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Updated: July 19, 2009, 10:25 am	Share    Print    Email

The Castle and Casa Basso Restaurant located in Westhampton. Photos by Douglas Harrington

Westhampton - If you like a multimedia, stylista, alpha personality, assault your senses pizazz in your cocktail experience or like sitting at a bar that looks like it should be part of an abstract art installation at MOMA, stop reading!
This article is not for you. However, if you are an aficionado of classic bar atmosphere, where real drinks are poured for real men and "right broads" like the late Dorothy Parker in an atmosphere of dark wood, brass foot rails and a back bar where the scotches and gins may actually outnumber the designer flavored vodkas, then pull up a black leather bar stool.

Welcome to "The East End Oak Bar Series." We'll call them "oak bars" for lack of a better term, as most of the classic old-fashioned bars were indeed made of oak and have been heralded in their understated elegance in hotels from the Plaza in Manhattan to the Copley in Boston to the St. Frances in San Francisco. With the possible exception of the American Hotel and the Montauk Manor, most of the great oak bars on the East End are not to be found in hotels, but in restaurants. For the most part, restaurants with histories, that have survived and weathered the caprices tastes and trends that are in vogue in any particular Hamptons season.

In their heyday, they would be smoke filled and loud with conversation and if there was music, it was probably coming from a guy playing Cole Porter or Duke Ellington on a piano in the corner. Well thanks, or no thanks in my case, to the political correctness of the day, the smoke is gone and after Gordon's in Amagansett amended their rules (the last in the Hamptons to do so), gentlemen are no longer required to wear jackets. Nonetheless, there are still plenty of these great joints around and throughout the summer Hamptons.com and The Hamptonian will shed a little light on these dark beauties. So pour yourself a Manhattan or a Martini (made with gin please, not cucumber or green apple vodka) and enjoy the read.

The classic horseshoe oak bar at Casa Basso

Westhampton
Okay, so ever since you were a kid driving out from the city, you have wondered who the hell built a castle along the side of the road in Westhampton? No, it isn't part of a leftover set for a silent film production of "Don Quixote," but it is indeed modeled after a Spanish castle. You can find out all about it at the end of of the article, for now let's concentrate on the oak bar in the restaurant that shares the property with the castle, the venerable Rene's Casa Basso.

The bar in Casa Basso has been around since the restaurant's eponymous owner, Louis Basso, opened it in 1928. He ran the place until 1950 when the East End's version of Toots Shor, restaurateur Rene Mondini took it over and added his signature to it - he essentially, changed the name to "Rene's" Casa Basso and stayed at the helm until 1986. The name stayed the same when the present chef/owner, Bejto Bracovic, bought the place from Mondini. Think about it, 81 years in business with only three owners and a minor name change. Hard to believe in an era when it seems restaurants change names and owners every other season in the Hamptons.

In truth, the restaurant's facade is pretty innocuous, especially in comparison to the exotic castle that neighbors it, but take a stroll inside and you will see that the classic ambiance is timeless. The minute you walk through the door you see the oak bar sitting sentinel in the center of the beautiful white linen dinning room. And yes, there is a piano, although not exactly in the corner.

Although moved to three different locations within the restaurant over the years, this oak bar is the 1928 original, a classic horseshoe and narrow enough to facilitate great cocktail conversation with your neighbor across the rail. I personally have had political debates across the bar with Judge Weber on several occasions. Forget that old adage, "Don't talk politics at the bar!" True oak bars were born and bred for it, and you can bet that plenty of Westhampton political deals have been consummated at this bar over the years.

Dark and warm, this bar fits like an old shoe, or horseshoe if you want to make a pun of it. The seats are comfortable, although not black leather, and there is a real cash register, not a computer screen behind the bar. Like most great oak bars, dinner is served right where you sit! Unlike trendy Asian/French/New American fusion (confusion) cuisine restaurants with specialty bar menus, anything on the menu at Casa Basso will find its way to you and your liquid friend Rob Roy at the bar.

My favorites here are the Three (not Tri) Color Salad and the Veal Piccata Limone. Yeah, I know, veal is politically incorrect, get over it, this is an oak bar. I am sure Chef Bracovic only serves free-range veal, but frankly Scarlet, I don't give a damn. And yes, there is probably a good chance Gable stopped in here for a cocktail on his way to Southampton.

By nature, the only view you should get at a true oak bar is that of yourself in the mirror that hangs behind the bottles on the shelves, or of the reflections of the good looking guys and dolls sharing the bar with you if the angle is right. If you know of a real oak bar seat with a view of the Atlantic, please let me know, I've got nothing against the ocean. Ambient, not direct, sunlight should be the only rays that find their way to a true oak bar, that includes Ray Bans for all you Nicholson wannabes, so take them off - that goes for you too, Jack. Ironically, if you sit on the east side of the bar and look through two sets of glass doors that frame the private party room, you can actually see Beaver Creek that borders Casa Basso. Frankly, the best seat in any bar, oak or not, is always near the waitress (pardon the gender incorrectness) station, as the bartender will always be close at hand.

