A Trip Back In Time With Silly Lilly

Silly Lily Fishing Station in East Moriches harks back to another era, just the way owners Jay Scott and Steven Chiros want to keep it. Adelaide Avenue dead ends at Moriches Bay, and that’s where you’ll find the sweetest spot on Earth.

Technically, it’s not part of the East End, but it’s close enough to be called “the Hamptons’ best kept secret.” Grab a hot buttered lobster roll for lunch, rent a cute skiff for the day and cruise the protected and clean waters of Tuthill Cove. Maybe even catch a fish to bring home for dinner.

That’s the way it’s been since the 1930s when there were 13 original fishing stations in the area. People came from Manhattan to spend the day on the water. Back then it was all about the fish, but today families also want to go to the beach — and Cupsogue Beach County Park, a 300-acre barrier white sand beach, is just across the bay.

Water flushes into the bay from Moriches Inlet twice a day. “That’s what makes the fishing so great,” Scott said. “It’s a flat fisherman’s paradise. East Moriches is famous for that, and it brought a lot of commerce into these towns.”

A week before Memorial Day, Scott, Chiros and their crew were busy getting ready for their seventh season, maneuvering a service bar into place, at first with a Ram truck and then a Jeep, pushing and pulling until the wooden structure settled into the perfect spot.

And what a spot. The couple and their two terrier mixes, Sammy and Rowan, took over the rundown fishing station six years ago and tweaked it just a tad. Bright white picnic tables are shaded with sunshine yellow umbrellas. Dories painted to match, with splashes of royal and sky blues, bob gently in the intimate marina.

They gutted the main structure, peeling back decades from the tiny living quarters, which now functions as a one-stop market and office.

One section, currently in chaos, is tentatively slated for an oyster bar. “Every year it’s something new,” Chiros said. “We’re always evolving but only doing what has always been here.”

Homemade ice-cream sandwiches will put a grin on anyone’s face, but to Scott and Chiros, it’s just another way to induce that down-home, nostalgic feeling, along with a jukebox and pinball machine.

“Some kids have never seen a pinball machine,” Chiros said of the old-school arcade game. “They touch it like an iPad.”

“We grew up with that kind of stuff,” said Scott, who summered on Hedges Lake in Cambridge, where the Pavilion was the heartbeat of the community. “The entire community could gather around the jukebox with an ice-cream sandwich.”

If he had his way, Scott would have taken over the Hedges Lake Pavilion, but as luck would have it, it was turned into condos, deeply scarring the life-long sailor.

“Steve’s parents had a house here, and I had a sailboat in New York,” Scott said. “One weekend we sailed overnight into Sag Harbor. I saw how beautiful it was, and I said, ‘I’m never leaving.’”

They bought a home and a boat slip in Sag Harbor and never missed a weekend in 15 years. “We kiss the ground when we get here,” he said.

When Scott’s parents passed away, the family sold their summer cottage in the foothills of the Adirondacks. He was working in advertising and still dreamed of owning a business on the water, when a friend sent him the real estate listing for the Silly Lily.

“I’ve always wanted a little salty boatyard,” Scott said. “This was perfect.” Between the smell of the old wood inside the building and the trees that overhang the water, everything about the 1.5-acre property felt like home. Even the cove is the same size as the lake he grew up on.

“Someday, this will be my hobby,” he told himself at the time. “Someday” came sooner than he thought.

“So many people came, now that it was reasonable and functioning again, I walked away from advertising,” he said. “I couldn’t do both.”

Chiros kept his day job as a veterinarian but is running his butt off, fielding questions from a crew of young helpers and setting up the market space on the sunny weekend, the calm before the storm.

Their “little oasis” packs a punch and lacks for nothing. Which means you don’t need anything. Except your wallet. Boat rentals start at $168 per day for a dory, so it’s not going to break the bank. Unless you happen to fall in love with a 22-foot, 1949 Thayer model Chris Craft Sportsman in full mahogany, currently sitting in the boatyard.

“It’s the same model that Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda drove in ‘On Golden Pond,’ Scott said. “Great movie. It reminds me of my childhood. So cheesy but I love it.”

Scott takes in classic wooden boats and will renovate to a customer’s tastes, like the dusty pink seats he put into a 1925 Crestliner for a lover of rosé wine.

This may sound cheesy, but Scott and Chiros really do aim to please. “People travel far to come here for the day,” Chiros said. They make everything easy, including booking through their user-friendly website sillylily.com. Or just drop in.

If it’s raining, they have umbrellas. If it’s sunny, they have sunscreen. If you’re out for striped bass, they have bait and tackle. If you’re heading to the beach, they have beach chairs and a skiff to get there. Be more intimate with nature and hop on a paddleboard or kayak.

Pretend you’re on the Amalfi coast and rent a canopy boat by the month or join the Carefree Boat Club and sail a Beetle Cat for the entire summer without having to scrub the hull.

Want to go sailing but don’t know how to sail? Take a lesson. Luke Hickling of Moriches Island Sailing is Silly Lily’s captain. “He trains everyone who joins the boat club,” Scott said.

“He teaches kids and adults and when they learn to sail, they come here and rent boats. It works for me.”

Of course, they own a food truck. Christian Muir and Elaine Digiacmo of the Stone Creek Inn in Quogue supply the food for the truck, which opens on Father’s Day this year.

“Everything is delayed,” Chiros said. “We don’t sweat a few weeks when it’s been here for hundreds of years.”

And if they have their way, it will remain the same, long after they’ve gone. “The property is in the middle of a rezone,” Scott said. “We want to know it’s going to be a fishing station. Not condos. It’s too special. It has to last forever.”