I saw a weathered sign hanging on the back of some building in Greenport, advertising Kate’s Cheese Company and hinting at wine as well. A little while later I was on the main street, looking for such a cheesemonger’s, but found nothing. Consulting my phone, I found that Kate’s had been sold and renamed Salumeria Sarto, and was at such-and-such address.
At that address, I discovered a pretty white shopfront with a sign saying only “Salumeria”, and street-facing windows showing a little table, and an old sewing machine or something.
Very “if you don’t already know about us, we aren’t going to tell you” vibe there. :)
I went in, and before long was sitting in the window with some lovely semi-soft Italian cheese, along with crackers and a bunch of grapes, and a fizzy European soft drink. It was quite civilized.
I vaguely gather that most of their custom is from catering and bespoke events of various kinds, and walk-ins are sort of an afterthought. But a pleasant one!
And what was I doing in Greenport? To lightly edit something that I posted over on the notable Schlaugh the other day (so many social media there are!): for a completely random retreat / vacation the other week (before my covid), I found a somewhat discounted hotel room in Greenport (knowing nothing about Greenport except that it was quite a ways out there and had a discounted hotel room), and reserved Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.
I took Friday off, and left work in NYC a little early on Thursday. I think there was exactly one set of trains from Penn / Grand Central to Greenport in the afternoon (and one in the morning); I got a five-something train to Ronkonkoma from Penn, and then a train from Ronkonkoma to Greenport that got me there around 8:30pm.
The first train was a typical long commuter train like I’m used to on the Hudson Line; maybe five pairs of back-to-back EMUs (Electric Multiple Units), with no engine. Going out I was on a consist of old Budd M3s, built in the mid-1980s. On the way home it was more modern Bombardier M7s, which I like better because they have the little jumpseat at the outer end of each car across from the conductor’s booth, which is more private and perhaps less COVID-prone, and often empty because people aren’t sure you’re allowed to sit there (don’t tell!).
Ronkonkoma is the easternmost electrified point on that line of the LIRR (just like my own station, Croton Harmon, is the northernmost electrified point on the Hudson Line), so from Ronkonkoma to Greenport we were on diesel, some sort of EMD D*30AC, I didn’t really notice. It was pulling I think just two funny little double-decker Kawasaki C3s, pretty crowded with people in a mixture of business suits and holiday gear: coolers, fishing rods, straw hats.
The Greenport station is wonderful, just one track by one platform (and another track beside it that looks like it’s not to speak of used), a little depot building that now houses the East End Seaport Museum, and right beyond that the marina where endless car ferries (I think there are four altogether for the like eight-minute crossing) go back and forth to Shelter Island, and the Peconic Star boats take fisherpersons out to fish, and tourists (and locals) out to Bug Light. I eventually did that! :)
It was a hot weekend, but that was okay. My hotel was right in the (quite small) center of Greenport, and could be easily retreated to for cooling off; also there is an excellent ice cream store right across the street. The place where I sliced my finger cutting a bagel at the Continental Breakfast is now entirely healed. :) And there are these clever misting posts set up near the water and the carousel, in a circle so that no matter which way the wind is blowing, if you stand between them some of the fun cooling mist gets to you.
Okay, I suppose this doesn’t need a detailed account of every minute and location. :) Highlights:
Thursday: Arrival, ice cream, hotel
Friday: Walking around town, ice cream, reading Agatha Christie’s “ABC Murders” cover-to-cover in the very nice Public Library, ferry out to Shelter Island (which is very upscale-residential, and not all that interested in tourists arriving on the ferry, but:), excellent dinner in nice Italian place out there.
Saturday: More walking around, considerable napping, cruise out to the aforementioned Bug Light, nice dinner in town, big but brief rainstorm
Sunday: Fun trainrides back to NYC, faffing about in Manhattan a bit, then home on the Hudson Line.
It was a very nice, refreshing, solo weekend, highly recommended.
ceoln 