Brew's Cafe

It might not always seem so, but he really wants you to get the answers right. Maybe not all of them. But when you go to "Quiz Night" at Townline BBQ, or Trivia Brunch at Peconic Bay Brewery, Paul Johnson is trying NOT to stump you. It's actually not fun for him unless you get at least SOME of the answers. So you might not know who holds the record for most Grand Slam Tennis wins, but you might if the answer is either Serena or Venus. You see, a lot more goes into putting together a successful trivia night than just coming up with hard questions. And putting together a successful trivia night every week for almost ten years? Well, that takes more than just Google. Join me this week as the East End's trivia impresario tells his tricks of the trade, and what makes trivia night so damn much fun. Of course he dishes on some other subjects too, but by now I hope you've come to expect that..

Green Comets? Seventy degrees in February? Unusual beach erosion? Whales washing up all over the place? What in the Earth Science is going on here?!?! To help me understand some of what is happening in our world, and a little less of how, and hardly any why, I turned to my favorite Earth Science teacher, Erik Schwab (he's competing with Mrs. Joseph, my 9th grade ES teacher, so it's not really a fair competition). So for my first ever return guest, Erik joins me to help, if not understand what's going on, at least understand how to ask the questions. We cover all of the above topics, and we get a little deeper into how and why these questions are so difficult to answer, and how to get answers we can actually trust (spoiler alert: it's not on the news!). So please join us for this very special episode of the cafe.

Sometimes the best episodes are the ones where I have absolutely no plan. The only plan is to sit down and chew the fat with someone I've known for some time and with whom I've always enjoyed chewing the fat. It helps, of course, if that someone who spends 6 hours at a clip filling empty radio air on the iconic WLNG with music, information, commentary and an occasional advertisement. Which is why I didn't worry too much about having no idea what I'd be talking to Tony Marr about for an hour or so. And so it went. Just two guys talking sports... or music... or restaurants... or "the good ol' days" (not too, too much of that). So tune in and catch Tony's unique take on all of that, and much more.

You'd think someone who'd private cheffed for British Royalty, cooked in some of the country's-- as well as the East End's--  great restaurants might want to spend a good deal of time flexing on that. And if that's what you're expecting from this week's episode with Bill Valentine, Pit Master at Town Line BBQ in Sagaponack, you're gonna be a little disappointed. Because at this stage of his life, there's really only one thing that really gets Billy going: Barbecue. And I don't mean that thing we do in the Northeast outside with our family and friends and overcooked hot dogs and hamburgers. I mean that slow cooked wonder which may take on many different forms, styles and is used on many different meats in the South. Barbecue. Cue. Low 'n Slow. Whatever you want to call it and however you might envision it, it's something Bill and I both care quite a bit about. So yeah, there's plenty of tales of obsessive compulsive  fine dining chefs throwing things, and stories of beautiful cuisine in fancy dining halls, what you're really going to get out of this episode is, hopefully, an understanding and appreciation for what they do at Town Line, and lots of other BBQ joints the world over. As Bill says early on: it's a passion.

Susan Spungen is a cook, food stylist, recipe developer and cookbook author. She was the founding food editor at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia from its inception until 2003. She was the culinary consultant and food stylist on the feature films "Julie & Julia" , "It's Complicated" and "Eat, Pray, Love". She is the author of "Recipes: A Collection for the Modern Cook", "What's a Hostess to Do?" and "Strawberries (a Short Stack Edition". Her new book, to be released this spring is "Veg Forward: Super Delicious Recipes that Put Produce at the Center of Your Plate". I spoke with her at her home in East Hampton.

Well, this was an easy one, I wasn't sure what to expect when I showed up to record with brand new East Hampton Schools Athletic Director, Kathy Masterson. For one thing, I left all of my recording gear by my front door. And since we'd been trying to schedule this since September, I wasn't about to reschedule. So I was a little nervous. That lasted about a second and a half. Kathy Masterson couldn't be more easygoing and engaging. She's also very thoughtful, intelligent and considerate. But I could tell, hiding beneath the surface is the heart of a competitor. One that won't be happy with an athletic program that falls short of its potential. Kathy and I ended up speaking for over an hour, covering the usual topics like her bio, what she's expecting from the job and that sort of thing. But also venturing off the path a bit to chat about Title IX, paying college players, good coaches and bad parents and, to my delight, the New York Football Giants. 

