- Hi, I'm Erik the Travel Guy.

Today, we hopped in the car and drove the entire length of Long Island.

Montauk is next, on Beyond Your Backyard.

- [Narrator] Beyond Your Backyard is being brought to you in part, by the following.

(ice clinging, flame roaring, screeching) (crowd chatting and festival music) The Perillo Tours Foundation.

For 73 years, we've been bringing travelers to Italy.

It's where our heart is.

Escorted tours and custom vacations.

Italy, the dream destination.

(upbeat piano music) - My name is Erik Hastings.

Yeah, that's me.

And for as long as I can remember, I've always loved to travel and I still do today, but you know what I've learned?

There's so much more that brings us together, than divides us, which is why I've made it my mission to do the very same things you can do, but to take you beyond the experiences, to uncover the soul of every place we visit.

Let me introduce you to the people, the places and the secrets that remind us how exciting it is to share with one another, to understand one another and to realize just how connected we really are.

I am Erik the Travel Guy and this is Beyond Your Backyard.

(upbeat music) Thank you for watching and welcome to Montauk.

You know, there is a vibe here that is approachable.

It's secluded and yet unpretentious.

Now, that's why we're starting here at the Montauk Beach House.

No, we don't have time to show you how much I love the pool, the delicious food, or kicking it old school on the beats.

That's because today, we're gonna show you how Montauk has stood the test of time.

We're gonna take you to some of those must-be-seen places in this unassuming beach destination.

We'll learn how to make a little seafood and I'm gonna take you to a super secret spot to learn more about surf casting.

It's gonna be a good one, let's get started.

A lot of people call Montauk "The End", because it is the easternmost point on Long Island and the entire state of New York.

Visitors come here by the thousands in the summer, for the beach, the gorgeous weather, the green spaces, the fishing, the surfing, the seafood, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

You can take the Hampton Jitney, a bus, or the Long Island railroad to get here, but I suggest you drive your own car, or in my case, the most obnoxious car you can find on the entire island.

Oh, finally a car that matches my personality.

Now we're talking.

You see Montauk is a tight-knit community, but what's the hook here?

Well, fishing has always been big, not to put too fine a point on it.

Montauk is personal to its visitors and to its year-round residents.

Speaking of locals, I met up with Dick White, who was born and raised here, to get a little historical perspective.

My first question would be when did Montauk become Montauk?

- Well, if you're talking about the original Montauk, around the 1300's, when the Montauketts we're here.

- Wait a minutes, so you're saying Montauk's been Montauk for quite some time?

- [Dick] They were known as the Montauketts, Montauk Nation, if you will, like the Shinnecock Nation.

When the white man came here in 1648, Montauk was used as a grazing area.

Oh, I guess it was around 1870 sometime, Arthur Benson had just purchased all of Montauk and he moved the remaining Montauks from East Lake Drive side and he moved them to East Hampton.

1925, Carl Fisher had just finished building Miami Beach and he was gonna make Montauk the Miami Beach of the North.

So he built the Yacht Club and the Golf Club and the Surf Club and the Manor.

And it was going to be a Scottish countryside.

He in fact imported Basque Shepherds and some sheep, and he had sections of Montauk where the sheep were.

- But where does fishing come into all this?

- Well, fishing was always here, whaling, regular fishing.

People from Connecticut used to come over and camp on the beach - Yeah.

and catch fish and then they would bring it back to Connecticut and smoke it, you know, and preserve it.

- And you're talking fishing right off the, right off the sand.

- Yes, that and boats.

- Yeah.

- [Dick] Trawlers and so forth.

The original Montauk village was down on the bay, over that way.

And they were mostly fishermen and they would catch their fish.

And the Long Island railroad was there and they had a dock there called the Railroad dock and they would take the fish, the daily catch and put it on cars, ice them down and take them to New York.

And then a charter business developed slowly.

- Yeah.

- Right after World War II, the torpedo testing base was turned into Fish Shangri-La.

- Oh.

- And it was the Mecca for charter boats and open boats and so forth.

- Really.

- And it stayed there until a hurricane convinced them to move into the lake where it is now.

- Hurricanes can do that.

- Yes.

- You know, they have a, make sure to decide.

But there is a unique vibe to Montauk.

It is different from other beach towns, from other parts of the island.

How do you describe that vibe?

- I think Montauk is more of a blue collar town.

And also we have a wealthy people, and the celebrity type people, who don't want to be recognized.

- Yeah - Who just want to come downtown and go to the stores or go to the Post Office and just do their thing.

