A Picture Perfect Weekend Summer Weekend in Sag Harbor

The Hamptons: New York City’s summer playground. Though it may be beaches instead of skyscrapers, there is an unmistakable vigor and frenzy to summertime in the Hamptons that isn’t so different from the city itself. And while the glitz of being out east is fun, it leaves little time to relax and enjoy the beauty of summer in the South Fork. 

That was how I always felt at least, until I spent a weekend in Sag Harbor. It is the perfect place for a chic backyard barbecue. A perfect place for a stroll throughout town with harbor views. And a perfect place for shingled houses and hydrangea spotting. First inhabited by whalers (much like Nantucket), it retains that seafaring, coastal life that is absent from some of the more formal Hamptons inlets and towns. In fact, it was like a little slice of New England in Long Island. 

Spend your last days of summer in a true summer town that is easily accessible from NYC. Get out of the heat and stop into one of my favorite Sag Harbor spots and throw the perfect Labor Day Weekend barbecue with the help of some of my Sag Harbor favorites. 

For the best selection of rose and liquor to stock your chic backyard barbecue: Sag Harbor Liquors has a comprehensive selection of wine, beer and liquor - anything you could need to enjoy the last weeks of Summer Fridays and vacation. 

For the best gourmet food and market: Harbor Market and Kitchen. Fill up your guests on their delectible house made goodies, pastries, wood-oven pizzas and salads. If you are visiting friends, stop here for the perfect hostess gifts and gourmet gift baskets, available all year long. 

For the best morning after coffee: SagTown Coffee. The best coffee in town, something you will need after a night of all imbibing. 

For the best accommodations: Americana Hotel. A classic hotel right on main street is the perfect place to stay or eat lunch. 

For the best beaches in town: Sag Harbor is primarily a boating community because of it’s location in a bay but head to Foster Beach for great sea glass and shell gathering

Celebrate the final weeks of summer with the town’s native rum, Sag Harbor Rum - the perfect spiced rum for sailors and summer revelers alike. Once you’re under the Sag Harbor late summer sun, make their classic mojito. 

2 tsp Sag Harbor Rum 

2 tsp sugar

6-8 fresh mint leaves

club soda

1 lime, quartered 

Muddle the mint leaves and sugar with a splash of club soda then squeeze in the lime and fill with rum and club soda. Mix well. 

And cheers to a great summer out east. 

With only a few weeks left of summer, make your final trip Out East to this Hamptons town that has an unmistakable charm.