This summer, the above concession stand will become a new taco shack at Port Jefferson’s East Beach. Photo by Julianne Mosher
The vacant concession stand at East Beach will be the new home to a taco shack this summer.Prohibition East Beach is planned to opened on Memorial Day or shortly after, weather permitting.
Lisa Harris, owner of Prohibition in the village, said she found out she won the bid last week after she submitted a thorough plan, complete with renderings and a menu.
With the recent upgrades that included a sand dredging and a new retaining wall to the resident-only beach — located by the Port Jefferson Country Club — Harris thinks a food stand will be the icing on the cake in revitalizing the local beach.
“The beach was always popular, but I think because people were staying home for the past year, the beaches have become so important,” she said. “I love seeing the village investing energy and resources into a space like this.”
Back in April, the village put out a call to food and beverage providers encouraging them to submit proposals for a snack concession stand. Mayor Margot Garant said the spot has been vacant for close to 25 years.
Over the years, the village tried to encourage residents to utilize the beach, including family fun nights that never stuck.
“I’m looking forward to bringing back some of the traditions that bring our families together down at the beach,” Garant said. “Now, we’re open and we want to see people come in, come back and enjoy the beach in the summertime.”
Garant added this year is a “trial year.”
While other business owners inquired about the stand, during the bid process, Harris seemed like the best fit thanks to her involvement in the village and owning of several businesses in Upper Port. Along with Prohibition, she owns Torte Jeff, the pie shop, which recently combined with her donut store, East Main & Main.
That’s why she’s calling the stand Prohibition East Beach.
“Prohibition has a good reputation [on Main Street],” she said. “And I worked really hard at maintaining that.”
So, making this small shack an extension of her popular bar and restaurant was a no-brainer — and the Main Street spot will act as the commissary to the new space. All the food will be cooked there and then sold out of the East Beach location.
Her concept is a casual taco spot with a beachy vibe. The concession stand will be cleaned up, with benches and bistro tables next to it.
Harris plans on stringing lights, giving it a cool, laid back atmosphere. She wants to set up speakers and maybe have some steel drum music down the line.
“I love this beach,” she said. “Every time I come down here, I always wondered why there wasn’t a beach concession down here. So, I’m really excited about it.”
Last month, local resident and nonprofit owner Melissa Paulson announced she would be running against incumbent Margot Garant.
Village clerk Barbara Sakovich confirmed that as of Wednesday, May 12, Paulson officially dropped out of the race.
However, Barbara Ransome, director of operations with the Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, announced this week she would be running on the mayor ticket, with fellow chamber president, Suzanne Velazquez.
For the village’s election on June 15, the candidates are now as follows:
Margot Garant and Barbara Ransome for mayor; incumbents Kathianne Snaden, Stanley Loucks and newcomer Suzanne Velazquez are running for two trustee positions.
Lavender Fields, located at 118 Wynn Lane in Port Jefferson, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month.
Known for its homewares, furniture, luxury bedding, gifts and interior design services, it officially opened on April 14, 2001 and has kept its doors open since.
Owner Lori Ressa said it wasn’t always easy, but staying creative and innovative was the secret to her success.
“I think just being unique and passionate about what you do, instead of copying another store or just trying to be what you’re not is key,” she said. “Something I learned back in the day in business school is be open to change.”
Originally from Brooklyn, Ressa had a background in e-commerce, but always had a passion for design and antiques. She also always wanted to be an entrepreneur and opened her first antique store in New Jersey.
Ressa decided she wanted to change pace and landed in Port Jefferson. She and her then-husband saw an advertisement for a store being sold and immediately knew this is where she belonged.
“We came here, fell in love with the town, purchased the store and 20 years later, here we are,” she said.
Since opening, they had several different locations — starting off on East Main Street under Pasta Pasta, they moved to where the current space for Fame & Rebel is down the street. Six years ago, she found the current spot tucked away off the beaten path.
Ressa and her 12-year-old daughter Ava Madrid run the store now, monitoring the e-commerce through their website, working the retail part of the store and helping clients with interior design.
