Sound Shore

Residents of the Highlands at Rye, a 99-unit apartment building in Rye whose lower floors flooded in Tropical Storm Irene, are still prohibited from returning to their apartments. During the storm, a fuel-oil tank ruptured and leaked as much as 2,000 gallons of fuel. The Westchester County Health Department said Thursday that tests showed “elevated levels of oil-related compounds that were released into the air.” Tenants have been staying in area hotels since the storm, at the expense of the building’s owners, R.A. Cohen and Associates, Inc. The company is scrambling to make arrangements for 28 residents whose hotel reservations are set to expire Friday. The Health Department will continue to oversee air-quality testing to determine when the residents can return to the building.

In Tuesday’s paper we reported on the fuel-oil spill at and subsequent evacuation of The Highlands at Rye, a 99-unit apartment building in Rye. Like many buildings in Rye, The Highlands took a sustained significant damage from Irene. The building’s bottom-floor apartments were flooded and, exacerbating conditions, a fuel tank ruptured, covering much of the property with heating oil and leaving a stench that few could endure.

Tuesday afternoon, Bob Cohen, of R.A. Cohen and Associates, Inc., which owns The Highlands, said about 1,800 gallons of oil spilled. On Monday, county health officials said the fuel tank was big enough to hold 7,000 and therefore could have spilled that much.

Cohen said he’s been in regular touch, via e-mail, with tenants and has made arrangements for some at a hotel in Elmsford. Others have been told to make other arrangements and that they will be reimbursed.

Each household will get $142 plus tax per night and $71 for food and incidentals per person per day. Rents will be suspended while the cleanup, which began Sunday night, continues, he said.

It will likely be weeks, not days, before any residents can return to their homes.

“We’re doing our best in a terrible situation,” Cohen said.

R.A. Cohen bought the building in September of 2007.

We know — golf isn’t about food. But everyone has to eat, right??

If you’re at the 2011 Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship at Westchester Country?Club in Harrison this week and hunger pangs hit, there are four spots to go. The main concession, next to the 18th fairway and called the Michelob Ultra Grove, has tables with umbrellas, scoreboards and video boards so you won’t miss a moment while you’re lunching on cheeseburgers, turkey clubs and hot dogs. The three other spots — at the 1st tee, the 11th tee/12th green and the 16th green — are more grab-and-go.

But for a nice lunch or dinner nearby??We have a few suggestions for you, like Le Provencal in Mamaroneck, right, and I’ve arranged them from least expensive to most — plus a 19th hole if you’re really in the mood to splurge. The list, after the jump.

If you saw the long lines here a few weeks ago, you’d swear they were giving away something for free. Well, they were.

Photos by Matthew Brown/TJN

HomeMade Pizza Company, founded in Chicago, was offering up free slices, presumably to get everyone hooked on their concept: You pick the toppings, they assemble the pizza, then you pop the uncooked pie in the oven when you get home.

Rye residents know June & Ho in Rye as a fancy jack-of-all-markets where you can get fresh produce, fresh meats, good bread and the like. It is a lovely place to meet your neighbors, or make new friends all while standing in line at the prepared food section contemplating what delicious gourmet goodies to get.

You can get the most delicious salads and cheese — even dinner entrees and sides — there but you don’t normally think of June &?Ho as a great spot to grab a sandwich. Well, look no further than this sandwich with a twist: country ham with fresh mozzarella cheese, honey dijon mustard, and balsamic onions on a crisp baguette.

The ham is just like you remember from Sunday dinner , with that a hint of maple sweetness. This contrasting with the honey dijon mustard and the balsamic onions have a great balance, and up the ante on a traditional ham and cheese sandwich that one would normally purchase from a delicatessen. The creaminess of the thinly sliced mozzarella cheese ties the whole sandwich together, and will keep you going back for the same sandwich time and time again.

June & Ho, 70 Purchase St., Rye. 914-967-1900.

— Joni Manradge

Paul Bousche reported on our restaurants in the Sound Shore.

The dining room is photographed at Rosie’s on the River in Port Chester.( Xavier Mascareñas / The Journal News )

Here’s what he found.

Larchmont Mayor Josh Mandell and Rye Mayor Doug French urged residents in the Sound shore area today to spend $25 on Sept. 25 in local shops, a part of a statewide effort to boost local business districts.

“We have communities where the merchants are directly embedded and integrated into the residential communities,” Mandell said. “Most of our residents, if not all, can get up out of their house and take a stroll down to a local store and buy something right there…We have to make a statement that preserving our businesses and not letting them go dark over the next decade or two is something that is really important to us.”

