One of the most consistent souvenirs visitors to the North Fork bring back home with them: location envy. And who could blame them? This is a place where the water is just steps (sometimes exactly 67) away; farms, fields and open spaces are such a background mainstay you almost take them for granted; and the seafood on your plate was plucked straight from the bays or Sound just hours before. And, of course, there’s the good community spirit that cinches it all together.
That’s how Leslie Merinoff felt when she first visited the area years ago, and it made her wonder: Was there a way to actually exist uniquely here for a weekend? Build an experience so chock-full of North Fork-centric activities, food, beverages and people deeply rooted in the bedrock beneath us that visitors could walk away with something more resonant than a T-shirt?
With her recently launched think-outside-the-hotel-model “The Weekend Dose” at Lin Beach House in Greenport, Merinoff has created a retreat-style three-day, two-night trek that shows off the North Fork in all its glory. And with this, she believes she’s found the indelible, immersive key for visitors to bring a bit of the region — and a deeper understanding of it — home.
Once guests drop their bags, they’re free to find the garden, bar or porch and have their first sip of the spirit-packed weekend. (Photo credit: Jeremy Garretson)
SANDY, SALTY AND SATIATED
Starting with the weekend of July 17 and continuing through the first weekend of October, Merinoff has been welcoming guests into her and husband Brian Kwasnieski’s eclectic little Greenport inn for what she’s dubbed The Weekend Dose — an itinerary-based, behind-the-scenes, special-access Lin takeover weekend that brings guests into the boat, farm, vineyard, kitchen and distillery.
The latter is a special bonus to The Weekend Dose thanks to Merinoff’s other special talent: distilling forage-and-farm-forward spirits at her business, Matchbook Distilling Co. (230 Corwin St., Greenport, mdcdropshop.com).
But Matchbook is no boozy boondoggle: Merinoff has spent years attempting to convey the beauty of fresh fruit spirits to anyone who’ll listen. Now that fervor has become a vehicle for her to not just capture the seasons here but to translate the importance of sustainability.
Actually, if not for her distillery, Merinoff wouldn’t even be at the Lin. Over a decade ago, she was working for a Brooklyn distiller following years in the industry and tinkering at home creating fermented wines. On a work trip out east traversing the Forks, Merinoff came to Greenport.
“I pulled in on a boat from Shelter Island and I see all these beautiful, coastal Dutch salt boxes and I was like, ‘Where am I?’” she says.
She found the Corwin Street property — formerly a boat-building facility — where Matchbook now operates and knew it was the right home for her business. Bored by the basic offerings at liquor stores, she initially intended to help bars, restaurants and hotels make new, unique spirits. It morphed into something more.
“I was originally thinking about opening it in Brooklyn,” says Merinoff, “and then I realized how silly it was to think about making farm spirits in the city, far from farms.”
With that, she and her husband and their team at Matchbook needed a place to live. Expensive real estate and a grueling search had Merinoff’s realtor joking about exploring the abandoned Lin Beach House property. Formerly known as the Shady Lady, it had been owned by sisters Carol LaMonte and Bobbi Zorn, who in 2002 took over the restaurant and inn.
“We came in and it was covered in draped jewel-toned velvet; there were so many cherubs and clusters of grapes everywhere,” says Merinoff. “We were like, ‘We need it, this must be ours!’”
All at once, Merinoff and her team found themselves building a distillery and renovating an abandoned hotel and inn — donating velvet to a local theater, taking shifts walking the house monitoring for bursting pipes all winter and preserving many of the structure’s captivating components, like a vintage chandelier by the bar.
In no time, this extraordinary living situation transformed into something not only habitable but hospitable — a charming cocktail lounge housing restaurant pop-ups, the unused rooms rentable as Airbnbs.
AN ITINERARY SET BY AN INSIDER
This year, Merinoff celebrated a decade at the Lin.
The phrase “personalized touches” doesn’t scratch the surface of how she’s transformed the space. In a downstairs dining room, guests can visually piece together panels of Mattituck High School’s old basketball court, which make up the floor. Local art hangs on almost every wall, while sturdy wooden furniture — a mix of mid-century modern, rustic and industrial styles — and unique tables and chairs speak to Merinoff’s collecting hobby.
In her 10 years at the helm, each guest room has earned a name. Some are inspired by iconic women like Jane Birkin, the 1960s model and actress who inspired the covetable Hermés Birkin bag. Others are influenced by unruly past guests who have left a lasting impression on Merinoff, Kwasnieski and their staff.
While it’s easy to get sucked into the details (or, more likely, the plush mattress atop a handmade Indonesian bed frame) in the Bianca room, the gold hardware-embellished bathtub in the Debbie room or the saltwater plunge pool outside, Merinoff’s lineup of activities for The Weekend Dose pulls you away in the best sense.
