings the praises of battery-powered leisure cruising. The pace may be slower, but that's part of the pleasure.

The women of the Shinnecock Indian Nation have been helping lead for generations. We celebrate some of those, past, present, and future, who have created a better life for Indigenous people here and beyond.

The Star's expert illustrator, Durell Godfrey, who is the author of two coloring books for adults, created this fun yard sale scene to celebrate the end of summer and the arrival of what locals lovingly call Tumbleweed Tuesday. Grab some colored pencils or markers and get to work! Don’t forget to snap a picture of your masterpiece for Instagram and tag East Magazine — we're @east_mag — and have fun looking for all the East-Hampton “Easter eggs” in there.