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A dory resting atop a waterside building on Shelter Island marks the spot of The Dory restuarant. A roomy restaurant and bar with a deck over the water, The Dory can serve 125 indoors and out.
The casual, seasonal restaurant has a nautical feel to it, with an emphasis on fresh local seafood on the menu. Favorite dishes include: Grilled striped bass, herb-crusted bluefish, and Grilled New York sirloin.
The Dory restaurant offers daily soups, salads and a full bar.
By T.J.Clemente
The Dory is perhaps the oldest and most famous watering hole on the "Rock." For more than 80 years, Shelter Islanders and visitors have stopped in to have a drink.
The Dory was founded as John's Marine Bar in the late 1920s. Jack Kiffer is proud to be the owner of the Dory, an honor he inherited from the previous owner, Dick Edwards, literally upon his death in 2002. Dick, whose father was a U.S. Steel vice president, had his family vacation on Shelter Island for years. It seems that Edwards lent Mal Neval the money to purchase the Dory from legendary owner Eddie Langbine in 1964. After a few years, Neval decided he didn't want to spend all his time at the Dory so he transferred ownership to Edwards who ran it from 1971 to 2002. Kiffer fondly remembers the good old days when owner/bartender Eddie Langbine would pass out from the hours of drink and sleep right on the floor while the customers would go behind the bar, make their own drinks and put the money into the cash register. "It was the honor system back then," he recalled.
The Dory has been a place where so many "hareleggers," the term for anyone born on Shelter Island, have watched Super Bowls, the World Series, the elections of presidents and so many other events. Kiffer ticked off the names of men who tended bar besides Langbine, including "Rod the Cod" and "Carl the Greek."
The Dory has been a place, sometimes the only place, open on Shelter Island to get a drink. On cold winter nights and hot summer days, beers have been poured from the original bar made of mahogany and plywood back in the 1920s. The Shelter Island Fire Department holds their annual fundraiser at the Dory with two former bartenders from yesteryear serving behind the bar.
Even former Governor Hugh Carey's son Chris Carey, along with his buddy Jim Garrity, comes back to the bar where they worked during their college years. But most of the time regulars such as George Blados, "Sherm," Joe Tap, Charley Dishe, Jake Paccozzi, Dick Demerest, Linda Butler, Wally Ogar, his brother Freddy Ogar and their sister Dorothy Ogar are at the Dory hanging with Kiffer, who promised Edwards he wouldn't change the Dory, and proudly maintains the tradition of the famous burgers as well as the fine dining in the summer on the patio.
Every summer, Nat King Cole's brother, Freddy Cole, stops by with his band to do a one-night show. The Lone Sharks and The Mad Dogs also keep summer weekends lively. But the story of the Dory is the few locals on winter nights hanging out instead of drinking alone at home. They sometimes play poker games that go into the early next mornings. The Dory isn't just a bar, it's a clubhouse for the locals, and in the summertime it's like a hopping New York City club right in their hometown. While filming Masquerade, the cast, including Rob Lowe, Kim Cattrall and Meg Tilly, used the Dory as a mess hall. But most of the time the jukebox is playing tunes while people sing and sip cocktails and beers, and it is clear that the traditions of the Dory will go on long into the future.
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