While being out and about on the North Fork forms the bulk of the itinerary, immersion into all things interesting begins the moment guests step foot into the Lin.
On Friday, Weekend Dosers receive their stay information via email with their inn and room access code for a contactless check-in. Upon arrival, they can drop their bags and settle into their room. After that, they’re free to find the garden, bar or porch and have their first sip of the spirit-packed weekend.
There’s also a help-yourself shelf of spirits and an on-site general store with a full offering of drinks, North Fork snacks, books, apparel and more. During one recent visit, Merinoff and her staff had a mix of Matchbook’s Daytrip Strawberry Amaro, Elsewhere Blood Orange Aperitivo and San Pellegrino waiting as a swift introduction to the creative concoctions available all weekend.
Following a tour of the distillery, where guests get to see how award-winning spirits used at the bars of Eleven Madison Park, The Four Horsemen and Bar Snack are made, Merinoff gets guests in on the botanical action, helping them to infuse their own gin with some pro guidance.
Before or after (the itinerary is subject to change, as Mother Nature isn’t known for being static), guests head to Kwasnieski’s boat, docked in Greenport, to take a ride with him and his team to visit his pound traps, commercial fishing devices used to lead, block and catch fish.
Merinoff and Kwasnieski, who met during their college days in Vermont, are both avid outdoors people. In recent years, Kwasnieski picked up pound trap fishing in Peconic Bay to fulfill his need to be in nature, simultaneously supplying sustainably sourced fish to local businesses like Minnow at the Galley Ho and Alice’s Fish Market.
Kwasnieski demonstrates the low-impact, high-yield method of fishing to guests, detailing the trigonometry that goes into making the trap and the shaved trees that are part of constructing it.
“The farmers here approach the land with a similar curiosity and energy as I do the water,” he says. “That is clear in the varieties we see pop up at farm stands and the enthusiasm they have when they share them with us, whether you’re a single patron, or buying for a dinner at The Lin, or buying a haul for Matchbook.”
Another activity Merinoff offers in The Weekend Dose experience is a visit to a local oyster farm with one of the hotel’s partners, Widow’s Hole Oyster Farm. Owner-operators Michael and Isabel Osinski welcome Weekend Dosers into their home and property, where they launched their business in the early 2000s after establishing careers in software development.
Michael Osinski fills guests in on the trial and error it took to establish his now flourishing oyster farm, along with the history of oyster farming in Greenport.
“I bought this in ‘99 and it was the oyster capital of New York,” he says.
Another experience on the itinerary falls right in line with Merinoff’s fruit-forward spirits: making seasonal preserves using North Fork produce, sending guests off with something delicious and homemade that lets them take a bit of the retreat home in the days to follow.
Brian Kwasnieski tends his pound traps in Peconic Bay, which supply local fish to The Lin and to other local businesses; while the rotating culinary programming, which kicks off with chef Meg Huylo in the kitchen, plays into the day’s fresh catches, local produce and seasonal ingredients from The Lin’s gardens out back. (Photo credit: Jeremy Garretson)
BRINGING IT HOME
For Merinoff, the packed itinerary isn’t just about entertainment; it’s about how each of these things connects to the other in a place like the North Fork. She leaves no stone unturned when it comes to details, stitching together the myriad pieces from the mornings, afternoons and evenings when back at the Lin.
The rotating culinary programming, which kicked off with chef Meg Huylo in the kitchen, plays into the day’s fresh catches from pound trap fishing, local produce and seasonal ingredients from the Lin’s drip irrigation garden beds out back.
This summer, Huylo was teaching guests how to fillet fish, a tried-and-true North Forker skill worthy of mastering, and impressing them with savory meals and delectable desserts.
Chef Blake Lieberman, a longtime friend of Merinoff and Kwasnieski’s, will finish off the The Weekend Dose season, bringing in his adaptable, sustainably-minded attitude.
“My style is to not make too much of a plan and see what the farms have for me,” says Lieberman.
And when guests aren’t seated and eating in the dining room at the long dining table or booths, they can find a spot at the bar, where beverage director Joe Coleman plays on their favorite flavors to make them a unique Matchbook spirit-packed cocktail.
Despite having no intentions to go into hospitality at the start of her career, Merinoff has developed a surefire way to host and toast around the North Fork.
“But because Matchbook is doing things so different,” she says, “I think bringing people into our world is so important.”
To learn more or to book The Weekend Dose at Lin Beach House (455 Route 25, Greenport), visit linbeachhouse.com. The Friday through Sunday package is $2,000 per person, with the option to add a night for $150.