- [Erik] When people move here, they don't leave, do they?

- It's called sand in your shoes.

(Erik laughing) Once you get the sand in your shoes, you either got to come back where you got to stay.

- Yeah.

You know, there's something about the vibe here that is kind of hard to put your finger on.

It's a little elusive.

Of course it's got something to do with the ocean, but I think it also has something to do with the really expansive green spaces.

And the fact that this is a destination place, which means you're not just driving through here to get to somewhere else.

You got to wanna be here.

And that has something to do with the locals that are welcoming to the visitors.

Let's keep moving.

The natural light in Montauk is unique and spectacular.

Driving with the top-down allows that warm, summer, sea-salted air to wrap around your soul like a cozy blanket.

It's gorgeous here in just about every direction.

(upbeat music) It's easy to quickly get your geographic bearings here.

On one of my drives, I spend some time relaxing and breathing in the calming ambience at Montauk Salt Cave.

Shannon, the owner was so friendly.

She put me right at ease, which made me curious to learn more about Montauk hospitality.

That's something that I've noticed walking around and being here for a couple of days.

I never have to go far if I need something.

- We've managed to create this culture of service, that I think you see throughout, that is just unrivaled as far as people being nice and helpful.

And let me show you where things are.

- People really do kind of come here and go, okay, I get it.

I want more of that.

'Cause whatever, if they came for a week, if they came for three days, they do want more.

Why, what is it that they find?

- I think it's the huge amount of natural spaces that are available around Montauk.

And we have, we have six State Parks, all of which are beachfront State Parks, where there's amazing scenery and nature.

And, and people just love that outdoor feeling.

We have some of the best fishing in the world out here.

Where it's the largest fishing fleet in all of New York State, out of Montauk Harbor.

And so you can do anything in the outdoors you can do out here.

That's the huge attraction out here.

- Yeah, when they come to Montauk, what are they specifically looking to do, to be, to feel what are they, what is it they're chasing when they come here?

Either for the first time or returning?

- I think they're chasing a lot of, a lot of time in the sun and time outdoors.

It's just wide open spaces, amazing scenery, the Bluffs are amazing.

The lighthouse is amazing.

And just, just they're really, really terrific experiences what we're looking at delivering.

Everyone is in that vacation mode.

And it tends to be, you know, a little less intense than they are in their business life.

(both laughing) And the goal is, is to try and get everyone to have an amazing experience in general.

- My friend, thank you for this.

- All right.

- The bottom line, the locals appreciate the visitors and the visitors love spending time here, getting away from their everyday or discovering something new.

Is that Montauk's hook?

Well, it's hard to say.

In addition to the Beach House, another legendary spot is Gurney's Inn.

And for good reason.

To somebody that's never stepped foot on this part of Long Island, which is, you know, essentially the end, how do you describe it to them?

- You know, Montauk is, it's something for everyone.

- Yeah.

- It's very different.

You can get multiple experiences when you come out here.

- Yeah.

- You know, you can have this beach resort, that you can sit and read a book and, and enjoy and surf.

If you wanted to you could kite surf, if you wanted, or you can go to, you know, you have the boating experience because there's boating, fishing, horse back riding, vineyards at Wolffer Estates.

You know, we talk about apple picking.

- Right.

- And so it's, there's something for everybody.

Montauk brings special charm to it.

- Yeah.

- Everyone feels like a local when they come here.

There's great restaurants.

There's all the amenities that you can ever imagine.

But it's, it's a place that, if you wanna reconnect within your relationship, or you wanna spend time with your kids and not have to worry about work or worry about all your, your cares, it's, it's the best place to be because you can just get lost in the surf or you can get lost in the beach or hiking or, or even, you know, fitness and wellness.

You, you can just meditate and, and run and do whatever you want out here.

- I made my way here in the fall of 2020, hence the smaller crowd, but Gurneys is legendary and worth a stay, a meal or both.

And while we're on the subject, make your way to Gosmans.

It's another famous Montauk institution.

Or dine on the dock at Duryea's.

And do a little shopping after your meal.

Did you know, Montauk is home to the oldest lighthouse on Long Island.

The lighthouse, which was commissioned by George Washington is maintained by the Montauk Historical Society and is operated by the US Coast Guard.

There's a museum in the keepers dwelling, which is definitely worth a visit.

Visitors are welcome to climb the 137 spiral steps to the top.

And on a clear day, look out at Block Island across the sound.

But as I mentioned earlier, fishing is huge here, which is why I met up with Carter to learn exactly how to surf cast.