My modus operandi for these articles is to show up at a time when no one else is at the bar, so I can photograph it naked with all its natural splendor. I have the bartender, in this case Chef Bejto's son. Agim Bracovic, make me a single classic cocktail which will be posted on the website in the "Mixology" column. For this first installation of the series, I chose, appropriately, a "Scotch Old-Fashion." It was the drink of of my Scottish mother Louise Ann MacKaye, who, with my old man, "Black Dan" Harrington frequented their fair share of oak bars in their time and, thankfully, passed the passion along to me.

"The Castle at Casa Basso."

Okay, Everything You Wanted To Know About The Castle - No matter how many times you drive along a certain stretch of Montauk Highway in Westhampton your head will be turned by a structure as familiar as any in the East End, yet one so distinctive that it is surprising with each encounter. That structure is The Castle at Casa Basso. A building so out of place in period and style that it seems to be a Disney attraction. This castle has actually existed for decades before the first brick was ever laid at the Magic Kingdom; it was, in fact, constructed in 1906 when Walt Disney was only four years old.

The owner and architect of "The Castle" was a man as creative and imaginative as old Walt himself. Born in New York City on May 6, 1864, Theophlus A. Brouwer loved art, but as a spectator not as an artisan. However in 1888, after a summer visit to East Hampton a summer earlier, Brouwer decided to buy an acre of land commonly known at the time as Middle Lane at the Western end of East Hampton. Here he decided he would begin to pursue a career as an artist.

Starting his East End residency as a handyman to pay the bills, he quickly gained a reputation in the community as, "a clever man who was very good with his hands." In his spare time he would make pottery and experiment with different firing and glazing techniques, often falling asleep at his potter's wheel from sheer exhaustion.
With no formal training, Brouwer educated himself artistically by reading art history and pottery glazing books. He was fascinated by the works of a 16th century Spanish monk named Maestro Giorgio. He also studied Native American and Chinese glazing techniques. It was a combination of these techniques and styles that led him to discover the "Flame Painting" techniques for which he would later become famous. In time the local success of his vases allowed him to give up his handyman business, devote all his time to his pottery, and open up "Middle Lane Pottery."

His work became so popular in the genre known as Pottery Art that he began selling his work to Tiffany's in New York City. Tiffany's offered five distinct styles of Brouwer's stylistically "earthy" pottery. He not only continued creating pottery, but began lecturing to other artists interested in learning his Flame Painting techniques. By 1910 he was considered one of the top three potters in America and was making $200 a day, an astronomical income for anyone, much less an artist at this time. Macy's once offered Brouwer a million dollars to create pottery for their department stores. He turned them down.

It was in 1906 that Brouwer left his cramped quarters on Middle Lane in search of a larger studio space. He moved his family to the Beaver Dam section of Westhampton and created a studio in the style of a castle that he had seen on a trip to Spain several years earlier. It was known as the "Brouwer Pottery Castle" and was originally made of brick. The brick was eventually covered over in stucco and painted a cream color.

As Brouwer grew older he began to turn his attention from pottery. He worked in gold, silver, wood and oil paints. It was during his later years that he began creating the larger than life sculptures that dot the landscape around the grounds of Casa Basso and in towns across the Island. The two swordsmen at the driveway entrance are just a sampling of the "sculptuary" that adorn the property. There is a Roman lion, a Psyche, a jumping horse, and a scene from Quo Vadis. Brouwer's ferro-concrete formula, although unknown today, has stood up to nearly a century of corrosive seaside atmosphere with hardly any deterioration. With this technique he created a concrete boat that could be made in four hours at a cost of $3. He frequently could be seen boating on Beaver Dam Creek with his daughter. In 1921, using his son as a model, Brouwer created the WWI Soldier's Monument that graces the lawn of Eastport High School. He also sculpted the largest man-made eagle ever created that stood on the grounds of the old East Moriches school.

Theophilus Anthony Brouwer died on May 19, 1932 at the age of 68. He left behind a legacy of pottery that is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. Over the years the Castle has served as a Motor Inn, as well as a Day Spa. Today, after a much needed face-lift last year, the ground floor of the Castle is divided between an art gallery and a computer company called SimplifyIIT, with apartments above. As unique as the Hamptons itself, Brouwer created a Castle that remains a Hampton landmark, almost as famous as the "Duck" itself.