No chef conjures up summer’s warm kiss like “Top Chef” hottie Sam Talbot, whose Surf Lodge in Montauk is still making waves in its fourth season. But while Talbot is planning to make plenty of quick trips out east this summer, he won’t exactly be a fixture at Ditch Plains. After all, he’s got his buzzy new SoHo seafood restaurant, Imperial No. 9, at the Mondrian Hotel to mind — as well as a new apartment on the Lower East Side to spruce up for summertime soirees. “I’m really excited to be able to walk to work in the morning,” says the 33-year-old toque, who also enjoys leisurely strolls to Tompkins Square Park with his rescued pit bull Tank. And when he’s feeling the itch to hang 10, he hits the Rockaways. “I surf there when I can’t make it all the way out to Montauk,” he explains. This is his summer in New York. By CARLA SPARTOS
Lorenzo Ciniglio/Freelance
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Rogan, 330 Bowery, at Bond Street
“I love the Loomstate board shorts. The whole Loomstate brand is really about a lifestyle, [which] happens to be my lifestyle — it’s colorful, laid-back, eco-friendly, a little bohemian, outdoors-y. There are a lot of natural synergies there.”
Joe Kohen for the New York Post
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The Lobster Place, Chelsea Market, 75 Ninth Ave., between 15th and 16th streets
“If I’m cooking at home and need seafood, this is where I go. I soak [the lobsters] in vodka and then I cook them in a bouillon — it basically gets them drunk, so when they’re being cooked they don’t go into shock and everything tenses up. Listen, if I was gonna go, I think I’d rather be soaked in vodka.”
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Astor Wine & Spirits, 399 Lafayette St., near Fourth Street
“They have stuff that not everybody carries — things like Tito’s vodka and Pappy Van Winkle’s bourbon that are a little hard to come by. If you’re going to Central Park for the day or driving out to the Hamptons, go in there and grab a bottle of red wine and get on the road. (Obviously, don’t drink the bottle on the road!)”
Joe Kohen for the New York Post
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Fonda Nolita, 267 Elizabeth St., between Houston and Prince streets
“When I’m not making my own tacos, this is where I go. There’s this cool little bus right in the middle of the restaurant where you exchange tokens that you buy for tacos. It’s a great place to go on a hot Saturday afternoon, if you’re bumming around the city. Three little tacos, and you’re stoked.”
Joe Kohen for the New York Post
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Sur la Table, 75 Spring St., at Crosby Street
“I don’t wear a chef’s coat in the kitchen; I wear an apron. Most aprons are so ‘Betty Crocker’ that it’s a difficult task to find one where you don’t look like your mother. The one I wear now is thick-cut denim. It’s almost like a mechanic’s apron. It’s kind of a conversation amongst the other chefs and I — ‘What are you doing, Chef? Going to look for more aprons?’”
Owen Hoffmann/PatrickMcMullan.co
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Saturdays Surf, 31 Crosby St., between Broome and Grand streets
“I go here all the time. The vibe is super low-key. They have great clothes, too. I recently bought a few tank tops, some board shorts and three T-shirts — one says Saturdays in huge block letters. There’s a back deck where people hang out, drink coffee and smoke cigarettes, and below the store there’s a showroom that doubles as a gathering space. Being from Charleston, SC — where everybody knows everybody — it’s kind of that same feel.”
Joe Kohen for the New York Post
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Rainbow Sandals, 245 Elizabeth St., between Houston and Prince streets
“Sometimes my dog Tank gets a little happy and thinks my flip-flops are his chew toys, and I have to go get new ones here. They’re from California. They’re almost like a Tempur-Pedic bed for your feet. In the summer, that’s all I live in.”