He took me to a very cool and very secret fishing spot.

- Carter, we need to discuss where exactly are we.

This is like your favorite spot, isn't it?

- One of them, yeah.

- Yeah, what is it?

Where is it?

- So we're at Shagwong Point.

- Yeah.

- Which is part of Gin beach.

And we're out on sort of a promontory on the bay side of Montauk.

- Are you talking about the convergence of the water?

Is that, what is that what that is?

Or what are we looking at here?

- Yeah the Long Island Sound here to the left.

- Yeah.

- The Atlantic Ocean, right over there.

- Got it.

- And Montauk Point being just a, that way a bit represents the point of these two bodies of water coming together.

- But isn't it true that you literally can catch these massive fish right off the beach, literally outside your hotel room.

- Absolutely, yeah.

You don't need to be in this remote, rocky place to catch really big fish.

Right off the beach, right in the town.

I've done it myself many times.

You can catch very large fish, Blue fish, Striped Bass.

20, 30-pound fish, literally right in the surf.

- [Erik] Logistically, if we catch a 20-pound fish, right now, what are we gonna drag it to the car?

- Well, if we catch a 20-pound fish right now, assuming it's within the proper limits for keeping.

- Yes.

- Which it most likely would be at that weight.

- Okay, then what happens?

- I would, I would, I would cut the fish's neck right here to get the blood out.

- Okay.

- Which makes it tastier and it saves better that way.

- Got it.

- Then we take it into the car.

We'd take it back to my wife as soon as possible.

- Yeah.

- She'd cut it up and we'd freeze it and probably eat some tonight.

- A lot of times you can really hurt a fish.

And even if you release it that thing's gonna die anyway, like, hasn't that kind of changed over the years?

- Yeah, times have changed.

People don't just catch fish willy nilly and keep them all or throw them back mangled.

You know what I think a good way to answer that is to talk about the types of hooks that are on lures now.

- Yeah.

- You know, these hooks used to come and some still do, but these big trouble hooks with two or three different hooks on one lure all with barbs.

You know, the barb is the little thing that prevents the hook from coming out.

- Got it.

- Most people nowadays, they cut their barbs down.

They flatten them out just with a pair of pliers.

- Really?

- So that, when you catch a fish you're going to release, you can just thread the hook out.

It's not always easy, but it's vastly easier than if there's barbs on it.

And then you can release the fish easy.

Most fishermen I know these days that that surf casts in a, in a serious way, they crush their barbs down.

And the limits for fish now have also gotten a little tighter in terms of the size and weight to keep them.

- Got it, okay, now we need to talk about surf casting because as we get into the world of broadcasting and streaming, lot of casting going on in the world.

(Carter laughing) But we're talking, - Yeah surf casting.

We come out here, we have our poll.

What do we do?

- So Montauk's the surf casting capital of the world.

I didn't make that up, someone did in the past, right.

- Got it, we can attribute that to somebody else, sure.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

So Montauk's a special place because you can catch a lot of fish, different types of fish, three seasons a year.

So everybody has their own reason for fishing.

My primary motivation is eating it.

- Got it.

- I love eating fresh fish.

- To somebody that's never done this before, they're watching now going, you know what I wanna do that?

Can I find a local guide out here?

- Yeah, there are several, there are local guides.

People who will actually take you fishing.

- Yeah.

- Spend a couple hours with you, show you how to do it.

- This is one of the charms of Montauk, is that it's very accessible.

I get, you get the lay of the land a little bit and you really can go just about anywhere.

- That's true, yeah.

If you just look on a map, Montauk is not huge.

- Right.

- So you can go to the Bayside, you can go to the Oceanside.

You can go out to the point.

There's parks everywhere.

So wherever you wanna go, it's not that far away.

- Yeah.

- So whether you, whether you drive and park or bicycle or get an Uber to drop you off somewhere, you can pretty much go anywhere.

- [Erik] Well, that leads me to what is the number one secret?

What is your secret to catching fish?

- [Carter] The number one secret to catching fish is patience and developing skill with lures because the fish don't just bite something you throw out there.

You have to figure out how to retrieve a lure.

- But we don't have to use bait.

We're using a lure, right?

- We're using a lure, yeah.

The primary way to fish in Montauk because of the abundance of sport fish here, Striped Bass, Blue Fish, in the fall, you can catch False Albacore also, which is a type of small, powerful tuna.

- Yeah.

- Certain people can catch these easily because they've developed skill over a long time.

- Yeah.