First off, I don't drink wine. Or at least, I haven't in a very long time. Because, if I did drink wine, I'd probably still be sitting where we recorded this episode. Deep below Amagansett Main Street, under the creaky floors of the Amagansett Wine and Spirits Shop, lives a vast wonderland of wine. Boxes upon boxes and bottles upon bottles of wines I've mostly only seen in magazines. Wines from before I was born, to wines made locally last year. They're all here. But that's not what we're really here to talk about. Don't get me wrong, Michael loves to talk wine, and he will if given the chance. But what he really loves to talk about is the Amagansett Life Saving Station. And the Amagansett Fire Department. And Amagansett Village Improvement Society. And pretty much any other community based operation that serves the needs of everyone in our community. That's what Michael loves to talk about. So check in to hear how so many of these groups help out, and how you can help them. And yeah, a couple stories about wine. And bird houses. Stories about bird houses too.

Long before we spoke of "regenerative" farming, before "sustainable" was a thing, before "renewable", almost before "organic", there was "local". Local was a guy you knew. Who grew stuff. Maybe it was corn, or potatoes or flowers or milk. In the case of Balsam Farms, it was mostly corn, and it sat atop a flatbed wagon at the intersection of Windmill Land and Town Lane in Amagansett. You took what you needed and put the money in the box on the corner. It made the news only because periodically, someone would try to steal the money box. Progress was an increasingly sturdier, more theft resistant "honor box". Today, of course, most of what Balsam Farms does on its 200 acres of farmed land here on the South Fork is regenerative, sustainable, renewable, organic. And it's definitely still local. In this week's episode, farmer Ian Calder-Piedmonte sits down and revisits the history, the vision, the drawbacks, the obstacles and the rewards (spoiler alert- it ain't the money, despite the high price of corn!) of farming this way on the South Fork of Long Island. The place where most people drive a Mercedes (or the like), refer to it as The Hamptons, and know nothing of the rich soil and the history of that soil, and what makes Balsam Corn (and tomatoes, and asparagus and melons and yes, shishitos) taste so damn good.

We all remember. For prior generations it was D-Day, or the day Kennedy was shot, or the moon landing. But for anyone alive on September 11, 2001, we remember where we were. What we were doing, how we felt. For Ray Brown, though, it's not a memory of sitting in a coffee bar uptown, or by the pool in Amagansett. Ray remembers that day very differently than the rest of us. Ray comes from a long line of firefighters, and firefighters called to duty on the biggest of days. His grandfather was a firefighter on D-Day, a fact unknown to Ray and his brothers (both firefighters) until long after his grandfather had died. Ray's father retired as chief of all NYFD rescue companies (that's a big deal, FYI). So it was truly an honor to have Ray share his memories of growing up in a household where becoming a NYC firefighter was practically preordained, and how he spent that fateful day in lower Manhattan, the years leading up to it and the years since. 

Just so we're clear: Dr. Lea Lis, aka "The Shameless Psychiatrist", has a child psychiatry practice in Southampton; she also has a ketamine assisted therapy practice there; they are NOT the same thing! As one of the very few (as in ONLY) child psychiatrists on the east end, Dr. Lis is in very high demand as she works tirelessly to help ease our local mental health crisis, particularly with children. She coordinates with local schools, law enforcement, and of course, families, to navigate the increasingly difficult process of growing up. Her book, "No Shame", lays out a great framework for her practice, as she counsels families to be up front, open and willing to communicate about the often challenging landscape of sex, relationships and healthy living. Her ketamine practice, on the other hand, uses the psychedelic drug to assist adults with a variety of psychological and emotional areas of distress such as depression, PTSD and addiction. She goes into great depth about how the process works, and how patients have successfully used the treatment to achieve better health. Last but not least, she's a "burner".  And if you don't know what that is, or you do and you want to hear about it, well... you're gonna hafta listen till the end!!