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🐝 Sharks & Suites

🐝 Sharks & Suites

Mattituck Hotel Updates, The Real Jaws, Pork Larb by Chef Zack

Thomas Loncar
July 11, 2025

Together With

Good Morning, North Fork! In case no one told you, you deserve a fun email.

In today’s North Fork Buzz:

Mattituck Hotel Updates
The Real Jaws
Pork Larb by Chef Zack

Ready, Set, Go!

The Lowdown

Hotel Plans Back on Track in Mattituck 🏨

The Southold Town Board just gave the green light (well, a cautiously flashing yellow) to a proposed 81-room hotel at the old Capital One Bank site in Mattituck.

Yes, there’s still a hotel development moratorium in place until June 2026, but the Board granted a special waiver on Tuesday night. Why? Because the developer says it’s an adaptive reuse of a blighted building and aligns with Southold’s proposed new zoning rules.

This latest plan is more buttoned-up: 81 rooms, guest-only amenities, meeting spaces, and a few small buildings for workforce housing and maintenance.

This waiver also helps the Town avoid another potential legal mess, two other hotel groups already filed lawsuits (aka Article 78s) over permit disputes.

Get the full story 👉 East End Beacon

The Real Jaws 🦈

Cue the two-note doom soundtrack, Jaws just turned 50. And while the world still side-eyes the ocean, folks on the East End know the real story behind Captain Quint. Spoiler alert: he didn’t drink like a pirate or survive a shark-infested Navy disaster. But he did catch a 4,500 lb. great white shark with a rod and reel.

Frank Mundus of Montauk, the man, the myth, the monster shark legend. Long before Spielberg had a mechanical shark named Bruce, Mundus was out on the open water harpooning giants and charming tourists with his rough-and-ready persona.

His daughter, Pat Mundus says the Quint character borrowed her dad’s swagger but none of his soul. Frank never served in the Navy, never went on sharky revenge missions, and thought fiction was a waste of time. But what he did do was pioneer catch-and-release, tag sharks for science, and promote circle hooks to protect fish long before anyone else cared. Conservationist in a monster hunter's costume.

Frank died in 2008 at age 82, but his story swims on, especially in Pat, who’s crossed oceans, run charters, taught sailing, and carries his love of the sea like a compass.

Get the full story 👉 Patch

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📸 John Sinning

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Foodie Friday 🍽

Back by popular demand, and probably because you’re still dreaming about that last bite, Chef Zack is making his second appearance in our Foodie Friday.

Last time, he showed us how to cook like a pro without taking ourselves too seriously. This time? He’s doubling down on flavor, wit, and the kind of culinary confidence that says, “Yeah, I eyeballed that measurement.”

Sure, the North Fork has some incredible restaurants (we rave about them weekly), but every once in a while, it’s good to trade the tasting menu for a skillet and see what kind of magic you can make at home.

Chef Zack’s dishing up another crowd pleaser, simple enough to tackle in your own kitchen, bold enough to feel like a flex.

Let’s get cooking.

Pork Larb

🛒 Ingredient List

Meat & aromatics:

1 lb ground pork (or ground chicken/turkey if you’re feeling lean and mean)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch knob of ginger, minced
2 scallions, finely chopped

Sauce party:

Juice of 1 lime (freshly squeezed, none of that bottle stuff)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin (sweet and sneaky)
1 tsp fish sauce (don’t smell it, just trust it)
1–2 tsp fermented chili paste (Chef Zack uses Sambal Oelek)

All the fixin’s:

Thinly sliced cucumbers
Pickled onions
Butter lettuce or romaine leaves (aka nature’s taco shells)
Chopped peanuts
Fresh cilantro
Sliced jalapeños
Steamed white rice

🔥 Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Aromatics first — always.
Heat a little oil in a pan over medium. Toss in garlic, ginger, and scallions. Let 'em sizzle and perfume your kitchen for 1–2 minutes, just until things start smelling like you know what you're doing.

2. Brown that meat.
Add your ground pork or swap in chicken or turkey if you're going the lighter route. Break it up and let it get golden and crispy.

3. Make it saucy.
In a bowl, stir together lime juice, soy sauce, mirin, fish sauce, and sambal. Taste it. Adjust. This is your flavor bomb (detonate wisely).

4. Combine forces.
Pour that sauce over the browned meat and aromatics. Stir it up like you mean it. Let it cook on low for another 5 minutes so everything gets friendly.

5. Prep your squad.
While the magic’s happening in the pan, slice those cukes, pull out the pickled onions, wash your lettuce leaves, and chop the peanuts and cilantro. Jalapeños too, if you dare.

6. Assemble your masterpiece.
Serve the larb warm, either tucked into lettuce wraps or spooned over rice. Pile on all the crunchy, spicy, tangy goodness you prepped. No wrong moves here.

Tried it? Loved it? Made a total mess but had fun anyway? We want to hear all about it, email us and let us know how it turned out.

If you’d like a video walk-through for Chef Zack’s next masterpiece let us know and we’ll work to make it happen.

Nothing in this section is sponsored. They’re just fun things you need to know. I’ll always let you know when something is sponsored

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THANKS!

Thanks for reading the North Fork Buzz today. Like what you read? Send it to someone who loves to cook!

Tom Loncar- Publisher