- Other people can cast in the midst of those people catching left and right, and they'll catch nothing.

- Got it.

- So the patience, timing, serendipity obviously, and developing skill with lures, I would say.

That's not quite a nutshell, but there you have it.

- But that'll do, it's perfect, it's perfect.

Look, if you're not gonna get out on the water and fish, then at the very least walk along the world famous beaches and marvel at the skill of the surfers.

Rent a bike and hit the trails.

Go miniature golfing with the family at Puff & Putt.

Go big kid golfing at the Championship Course at Montauk Downs State Park or simply lounge by the pool.

The more you spend time here, the more you'll be saying to your friends, meet me in Montauk.

A hook can have many prongs depending on what you're fishing for.

And as a visitor, your hook may be different than mine.

The good news is Montauk has some type of hook for everyone.

With that mind, my final stop was to learn how to make a Montauk staple from my new friend, Brian, at the restaurant named, well, you guessed it Hooked.

All right, we need to start with what is the secret to making a perfect lobster roll?

Can you tell us some of it?

- No, I'm not telling you.

- Well, come on, man.

We came all the way out here.

- Really, the secret really would probably be, yeah, simplicity.

- Yeah.

- Get yourself a good, good product.

And don't overdo spices.

I see people putting onion in it, and dill and all sorts of everything that people just wanna eat the lobster and they wanna, they wanna see big chunks of lobster.

They don't want a ground up lobster salad.

You know, like, like a tuna salad.

- Right.

- My, my number one secret, or it's not really a secret but mayonnaise.

I buy good quality mayonnaise and only enough to hold the lobster together.

- All right, so these actual, are they alive?

- They are, yeah.

These are kind of a quarter lobsters from Montauk.

I like these lobsters because they're straight off the boat.

- Got it.

- Like they have, they do have a shelf life.

You can't say, oh a lobster that's been sitting in a tank is the same as a lobster that's just come out of the water the day before.

- It's just not.

- They kind of lose their sweetness after a few days.

And you don't know how long that's been sitting in a tank as well.

- Do lobsters from different waters, taste different?

- The cold water lobster is, is they have a hard shell like packed, packed full of meat on the inside.

- Got it, now, again, we've just pulled these out.

What are you gonna do with these?

- We can steam them up.

- How long?

- I have a convection steamer.

So I really put them in for about 10 minutes.

And I'd like to put them on their backs like that, so you get, so you get the tail meat cooked.

Well, you've seen the lobsters.

- This looks amazing.

- [Erik] And then when you take them out it's hot, you wanna chill it down quickly.

You don't wanna over cook the meat, especially the tail meat.

If you're in a restaurant, you order a lobster and the tail is all curled, that means it's over-cooked.

Yeah, so you chill it down and then you pick the, you pick the lobster meat, the claws, the tail, the knuckle.

And you chop it up.

The reason why I like to do it with my hands too is because you feel, if you miss something, you'll feel, feel that little hardness.

- It'll be in there.

- Might be a piece of shell in there too but you just gotta be a little bit careful.

Here's some celery that I chopped earlier on.

- Plain celery.

- Plain celery.

And here's the famous mayonnaise we talked about the, the quality mayonnaise.

- Oh, oh that's a quality mayonnaise right there.

- Yeah, that is good.

So I'll, I'll put the celery in.

- Okay.

- You don't wanna do too much celery, but you've got to have enough for it to have like a, a crunch.

- Got it.

- And I like to mix, I like to mix the celery in before the mayo, because that way you won't have a big glop of like mayo, you know, celery and mayonnaise all - Got it, smart tip.

- stuck together, you know.

- But I'm surprised.

No onion, no garlic, scallions - No, no, no.

I mean, you could put the whole garden in there if you want to.

- You could, yeah, but I mean, I'm all about simplicity.

- Yeah.

- But this is the key here now is, is and I tell the guys in the kitchen when they're making it, I say, you can't use, you can't go crazy.

Like, I'm not just gonna dump the whole thing in there because I might have, I may have put too much, - Too much in, yeah.

- So I'll just do it kind of gradually.

So this is kind of like - Wow.

- I don't wanna get in there and crush it all up because I wanna try and keep those, claw meat.

- Because it will turn into paste, - Yeah.

- like it'll.

I mean you can make it into, - It will.

- Even with your hands, you can really just, pulverize it.

- Yeah, yeah and what will go into paste, like the tail meat will stay hard, but the, but the knuckle will, will just disintegration.

- Just disintegrate.

- And that's the paste.

- And nobody wants that.