Lori Ressa’s daughter, Ava, inside their shop. Photo by Julianne Mosher
“Customers love the experience of just coming in,” Ressa said. “They walk around, they’ll see the candles, the home keeping stuff, the soaps, and then we have other clients that come in for the bedding and the rugs. We have a real mixed demographic.”
She said that for the anniversary, she will be remodeling the store. For now, the front door will feature a decorative flower arch, with their signature bundles of lavender outside for sale.
Tucked away on the cobblestone-paved walkway of Wynn Lane in Port Jefferson, across from Ruvo’s.
Inside the store is filled with a treasure trove of bedding, apothecary items, candles, artwork, luxe pajamas and lounge wear, gifts for children, kitchen wares, home decor, and more. Ressa and her staff are also able to create custom gift baskets.
“Many of our customers wander in before they go to a baby shower, birthday party, or bridal shower at a local restaurant, see all of the things we offer, and we end up creating a custom gift for them to take to their event,” she said. “You need to think outside the box.”
Ava, who has grown up in the shop, said she loves Port Jefferson and the community where she helps her mom every day.
“I love the environment here,” she said.
Her plans? It might be to take over Ressa’s store one day, but she said the customer service skills she’s learning as she works alongside her family might lead her to run for village mayor one day.
Sonny Stancarone will be hosting a new piano relaxation program in Port Jefferson. Photo by Julianne Mosher
What do you get when you combine meditation, mindfulness, yoga and pianos? A new piano relaxation center in Upper Port.
Vic “Sonny” Stancarone, owner of Sonny’s Pianos at 1500 Main St., decided to open another spot right across from his store, that will be beneficial to the community — especially after a stressful 2020.
On Friday, April 30, a dozen people gathered at his new Piano Relaxation Center, now located at 6 North Country Road. The idea behind it, he said, was to give people a new space to learn piano in a stress-free way.
He said that this has been something he’s wanted to do “forever.”
“I love buying and selling pianos,” he said. “But I love working with people and now I circle back to doing what I’ve always wanted.”
Photo by Julianne Mosher
At his other shop, Stancarone buys and sells refurbished pianos. From Steinways to Young Changs, he cleans them up, tunes them and helps them find new homes. He is also known for his art case collection — often vintage pianos with decorative artwork painted throughout the instrument.
But on top of selling pianos at wholesale prices, he had an extensive career in health, fitness and wellness — while also being a piano performer.
Stancarone is a former health and fitness director for big-name corporations, adjunct professor and yoga practitioner. He said learning breathing exercises, relaxation and meditation techniques, yoga and marital arts helped cure him of crippling childhood asthma at 11 years old. That experience always stuck with him and, with whatever career path he followed, he always tried to help others the way he was helped, before.
His piano playing and teaching methods are based on breathing with the diaphragm, relaxing with emphasis on enjoying the playing rather than playing perfectly. He calls his method “piano yoga.”
“I feel that piano playing is wonderful, creative, therapeutic, life-enhancing, stress-reducing vehicle that everyone can enjoy,” he said. “The biggest problem with the piano is that people are intimidated by it, they think, ‘Oh, I don’t have talent,’ or ‘I can’t play it,’ but it has nothing to do with talent.”
He added that interested people just need to sit down and try. The way to success is approaching the keys like one would for meditation or mindfulness.
“I want them to read, relax and clear their heads of everything,” Stancarone said. “To just kind of connect to what I call the musician with them, so that they could just get into the flow.”
So, the new relaxation center is a new way for people to learn piano, learn how to decompress or just jam out.
“People are looking to get out of the house,” he said. “They’ve all been cooped up. So, something like this is very nonthreatening. It’s very relaxing. It’s very easy and my approach is just now sitting down to play.”
The main thing is just to relax and enjoy the instrument.
Sonny Stancarone instructing two piano players at his new space. Photo by Julianne Mosher
“My mission is to let people see that everyone can do this,” he said. “And show someone that the piano is the most accessible of all instruments — you can just sit down and you’re making music.”
The space will offer classes of 10 people — each receiving their own spot at a piano.
“I teach them breathing techniques, stress management techniques, relaxation techniques,” Stancarone said. “We do a little sitting chair yoga … so, it really incorporates a lot of different things.”
