From gossip to bikes and all the books, here's fashion journalist Kate Betts' typical Sag Harbor day.
6AM: One of my favorite things to do is walk around Sag Harbor Village—where I live on weekends—very early in the morning. I take my dog down to the wharf and stop at Golden Pear Cafe for coffee and neighborhood gossip. I like to hear what’s going on, the contractors talking about their clients and news from the ARB. I walk past the Old Whaler’s Church, where I was married. My house is a block away.
8AM: I tend to stay in Sag Harbor to avoid traffic—so I ride my bike to Flywheel. I like Flywheel because it isn’t culty. I love the founder’s [Ruth Zukerman’s] class. Or I’ll hike around Mashomack on Shelter Island. My grandparents had a house there, and I remember when it was a hunting club and going for dinner.
The Sag Harbor marina
10AM: I try to do some work, some writing (katebetts.com). I’m not a writer who likes to have a perfect desk with a perfect view. I can’t get anything done if things are not haphazard. So I tend to work in the basement with our weird Ping-Pong table, on an office chair from my son’s school. There is nothing to distract me.
NOON: Right now, I am totally obsessed with my garden, which is in terrible shape because I can never make decisions about what to do with it. Kelli Delaney is a great friend and great gardener, and I am always jealous. She tries to help. Ron Wendt, too, who is a genius landscape designer, has also tried to right the situation. I am trying.
2PM: I love to go to the bay beaches, or my brother has a boat and we’ll take it to the cove where Salt is. A local once told me that they call it “Cheese and Crackers Cove.”
4PM: I tend to wear Roberta Roller Rabbit or something from Marie Eiffel to pop by Sage Street or North Found & Co. in Peconic in the afternoons. I also love Harbor Books. I am a book buyer and reader, and Taylor’s recommendations are the absolute best. I love everything she features. Sag Harbor is such a writers’ town. I’m also excited for Onda Beauty. They have the best stuff and services.
A Southold home furnished by North Found & Co.
6PM: In the evenings, I entertain and cook. I spend a lot of time at Pike’s farm stand, Cavaniola’s, the fish shop on the wharf and the butcher at the Red Horse Market. I love cooking out of two local cookbooks: Loaves & Fishes’ and The Seafood Shop’s. I recently rediscovered the Lee Bailey cookbooks. He is the original. If we do go out, we go to Sen or Dockside because I used to go there with my father and I know the people. But mostly, we just like the low-key, quiet side of Sag Harbor and summer.
Photography by: BETTS PHOTO BY NOA GRIFFEL; MARINA PHOTO BY JOSEPH TRENTACOSTI/ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; HOME INTERIOR PHOTO BY MALCOLM BROWN;