Feed Me: Hamptons Edition
A local media renaissance, an East Hampton Knicks watch party, and a new North Fork hotel.
Good afternoon, everyone.
This is Feed Me’s first Hamptons letter of the summer. Hopefully, after reading this, you will have a better understanding of Rory Satran’s new local media project, The Hamptons Chronicle, as well as some solid options for where to watch the Knicks game tonight, and a reason to spend the weekend at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum.
It’s a long letter so I suggest pulling up to the bar tonight 20 minutes before the game, ordering a beer, and reading about the gaps in the Hamptons media landscape.
Today’s letter also includes: A New York Magazine writer left the magazine for a job at Substack, Sean MacPherson’s new Montauk project, and maybe AI isn’t the biggest threat to your media job… maybe 16-year-old Billy Stern is.
You can finally visit Montauk General Store.
Until three weeks ago, 25-year-old Kate Diament’s Montauk General Store had no physical presence. Despite sold-out sweatshirts, collaborations with Levain and Miami’s Grove Grocer, and lines for matcha at roving cafe pop-ups, there was never a brick and mortar home for the business.
“I saw it as a branding opportunity where people would come and take photos of a matcha latte, and then my logo would go everywhere. And then customers would say, ‘Oh, this logo is really cute. Let me also buy an $150 sweatshirt with the same logo on it,’” Kate told me last week. “And that’s how I built my business.”
When a 250-square-foot space in the heart of Montauk become available in January, Kate jumped on the opportunity to open a permanent general store. The store focuses on the lifeblood of all Gen-Z women, matcha, but also sells Shoppy Shop-esque CPG brands, brand merch, luxurious beachy beauty products, and local ceramics. I spoke to Kate, who grew up going to Montauk, about opening weekend numbers, her plans for partnerships out East, and the biggest surprises in her first few weeks of running the store.
How was opening weekend?
“The whole weekend was freaking insane. I didn’t have a second to actually process what was going on because we’ve never had a brick and mortar space. I was training a whole new staff starting on Thursday and then it was just everything all at once. The line didn’t stop once the whole weekend. There was not one second of downtime, which was crazy from nine to five, but all good things.”
Can you share any numbers?
“So we’re hand whisking, talking to every customer. We served over 300 matchas each day of opening weekend. There’s not one moment where there isn’t a matcha being made.”
Do you have any surprises on the shelves?
“We’re doing a floral program with Amber Waves, which I’m really excited about. I’m trying to work with as many local businesses as possible. We sell Jon and Vinny’s pancake mix, which you can’t buy anywhere else in the Hamptons.
We also are launching our own maple syrup line. The whole brand is based on nostalgia, and my grandparents live in Vermont. For my whole life, I was given very large mason jars filled of my grandma’s neighbor’s maple and we actually used that maple for the first two years of pop-ups and then I outgrew her supply. So now we’re working with a different family, but just someone who actually does it for a living and we’re launching our own maple syrup line. And then that maple is in our classic latte at the store. So it’s called just the classic Montauk General latte.”
Are you open to partnerships this summer?
“Always open to things. The summer is booked and busy, but there’s always a way to find room for something.”
Tell me about your logo.
“The logo that I have now is the same logo that my friend made for me in college. And it has held true. I’ve definitely thought about changing it in the last year or two. And then after the last six months, I’m like, ‘You know what? That’s just my identity.’ And it’s worked and I’m not getting rid of it.”
What’s been the biggest surprise in the last few weeks?
“Seeing the same people over and over again. There’s a girl that comes to every single pop-up in New York City. She’s the last person I’d ever expect to see out at my store in Montauk. I’ve never seen her in the Hamptons before and she took the train all the way out!”
On the calendar:
🏀 The Surf Lodge is hosting a Knicks watch party tonight. (6/3)
🏀 East Hampton Village is hosting a Knicks watch party tonight. (6/3)
⛳ Golfer Raymond Floyd is hosting a Q+A after a highlight reel of the 1986 US Open championship, which he won a few miles away at Shinnecock Hills. (6/6)
🀄 Montauk Mahjong is hosting games every Tuesday at Doubles in Amagansett.
🎭 Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan is performing in Playboy of the Western World at Guild Hall. (6/6)
🫖 The Sag Harbor Whaling Museum is hosting a Revolutionary Tea Party, which will involve “historic baked goods.” (6/7)
🎬 Screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, Black Bag) is hosting a Q+A after a screening of Disclosure Day at Sag Harbor Cinema. (6/20)
The Hamptons are experiencing a media renaissance.
The two emerging beats du jour of media in 2026 appear to be local news and wealthy people. At the intersection of that venn diagram is the Hamptons. I grew up on Long Island, and my first film was about a private island off of East Hampton, and I write Feed Me, all of which is to say, this intersection interests me.
I’ve noticed an uptick of Hamptons coverage over the last year from traditional magazines and media outlets. This is not necessarily because they have a large audience there, but because what’s happening behind the hedges of the rich and privileged (who live just two hours away from New York City) scratches any reader’s itch. Last summer, New York Magazine released a Hamptons issue (I’ve heard they’re doing it again this year). CULTURED also released their first Hamptons issue. I don’t have data to back this up, but I think between the coverage of the rising prices of lobster rolls, and the competitive workout class scene, there has been increased coverage of the Hamptons from papers like WSJ and The New York Times.
Today, I interviewed three local editors who are invested in covering the Hamptons — 365 days a year — through new media projects:
Rory Satran, who launched The Hamptons Chronicle on Substack last month. Rory previously spent almost a decade at the Wall Street Journal.
Frances Sacks, an editor at EAST, The East Hampton Star’s magazine (which is now on Substack). Frances emailed me last week to let me know about the refresh of EAST for the magazine’s 10-year anniversary.
Billy Stern, editor of Ditch Weekly. I first interviewed Billy when he launched Ditch Weekly in 2024 (he was in eighth grade). Now a high schooler at East Hampton High School, the paper is entering its third summer and launching its first podcast and looking for advertisers.
Rory Satran, The Hamptons Chronicle
What gap do you think exists in the current local news landscape in the Hamptons that you hope to fill?
“A lot of national outlets get mileage out of their Hamptons stories, but they’re often coming at it from an outsider’s perspective, and can veer sensationalist. Meanwhile, the local news outlets out here are wonderful—and I subscribe to all of them!—but tend to be more straightforward. I thought there was room for a local-news publication that brought mischief, personality, and style to topics like police dogs and oyster theft, but also galas and real estate scandals.”
Recently, you posted that you want readers to come hang out in person at coffee shops out east for “office hours” to swap intel. What do you hope to get out of those events?
“My grandfather ran local newspapers in northern Wisconsin, and I remember him holding court at the local Dairy Dan’s and supper club. People would hand him their business cards, or whisper some gossip. I think that’s a great way to operate as a journalist. I don’t want to run this from behind my computer.
The office hours at coffee shops are meant to be super casual ways of meeting people and hearing their ideas. It’s ok if no one comes at first. Last week, I sat at Carissa’s for four hours and met ten people and got so many story leads. I don’t have cards yet so I kept just writing my email on scrap paper.”