The Willows was run by Mrs. Hebee Fowler and located in Port Jefferson at Norton’s Corner, the intersection of East Main and Thompson streets. Photo by Robert S. Feather. Image from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Boarding houses were ubiquitous in Port Jefferson from the late 19th through the early 20th centuries.
In a typical Port Jefferson boarding house, guests rented one or more rooms, stayed for either a short-term or an extended period, and were provided with family-style meals and other amenities such as laundry services.
Some of the village’s boarding houses were small, private homes where the owners took in one or more lodgers as a way to supplement their income. Others were larger establishments, could accommodate a greater number of guests and operated strictly as a business.
In many cases, it was less expensive to live in a communal boarding house with its limited space and privacy than to stay in one of Port Jefferson’s hotels or to rent an apartment or a single-family home.
Mrs. S. J. Powell sits in front of her boarding house on East Broadway, Port Jefferson. Image from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
It is difficult to determine the exact number of boarding houses in bygone Port Jefferson since many of their keepers craved anonymity and were known only by word of mouth, but evidence from multiple sources confirms that boarding houses were once everywhere in the village and had a diverse clientele.
Newspapers provide a rich variety of information about Port Jefferson’s boarding houses and their lodgers. In an 1879 “Board Wanted” advertisement in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a family noted it was seeking “comfortable and airy” rooms in the village “for the summer” and expected a “first class” table.
The comings and goings of vacationers who boarded locally was regular fodder in the “Jottings” column of the Port Jefferson Echo which reported that 22 members of the Elks were staying at Mrs. Benjamin Odell’s on Beach Street.
Besides tourists, Port Jefferson’s boarding houses attracted unmarried workers. The diarist Azariah H. Davis recounted how telegraph operators on tight budgets boarded in rooms above Lee’s Drugstore on the village’s Main Street following the telegraph’s arrival in Port Jefferson in 1880. Census records from that year reveal that the village’s boarders also included newlyweds, transients, retirees and professionals.
Four of the village’s boarding house keepers advertised in Long Island, an 1882 travel guide published by the Long Island Rail Road. The proprietors listed, all women, were Mrs. C. L. Bayles, Mrs. E. B. Gildersleeve, Mrs. E. P. Tooker and Mrs. Hamilton Tooker.
Lain and Healy’s 1892 Brooklyn and Long Island Business Directory identified Port Jefferson’s 11 boarding house keepers, all women. The village’s female proprietors included Phoebe Beale, Ann Conk, Mary Tuthill and Mary Van Zandt.
Summer Homes on Long Island, the LIRR’s 1893 vacation guide, also listed Port Jefferson’s boarding house keepers, the majority women. They included Mrs. S. C. Abrew who charged from $5 to $8 per week for a room and Mrs. George E. Brown who could accommodate 21 guests at her Bay Side Cottage situated at Port Jefferson’s 303 West Broadway.
The Darlington House on Beach Street was listed in a 1908 LIRR travel guide, backed on the west shore of Port Jefferson Harbor, could accommodate 25 guests, and operated seasonally from June through September.
Renamed Shadow Lawn and kept by Mrs. Daniel Sprague, the boarding house was set ablaze on April 5, 1964 in a controlled burn by the Port Jefferson Fire Department.
The Linden House was located on Linden Place, offered residents “electric lights” and “reasonable rates,” and opened in 1915. In a glowing endorsement of the boarding house, one satisfied lodger said, “The meals are simply swell, and one gets more than it is possible to eat.”
The village’s other notable boarding houses were managed by keepers and located throughout Port Jefferson: Mrs. S. J. Powell (East Broadway); Mrs. Ellis Jones (Vineyard Place); Emma A. Rackett (Thompson Street); Mrs. Hebee Fowler (East Main Street); Louise Patterson (Belle Terre Road); Betty Greene (Bayview Terrace); and Mrs. John G. Clark (East Broadway).
