Business

The latest in South Fork real estate transactions.

The surge in housing demand created by Covid and urbanites’ desire to have a safe retreat outside of the city has finally started to cool, according to the most recent report by Town and Country Real Estate. Rising interest rates and the rising cost of renovations due to a tight labor market and inflation are playing a role.

It was a quiet week in Real Estate Land.

Dockside Bar and Grill, which is closing for the year on Sunday, will also be taking a bow. It was officially announced on Thursday that Stacy Sheehan and Elizabeth Barnes, the owners of the much-beloved Sag Harbor eatery, have sold the business to Eric Miller and Adam Miller and the developer Adam Potter.

People have increasingly taken note of Montauk Brewing Company's growing popularity, characterized by its always-packed tap room, cool takes on brews involving ingredients like watermelon and pumpkin, and buzzy media coverage. The international cannabis and alcohol company Tilray was among those paying attention, and on Monday, Tilray announced that it has bought the Montauk Brewing Company for an undisclosed sum.

It’s the return of the South Fork real estate transaction report . . .

On Friday, Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Carmen Victoria St. George said Michael and Christine Aaron’s attempt to stop a brewery from being built on Toilsome Lane in East Hampton Village was “not ripe,” agreeing with the village’s zoning board of appeals that an official determination on whether the brewery is compatible with the village’s code has yet to be made.

Rita Cantina, a popular Mexican restaurant in Springs, was dealt a blow last week by the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, whose members agreed with a determination by Ann Glennon, the town’s chief building inspector, that catering businesses on the restaurant premises are operating illegally.

The new owners of the Springs General Store are eager to get to work converting a storage shed on the property into a tiny wine store, but questions about accessibility for the disabled and exactly what type of drinking would be allowed at the site have slowed the progress of their application before the East Hampton Town Planning Board.

Imagine a world without wine. That’s the devastation that could be wrought by the spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect from Asia that’s reached Ronkonkoma and is headed east, posing a serious threat to vineyards.

French Presse, started in 2014 as a mobile linen laundering and pressing service by the late Sarah de Havenon and occupying a showroom in Amagansett Square since 2016, has settled into its niche and as of this summer is selling its own line of linens, glassware, and dinnerware.

More than a month after an oven explosion closed the Stony Brook Food Business Incubator for repairs, food producers are scrambling to keep operating by other means, but often with reduced output.