Montauk

From the August edition of The Real Deal:

The phenomenon that is the Surf Lodge — a new hotel, restaurant and bar that is bringing young professionals to the South Fork's easternmost enclave — could prove to be a boon for the Montauk real estate market.

Some East End brokers say the venue ... is bringing a new generation of prospective entrepreneurs and summer residents to Montauk, a community that prides itself on being more rustic, laid back and affordable than its neighbors to the west.

My colleague Chris Shott flew out to Montauk (on a seaplane!) in May to sit down with Surf Lodge developer Steven Kamali.

• Warhol partner Paul Morrissey has left his $27 million waterfront Montauk estate for a trailer park. It's the kind of trailer park where Jimmy Buffett gets turned down, which surely is some kind of Warholian statement on celebrity. [N.Y. Mag]
• 40 Bond, a "lip-smacking glass and metal sandwich," has finally revealed its glistening facade [it glistens above]. Have Herzog & de Meuron fallen for shiny chic? [Curbed]
• Condo conversion is thriving in Brooklyn, where it's "the most compelling way to squeeze out a profit on a brownstone." Thus the house at 231 Bergen Street is now "The Distinctive Condominiums of Bergen Street," where the top duplex costs $1.6 million and the apartments come with flat-screen TVs. Is Manhattan expanding? [Brownstoner]
• The F Train is a nightmare, and the Brooklyn Paper has a 1,000-word article to tell you all about it. Is the MTA to blame? Maybe it's the "population bomb that's been dropping on Brooklyn over the past few years." [BP] - Max Abelson
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• Mr. Goodbar's bombshell Tuesday Weld is selling her oceanfront Montauk home for about $10 million. She says, "It's like being on a yacht." [WSJ]
• Critic and architect Peter Blake is dead at 86. His books include the well-titled "Form Follows Fiasco" (subtitled "Why Modern Architecture Hasn't Worked"!). He collaborated on Philip Johnson's Glass House, and, out in Water Mill, he built for his family the gleeful 1955 Pinwheel House. [Metropolis]
• It's another sign of Manhattan's swift descent into evil postmodern chaos, brought upon simply by the tough real estate market! Peter Marigold is selling fancy "transportable, modular shelving... perfect for renters who must leave the surfaces of their homes undisturbed." And here's this: "They're available in expandable polypropylene that will expand to fit your space exactly." [Apartment Therapy]
• Babylon, NY, goes green. [Multi-Housing News]
• West 51st Street's essential Le Bernardin has introduced a new surf and turf menu. For shame, sirs! In other news, Jay McInerney's new wife "never met a pork belly she didn't like." [House & Garden]
- Max Abelson
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A trip to the East End last week was met with rain, wind and cold eating away the last full week of summer. Sad for Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, whose Monday-through-Thursday vacation in Montauk was washed out.

"It rained every day," he said, after a press conference in Bed-Stuy on Tuesday. He sounded a little disgusted. "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Then it ended on Thursday late in the morning, early in the afternoon."

Mr. Markowitz stayed in Panoramic View on Old Montauk Highway, "right near Gurney's," with the Weather Channel's Local on the 8s replaying over and over inside the room. He and his wife figured, what with 100% chance of precipitation, it was time to eat.

"We went to lunch, even though I don't like lobster rolls," he said. "My favorite restaurant this week was a place called Harvest by the Pond. They really got something going. It's delicious, really delicious. It's not inexpensive, unlike Gosman's, which is mid-priced, which is why I love it."

Nightlife for the Markowitzes was spent with nightly strolls down the mainstrip in Montauk. And did they hit Gin Lane?

"I didn't go to East Hampton," he said. "I'm not into that Hamptons scene."

When the weather did finally turnaround on Thursday, Mr. Markowtiz tore off his Shelter Island sweatshirt, skipped lunch and took off for the beach.

"I gotta little tan," he said. "I had a T-shirt on and a pair of shorts and I took my T-shirt off for a couple hours."

Mr. Markowitz said he only tanned his front-side, and acquired a little farmer-tan effect. 'It's all gone by now," he said.

By Friday it was time to pack-up and come home to Brooklyn. On the L.I.E., Mr. Markowitz and his wife traveled down an empty New York-bound lane in their 2000 Toyota Avalon. —John Koblin

With Labor Day Weekend just a few hours away, The Transom decided to go straight to the source: the Long Island Rail Road section of Penn Station. The trip got off to an inauspicious start, however, when a faux-pas was committed: hugging a young child on the subway.

Her sweatshirt read: 'Aww someone needs a hug.' A reminder of that didn't cut it with her father. "Get outta here," he said.  read more »

In Penn Station, it was nuts. The 3:21 for the Fire Island ferries was leaving soon, as was the 3:58 to Montauk. In the ruckus was Gabby, a 22-year-old assistant at a PR firm in Manhattan: "I'm spending my last weekend in East Hampton!" she said. She looked more 25 than 22. "I was out 'til 4 last night! I'm busted right now!" There was an awkward silence. Was she nervous about the weather warnings? Not at all. "If it's not the beach, it's the clubs!"

A phone bank in midtown to help Democrats take the state senate starts calling people at 6:15

NY1 has a town hall meeting 7 p.m.

RNN has an AG debate at 7 p.m.

DFNYC's research and advocacy group meets at 72nd Street at 7:15

Candidates in the Brooklyn 11th congressional district have a candidate's forum at the Montauk Club at 7 p.m.

The congress and the presidency are discussed on C-SPAN at 8 p.m.

And Spitzer has a debate-watching party in Rochester at 8:30.

-- Azi Paybarah

It's "too early" to say whether he's running for president, but not too early to clock his third visit to New Hampshire since October.

The real kick on these kinds of predictable campaign stops are the local papers.

Here's the Portsmouth Herald entry on Pataki's visit.

Two greatest hits:

Pataki made the proverbial Republican stop at Geno's Chowder & Sandwich Shop, helping owner Evelyn Marconi ladle out chowder for a handful of residents who had come to meet him. The group was almost outnumbered by the New York television reporters and photographers following the governor on his out-of-town visit.

and, speaking to a group of fishermen about federal regulation of ground fishermen:

"Working two days a month on a boat isn't going to pay off the bills," Pataki said. Pataki said he would "talk with my guys in Montauk (N.Y.)" to see how fishermen there were faring.

- Tom McGeveran

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