While some boarding houses still survived on Thompson and other local streets as late as the 1960s, their numbers in the village had steadily declined because of several factors:
Automobiles and mass transportation made it possible to work in Port Jefferson and reside elsewhere. Boarding houses, which afforded food and shelter, were replaced by rooming and tourist houses, which furnished shelter alone, but gave their lodgers greater freedom and privacy.
From left to right: Volunteer firemen George Bone and John Hancock display a sign from Shadow Lawn, a boarding house that once stood on Beach Street. The derelict building was set ablaze on April 5, 1964 in a controlled burn by the Port Jefferson Fire Department allowing volunteers to practice fire-fighting techniques. Photo by Al Semm. Image from PJFD Collection
With rising incomes, middle-class workers left boarding houses for their own homes or apartments, often leaving behind the poor, elderly and unemployed. Boarding houses were seen as less respectable, some arguing that their presence among single-family homes destroyed a neighborhood’s integrity and depressed property values.
Despite these legitimate concerns, boarding houses contributed to Port Jefferson’s economic growth by providing lodging for the employees in the village’s many industries, boosting ancillary businesses particularly real estate and establishing Port Jefferson as a vacationland.
Boarding houses also improved the social status of the village’s women, enabling them either to generate additional household income or make an independent living.
Perhaps most important, Port Jefferson’s welcoming boarding houses introduced thousands to the village in the comfortable surroundings of a home away from home.
Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village Historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of Port Jefferson.
Loretta Criscuoli keeps herself busy as the new owner of Port Jefferson’s The Spice & Tea Exchange. But there is more to this local entrepreneur than just owning a business.
When the store located at 106 W. Broadway closes at night, Criscuoli heads home to Kings Park where she starts her second shift as a volunteer EMT ambulance driver and 1st lieutenant for the Kings Park Fire Department.
She said she has been with the fire department for 12 years.
“So, I’m here all day, and there all night,” she said.
Loretta Criscuoli in full gear volunteering with the Kings Park Fire Department at the height of the pandemic last year. Photo from Loretta Criscuoli
Criscuoli was furloughed from her full-time real job during the COVID-19 pandemic and that’s when she realized she wanted to start something new. A fan of the brand, she found out through the franchise there was an opportunity in New York where the doors to the village’s spice and tea shop had been closed for about a year. She decided to take over as its newest owner.
This West Broadway location is the first and only store in the state.
“I jumped right on it and it happened very fast,” she said.
After signing the paper work in October, she officially opened up her doors on Nov. 13. The Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce — of which she is a member — hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony April 15.
The Spice & Tea Exchange franchise was founded in 2008 and offers 140 spices, 85 exclusive hand-mixed blends, over 40 exotic teas, naturally flavored sugars, salts from around the world, gourmet gifts and accessories. It also houses a tea bar serving dozens of hot and iced teas with classics like chai, and unique flavors with names like the Berry Bouquet, Chocolate Caramel Candy Bar and Hazelnut Cookie. There are more than 70 franchises across the United States.
“Our blends are made in-house and we have over 75 of them,” she said. “We do everything including peeling the lemons, oranges, limes, we dehydrate them, and we grind them and add them to all the different recipes.”
Criscuoli said she always loved to cook and was always a tea lover. This opportunity was a perfect fit.
“I love it all,” she said. “Our guests are wonderful — it’s everyone who is into cooking and it’s working out really well … I am enjoying it.”
Part of the shopping experience there is to enjoy the aromas of the different smells.
“All the jars are here to be open and to smell,” she said. “That’s an important part of it. It really goes to all your senses. So, you have to come and experience it. It’s like a field trip coming through here where you get to smell all the fragrances and see the ingredients.”
The store will be open now Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Thursday from 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m.-7 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Port Jefferson EMS announced they will be scheduling in-home vaccine appointments Wednesday, after receiving 100 doses of the Moderna vaccine from New York State.
This comes after a delay due to the department not receiving what they said were promised doses from the county. Appointments will be available May 4, and can be scheduled online. Patients will then receive their second dose June 1.
“Our ability to administer vaccines in the home allows us to help the most vulnerable members of our community,” said Deputy Chief Micheal Presta. “Our paramedics are ready, willing and able to take on this new role and enhance the services we provide to the community.”