The “$25 on the 25th” campaign is a statewide effort sponsored by the New York Press Association, the New York State Conference of Mayors and the New York State Development Council. The two mayors stood outside the Corner Store, a variety store on Palmer Avenue, as an example of stores residents should support.

French said supporting local businesses now comes at a critical time as the economy slowly begins to improve.
“In Rye we’ve had a lot of vacant storefronts but they’re starting to fill up,”he said. “We’ve hit the bottom. The tide hasn’t completely turned but I think the businesses are starting to come back.”

Mandell said he hopes the campaign will encourage residents to spend money in local shops beyond Sept. 25, suggesting residents should try to at least do 25 percent of their Christmas shopping locally.

The Republican opponent of state Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer accused her today of a “hostile attitude toward small businesses and taxpayers” in New York. Candidate Bob Cohen joined Rye Mayor Doug French in front of a vacant storefront in Rye today to criticize her policies.

Cohen cited positions taken by Oppenheimer against those of the Business Council of New York State, and her score card by the business advocacy group Unshackle Upstate. He advocated a statewide cap on local property taxes, a repeal of the MTA payroll tax and a freeze on state expenditure growth.

Cohen, a Scarsdale resident who runs a real estate and construction company in Manhattan, is challenging the Democrat as she seeks her 14th term in the 37th Senate District.

Katherine Curry’s Journal News Ice Cream Odyssey took her on a delicious journey all around the Lower Hudson Valley this summer. Here are her picks for great ice cream in the Sound Shore,  and, when available, links to her original blog posts on these venues. Take it away, Katherine:

Longford’s (original blog post here)

When I began my Westchester ice cream research, I couldn’t believe how many places were serving Longford’s ice cream.

Don’t get me wrong: I’ve enjoyed some scoops of Longford’s over the years, and sure, it’s locally made, but how many places do we need serving the same brand? Let’s hear it for ice cream diversity!

Founded in 1990, Longford’s makes all its ice cream at its Port Chester facility, and over the summer, I stopped into both the Larchmont and Rye shops for a scoop.

Both shops are cute ice cream parlors with a few seats. Some flavors have been tastier than others — the seasonal Georgia peach is a winner, and so is banana, redolent of ripe fruit with a creamy texture.

One thing I’ve noticed with some of Longford’s flavors, though, is a tendency toward gumminess. This sets in, I think, when the ice cream’s been sitting for too long. That textural problem has been absent in freshly scooped, just-opened tubs.

Longford’s vanilla is a hit in my 7-year-old daughter’s book, and she’s become quite the connoisseur of the flavor. It’s creamy, perfumed with vanilla, and the perfect background for some hot fudge sauce and sprinkles.

The chocolate is pudding-dense, and rich: It is reminiscent of my favorite chocolate ice cream on earth, the Killer chocolate flavor from the upstate New York ice cream company Jane’s Ice Cream. Cookie Monster, a vanilla ice cream with chocolate chip cookie dough, is popular with the kids, although its lurid blue color was off-putting for my 7-year-old ice cream snob.

Longford’s Mud Pie is my downfall. This flavor, a version of which I first had at Ashley’s Ice Cream in New Haven, Conn., is for me the definitive grown-up ice cream indulgence. Longford’s version has an intense coffee ice cream base laced with chunks of crushed Oreos and fudge, a symphony of sweetness and bitterness. The fudge pushes it a little too far in the direction of sweetness, but still, this is a flavor I cannot stop eating.

Longford’s makes some other good coffee flavors, including Espresso Nugget, similar to Jane’s cappuccino Kahlua. I also like the refreshingly minty Peppermint Stick.

Turns out that a little bit of Longford’s is a good thing after all.

Details: 4 Elm Place, Rye, 914-967-3797; 1941 Palmer Ave., Larchmont, 914-834-0207.

Katherine’s picks on other great ice cream spots in the Sound Shore area, after the jump…

Sculptor Bob Clyatt has been busy at his home studio in Rye, preparing an installation for Rye Town Park Aug. 21. I had a chance Friday to see his work in progress and learn about the Japanese process of raku, which he is using to fire the clay and give the sculpture a crackled look.

The sculpture will have some familiar faces — Clyatt used various friends and fellow creative-types as models. Here is Bill Lawyer, a park administrator, with his likeness.

Clyatt, a California native, likes to combine the classical, rigorous study of human figures with contemporary, spontaneous touches. He is using the Japanese raku technique to fire the clay, and I’ll be writing about that for LoHud.com.