- Yeah.

- But look at that, you're right, the claw.

- See I don't want, I want, I want that because that's gonna be my, you know, that's gonna be show pieced in a lobster roll right on the top of it, you know, just for, for those Instagram photos that people love.

I've done mixing here.

There could be a secret ingredient, but it's not gonna be on camera.

- We're not gonna, but all right.

If there is a secret ingredient it's already in there.

- Exactly, yeah.

- Okay, very good.

Now let's talk bun.

- All right.

- Roll, what do we call?

- Roll, I mean are we allowed to say brand names?

- Yeah we can, sure it's your, - I can give a shout out to my guy at Martin's Potato Rolls.

- [Erik] Oh yeah, and you would toast these, right?

- Yes, so this, these roles just, just get toasted.

- Okay.

- I don't put butter on them.

- You don't butter them?

- No.

- See if I was gonna toast these at home, what's the easiest way to toast one of these?

- It's not, the best way to do would probably be to flatten it out like that and put it, put it face down on your grill like that.

- Okay.

- But I'm not toasting them to make them toasted.

You just kind of warming them up more, - You're just warming them up - Warming them up a little bit and have a little bit, a little bit of crunch.

- Okay.

- What else I do with this?

Is I put it in a local tomato.

- Oh yeah.

- I thought, you got to see that have a look at that big one.

- Oh that, yeah.

- So we have our toasted roll.

- Yep, what's the ounce on the scoop there?

- This is a third of pounds.

- Okay.

- It's a 5.5 ounces or there abouts.

I've done so many of them, I don't need to use a scale.

My hand is like - You know.

- a scale right there.

You wanna make the, you know, pretty much overflowing like that?

- Yeah.

- I'm not, I'm not doing a huge one just for the camera.

This is pretty much what we, what we do put out, you know.

- Yeah, that looks amazing.

- We serve it here with our homemade broccoli slaw, - Love broccoli slaw.

- So, - So, I think I got this.

- You got it?

- Yeah, I think I got it.

- All right.

- I'm excited about this.

I've never done it before.

Let it overflow, now see, now yours.

- I may have made a few more than you during my lifetime.

- I think you have in your lifetime.

I'm gonna throw a little more underneath here.

But I'm not trying to touch the thing, right?

It's the goal, it's somebody's food.

Okay, now that's respectable.

- [Brian] No, that's, that's pretty good, you did a nice job, yeah.

- [Erik] I wasn't fishing, I just asked.

I say we clean up and take a bite.

- Yeah, I think so.

- We got to do that.

- All right.

- Yeah.

All right, all right.

What's the, what's the, is there?

- Well, here's the thing, - Here we go thing.

- If, if you, if you're used to going to fine dining establishments all the time, you're probably gonna wanna use this.

- So people just eat it out of there until they get, - But if you just wanna get up and at it and leave with the smell of lobster on your clothes or whatever, - Absolutely.

- then you just pick it up and go for it.

- That's what we're doing today.

This looks, this looks amazing.

Oh yeah.

- [Brian] What do you think?

- You were so right with the crunch, right in that bite I'll be sure to get one, but not too much.

I tasted lobster immediately.

- Yeah, and you got the crunch from the celery, but you didn't get a mouthful of celery, yeah.

- Oh, this is, - Yeah.

- this is terrific.

This really is amazing.

- Yeah.

- Brian, thank you for this.

- Thank you Erik.

- I appreciate it, thank you for this.

- Thanks for coming in.

- So it's safe to say when you drive all the way out to the end, you may just find the beginning, middle, and end to your next great adventure.

In Montauk, I'm Erik the Travel Guy.

Thank you for exploring Beyond Your Backyard.

(upbeat music) For more information on this episode, visit EriktheTravelGuy.com.

And while you're there, you'll discover other fascinating destinations just Beyond Your Backyard and links to follow me on social media.

That's EriktheTravelGuy.com.

(ice clinging and flame roaring, screeching) (crowd chatting and festival music) - [Narrator] The Perillo Tourist Foundation, for 73 years we've been bringing travelers to Italy.

It's where our heart is.

Escorted tours and custom vacations, Italy, the dream destination.

- Hi, I'm Erik the Travel Guy.

You know, I've been exploring the world professionally for more than a decade.

And you know, what I've learned is that fantastic experiences await you in every corner of the globe, but you don't always have to travel that far to uncover them.

So join me each week as we go on and off the beaten path, learn something new and sample delicious culinary.

We're exploring Beyond Your Backyard.

(upbeat music)