Photo from Port Jefferson EMS
To qualify, patients must be “homebound and have limited mobility,” which is defined by FEMA as “any individual that cannot get to and from vaccination sites without transportation assistance (due to physical disabilities, economic hardships, or other factors that may hinder an individual’s ability to get to and from a vaccination site without assistance).”
To receive a vaccine from the program, residents must reside in Port Jefferson, Miller Place, or Mount Sinai (11777, 11764, and 11766 zip codes).
Moderna does present logistical challenges in distribution. In following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a vial of vaccines, which generally contain 10 to 11 doses, cannot be left unrefrigerated for more than 12 hours.
A local mom, nonprofit founder and small business owner is looking to run for Village of Port Jefferson’s mayor seat.
Melissa Paulson, a Port Jefferson village resident since 2014, and owner of the online-only antique store, Melissa’s Cottage and Consignments, said she decided to go against incumbent Mayor Margot Garant because she believes the village needs a change.
A graduate of Hauppauge High School, she moved on to study special education and early education at Dowling College. While there, she worked for the America Reads program providing tutoring services to local children.
Paulson said after getting married and starting her family, she chose to move to the village because she had fond memories of it growing up.
“Coming here as a child and seeing how beautiful it is, but then now, I see the decline,” she said. “It’s very disheartening to see what has transpired. I specifically came here to raise my family, because the ambiance and historical history, and now we’re faced with vacancy, homelessness, acts of violence and safety concerns. So, it’s really time for leadership to really implement changes positively and effectively.”
Prior to her settling down in the village, Paulson’s daughter was diagnosed with cancer at just 18 months. It was then that the mayoral candidate decided to start up a nonprofit, Give Kids Hope Inc., in 2011 where she claims she has helped over 14,000 underprivileged families throughout the last year.
Give Kids Hope is now located in Port Jefferson Station, after finding a permanent home at 4390 Nesconset Highway last year.
Paulson said her charity work led her to consider a run for mayor over the last couple of years, when she believed the current administration wasn’t fixing the problems she saw.
“The proposed changes that were set to happen years ago unfortunately haven’t and after being here for so long, I realized it’s time for change,” she said. “I’m not a politician. I’m not a lawyer. I’m Melissa Paulson — I run a charity, but I want to be the voice for people and that’s what people need.”
She said she believes the village needs someone who’s “going to fight for them.”
“I will fight for what’s right,” she added. “I will listen to the voices of our residents, businesses and owners, even schools.We all need to work together to really make positive changes.”
Some of those changes she is looking to work toward are making the village a safer place, and stopping its commercialization.
“It was a historical village, and now it’s being commercialized by big apartment buildings, and people want that to stop,” she said.
Paulson said she wants to hold business owners in Upper Port more accountable for graffiti by issuing fines, and to bring businesses back to Down Port. She plans to address homelessness and raise police presence throughout the village.
Although the village has created a task force to keep an eye on troublesome bicyclists, while also increasing its constable presence on the streets, Paulson said she would like to see more.
“We need police watching our residents. We need more jurisdiction of constables,” she said. “We need to begin finding ways to allow them to have more duties to protect our village more.”
Despite a random and unfortunate incident where a man was killed on Main Street in March, a recent report at the village board of trustees meeting stated that Port Jefferson’s crime rate has been on the decline.
Paulson acknowledged that, but she still sees concerns over the teenage bicyclists who have harassed visitors and residents in the past.
“I’ll feel safer if I see police officers walking around the village,” she said.
One concern that village residents noted when Paulson announced her candidacy was the fact that her two children are part of the Three Village school district.
“I don’t have a choice to attend Port Jefferson schools,” she said.
The village vote is scheduled for June 15.
“Every day I’m working hard to become your mayor,” she said. “This is more than an election, it’s my passion and mission to be the voice of the residents.”
Keep checking back with TBR News Media for more updates on the upcoming village election.
The Dyett Sand-Lime Brick Factory is shown along the west shore of Port Jefferson Harbor at the former site of California Grove and Pavilion. Above photo by Arthur S. Greene; Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
The Port Jefferson Post Office Building, now the Regency condominiums at 202 Main Street, was unlike any other structure in the village’s downtown.
