We checked out the new Café at the Dering Harbor Inn this week and, a few nutritious and refreshing calories later, are glad to recommend that you try it, too.
Operated by Moussa and Bouchra Dramé, the new café occupies the inn’s former bar with serene bluff-top views over Dering Harbor. The refurbished space offers socially-distanced indoor seating and opens onto a spacious patio for those who prefer to sit outside.
You can enjoy a cold nitro brew on tap — the café is the Island’s exclusive retailer of Sail Away, a Long Island specialty coffee purveyor — or enjoy one of Bouchra’s smoothies or custom juices. She’s happy to mix one up according to your own design from an assortment of fresh ingredients. And the café offers a wide assortment of teas as well as coffee drinks.
Bouchra is also serving her freshly-baked Moroccan-influenced pastries, cookies, and cakes, as well as small bites, like tasty empanadas that make for a great grab-n-go lunch. You can find menu details at deringharborinn.net/cafe/.
Bright, airy and refreshingly unpretentious
Moussa was busy teaching tennis (when isn’t he?) when we arrived, and Bouchra was helping customers, so Eban Howell showed us around. Howell, who owns a unit at the inn, was one of a design team who volunteered to help renovate the space.
Old-timers will remember when the Inn had a full-service restaurant, with a hopping bar scene. Constructed in 1964, the restaurant featured a lot of dark wood and stone, along with panels in earth-tone colors that were so popular then.
Moussa’s Shelter Island Yoga and Fitness takes up the former dining area (with its amazing copper chandelier, where the earth tones are repeated), but the bar alcove — with its views out over the harbor — was for many years mostly closed off by curtains.
Moussa had been offering juices and smoothies there — perfect for post-workout. But downtime during the pandemic inspired some reimagining of the space and provided willing hands to accomplish turning plans into reality.
To brighten up the place, the design team painted over select sections of the dark bar front and the alcove’s upper walls. Some slatted wooden screens enhance separation from the fitness center. Chairs that perfectly fit the vibe and matched the earth-tone color scheme were found at Marika’s Eclectic Boutique (of course). The result is bright, airy, and refreshingly unpretentious.
The café, at 13 Winthrop Road, is open Monday to Friday, from 8 AM to 6 PM and on weekends, from 8 AM to 2 PM. Card transactions preferred.
The space is also available for private gatherings. Call the Dering Harbor Inn for details, 631-749-0900.
Moussa Dramé’s Shelter Island Yoga & Fitness is a member of our new Island Directory; so is The Dering Harbor Inn.
If you want to include your business listing in the directory, contact Julie O’Neill-Bliss at j.oneill-bliss@shelterislandgazette.com or leave a message at 631-749-9222.
