Breitenbach Real Estate

The Stephen Talkhouse is a place of magic. Walking around the dimly lit bar and stage area I get an eerie vibe, the kind of feeling I got the first time you walked into the old Yankee stadium or the archaic coliseum in Rome. I like to think of the many magical moments that have happened here and recreate them in my mind. I wish I could interview the walls for hours on end. I place my hand on the walls and run them across the old wood bar and I like to think I can feel the vibes of the Talkhouse walking through my fingertips and titillating the nerves in my spine. It’s as if the place wants to tell me a certain tale, yet it’s never enough to satisfy.

I like to walk around the Talkhouse and look at the walls. I like to see all the bands that have come and gone. The most memorable are hung on the wall in horizontal fashion like the ghosts of Christmas past. Their signatures scribbled on framed photo’s, a symbol that bands come and go, the music may change around us, but the Stephen Talkhouse will never change. Each band that has ever performed there is in a way etched into Talkhouse lore. Their sounds have traveled and gone, but their energy remains. The Talkhouse is a house haunted by the ghosts of musicians.

I love this place. I repeat that every time I step through that old steel door way and my eyes catch the glimpse of the dimly lit Christmas lights and old Phil the bartender with his bandanna standing there pouring a fresh round of Jose Quervo shots. The lighting almost makes the place drastically dark, but the dim lighting is not for a romantic occasion. The talkhouse is raw. The raw visuals of the Talkhouse go right along with the raw energy that often radiates from the patrons, musicians, and bartenders. There is a certain individuality about everything within the Talkhouse. When I step outside even for a second, I take a deep breathe and I suddenly feel like I just stepped outside of some kind of vortex. The vortex is contagious and addicting. The bumping kick drum and driving bass lines make the Talkhouse shake and awakens the blood in my veins. I can hear the bump from the parking lot when I pull up. It makes me smile that some band is trying to bring the old structure down. “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down” plays the big bad wolf.

The bump. That vibration. It is the Talkhouse calling. I can never seem to get away from the place. I always step inside for some more and that big bad wolf never does blow the house totally down. The band stops playing and the sounds stop, but the energy always seems to remain.

I strongly recommend the next time your in the Hamptons to visit the Talkhouse. The Talkhouse changes with the seasons, but it is always a great experience. The winter brings out a lot of the year round musicians. The bar is less crowded and the Talkhouse becomes a great spot to get away. The summer brings summer crowds and some prime time bands, but the feeling of the talkhouse, like the music it produces, never changes.

-Matthew Breitenbach

The rental market has begun to heat up and I don’t recommend running to the phone to call your real estate broker. I am not a proprietor of such drastic measures. I do recommend that you consider starting to get your summer ‘09 plans in order because the Hamptons rental market has finally started to breathe again.

Some recent rentals done by Susan and Matt Breitenbach:

*Rented for the Year Last Month

*Rented for Summer ‘09 Last Week

*Rented for Year Over the Presidents Day Weekend

Last year’s rental market began with a bang. Brokers were busy in early November working with rental customers. The sales market was hiccuping, but the rental market picked up the slack as the inventory of good rentals were gone by January and February. Last year you were nuts if you waited until spring to look for a rental. People began coming out to the Hamptons for all sorts of times and time lengths. There were rentals and houses for everybody. Corcoran ended up renting almost 100% of their inventory. This year is a different story being written and very silent and solemn tone has crept over the entire rental market. This tone though has started to change.

Last year brokers were singing this tune, “sales are down but the rental market is strong.” When sales continued to slump and the economy continued to worsen over the coarse of the year this phrase became old news. November ‘08 was a much different month then November ‘09 in the Hamptons rental world. The Hamptons rental market was dead quite at the tale end of ‘08 and even into January ‘09. It was not until the tale end of January until the rental market started to take in air again and breathe. February has started to see rental action and last week’s President Day’s weekend was an extremely busy weekend in the world of Hampton’s rentals. So there is hope at least for now and if I was someone considering renting in the Hamptons this summer, I would start to get the wheels moving on my plans. I would maybe think about getting on the horse and going for a ride.

-Matthew Breitenbach