The Dyett Sand-Lime Brick Factory is shown along the west shore of Port Jefferson Harbor at the former site of California Grove and Pavilion. Above photo by Arthur S. Greene; Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Completed in 1911 and remodeled over the years, the former Post Office Building was constructed of sand-lime brick, rather than common clay brick.
Prized for its natural white color, strength and durability, the attractive sand-lime brick was manufactured nearby at the Dyett Sand-Lime Brick Company.
The corporation was named for its founder, James H. Dyett (1864-1944), who served as the firm’s general manager and had invented a machine for pressing bricks.
In 1908, the company purchased acreage in Bay View Park on the west side of Port Jefferson Harbor and started building its factory.
Located at the former site of California Grove and Pavilion at the foot of Washington Street in today’s Poquott, the property was considered ideal for Dyett’s operations.
To make a sand-lime brick, a mixture of silica sand and hydrated lime is moistened, molded into the desired shape and cured under high pressure steam.
The abundant deposits of the superior quality sand found in and about Port Jefferson provided Dyett with a near inexhaustible supply of the main raw material needed at its plant. In addition, the company’s factory was located directly on Port Jefferson Harbor, enabling Dyett to ship its heavy pallets of brick by barge to waiting markets, easily and cheaply.
Despite this rosy picture, the corporation became embroiled in a fight with Brookhaven Town, which sought to dispossess an intrusive Dyett from unlawfully operating on a portion of the beach fronting the company’s property.
In 1912, the Supreme Court, Suffolk County Special Term, affirmed Brookhaven Town’s title to the land in dispute. The corporation considered its options, but an appeal was never pursued so the decision of the court stood.
The Port Jefferson Post Office Building, now the Regency condominiums, is pictured at 202 Main Street. The building was constructed of attractive sand-lime brick, prized for its natural white color, strength and durability. Photo by Arthur S. Greene; Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Dyett’s honeymoon on the harbor over, the brick company was sold in 1914 to John A. Gibson of Far Rockaway, New York. The following year, Dyett opened a sand-lime plant in New Orleans, Louisiana.
During World War I, the former Dyett complex was taken over by O’Connor-Bennett and the Union Ship and Dock Company, which built four wooden coal barges for the United States Navy before moving the yard’s operations to Flushing, New York.
Beginning in 1921, scows were moored and maintained at the old Dyett dock, which had been leased by the Great Eastern Gravel Corporation.
Alarmed by the growing industrialization of their community, the residents of Bay View Park formed an association in 1927 and voted to buy what was once the site of Dyett’s sand-lime brick factory, thus “forestalling the further encroachment of commercial interests.” The property was later purchased by the Incorporated Village of Poquott and is known today as “California Park.”
A look inside the new Sue La La Couture on E Main Street. Photo by Julianne Mosher
Originally located at 1506 Main Street in Upper Port, Sue La La Couture decided to move down to E Main Street for a new opportunity.
Although the East Main location is a bit smaller, owner Sue Gence said the new space will give her more exposure and have a different atmosphere than her former spot.
“I was waiting for uptown to change,” she said. “But after four years, nothing was done and my landlord was selling the building.”
Gence said she had the opportunity to stay at the old store, but she took it as a sign for her to make a change, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was closed for nine months,” she said. “I survived somehow.”
Known for selling dresses for prom, Sweet 16s, homecoming, flower girls, bridesmaids and mothers of the brides, the pandemic hit her business since all of those events were cancelled.
But Gence is feeling hopeful now that the vaccines are here and things are beginning to open back up.
“I feel like everybody wants to get out of the house and wants to celebrate something,” she said. “This season is actually really, really, really busy — especially down here.”
The old Sue La La Couture closed on Dec. 31 and reopened next to the former Max & Millie storefront in mid-January.
Gence, a Rocky Point resident, said she opened the store when she was just 33 because she loved glitter and making other women feel beautiful.
“Eventually I want to design my own clothes and create my own brand,” she said.
Sue La La Couture is open five days a week — closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays — by appointment only.
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