TonightReserve

Contents

Sable Room / Autumn 2026

  1. 01Tonight's menu, seven coursesMenu
  2. 02Autumn additions, the holidays, the Sunday fourOther menus
  3. 03What the menu was in May and AugustPast menus
  4. 04Sixteen bottles and the pairingsWine
  5. 05One counter of oiled walnut, and the view from each stoolRoom
  6. 06The hearth and the people at itKitchen
  7. 07Choosing your stoolsReservations
  8. 08Three evenings sold by the ticketEvents
  9. 09Taking the whole counterPrivate dining
  10. 10Giving someone an eveningGift cards
  11. 11A watchmaker, a family, three roomsThe house
  12. 12Notes from the counterJournal
  13. 13Tallow Lane, hours, around the villageVisit
  14. 14Before you comeFAQ
  15. 15What has been written, and who to write toPress
  16. 16One cook a year, and the other roomsCareers
  17. 17Bookings, waitlist places, preferencesYour evenings
  18. 18Tonight at the pass, behind the counterFor the kitchen

Wed to Sun / 17:30 · 19:45 · 21:30

14 Tallow Lane, Huntington, NY 11743 · (631) 555-0147

Tonight

Reserve

The house

A watchmaker, a rotisserie, and one family between them.

Paul and Marian Merrow opened Turnspit in Huntington in 1994 with one rotisserie and eleven tables. Their daughter Ada grew up at the pass, left at nineteen, and cooked for eleven years in other people's kitchens. She came home in 2025. Sable Room opened the next spring in the old watchmaker's shop on Tallow Lane, and Seventeen Jewels took the shop's front room that autumn.

The building is older than any of it. This is the order things happened in, from the first clock on the wall to the three rooms that are open tonight.

A tall pendulum regulator clock in a dark walnut case on a paneled wall, its brass bob lit by one candle on the ledge below.
The regulator clock, on the wall at 14 Tallow Lane since 1926.

The years

1926 to now, in nine entries.

Dates, rooms and people. Nothing here is larger than it was.

  1. 1926

    Tallow Lane

    A watchmaker on Tallow Lane

    Elias Hartwell opens a watch and clock repair shop at 14 Tallow Lane, Huntington. Three generations of Hartwells work at the same bench.

    A black and white photograph of a watchmaker's bench under a tall window: a lathe, loupes, drawers of parts, pocket watches on hooks and a pendulum clock on the wall.
    The bench at 14 Tallow Lane, some time in the 1930s.

  2. 1994

    Turnspit

    Turnspit opens

    Paul and Marian Merrow open Turnspit on Gristmill Row with one wood-fired rotisserie, eleven tables and a chalkboard. Half a chicken, potatoes from the drip tray, bread from the hearth.

    Turnspit today →
    A faded color snapshot of a tiled kitchen: chickens turning on a wall rotisserie over embers, a tray of potatoes beneath, copper pans, a round loaf on the block.
    Gristmill Row, 1994. The first rotisserie, with the potatoes under it.

  3. 2006

    Turnspit

    A second rotisserie, in Northport

    The Northport room opens a block from the harbor. Sunday supper for the table starts here and spreads to the other rooms.

    Turnspit today →

  4. 2012

    Turnspit

    The catering van

    A customer asks for forty chickens for a wedding. Turnspit says yes, buys a van, and has catered every weekend since.

    Turnspit today →

  5. 2018

    Turnspit

    Greenport

    The third Turnspit opens in a former chandlery by the Greenport ferry, close enough to the North Fork farms that the salad is picked that morning.

    Turnspit today →

  6. 2019

    Tallow Lane

    The watch shop closes

    Hartwell & Sons closes after ninety-three years. The workbench, the regulator clock and the brass shop bell stay in the building.

    The old oak workbench by candlelight: a brass loupe, three small screwdrivers, an open watch movement showing its jewels, a brass shop bell on the wall above.
    The bench, the loupe and the shop bell. They stayed.

  7. 2025

    Tallow Lane

    Ada comes home

    After eleven years in other kitchens, the last four on a wood-fired line in Manhattan, Ada Merrow takes the lease on 14 Tallow Lane.

    An empty paneled room at night under one work bulb: bare floorboards, a ladder, rolled drawings and a ring of keys on a crate, a cold brick fireplace.
    The back room in 2025, the week the lease was signed.

  8. 2026

    Sable Room

    Sable Room

    Sable Room opens in March in the back of the old shop: one counter cut from a single black walnut, one hearth, one menu a night. It seated sixteen on opening night and twelve from the second.

    The room today →
    A long slab of black walnut on sawhorses in a workshop, half of it freshly oiled and dark, half still pale, a rag and a tin of oil resting on it.
    The counter before it was a counter: one black walnut, oiled for the first time.

  9. 2026

    Seventeen Jewels

    Seventeen Jewels

    In September the front room opens as a wine bar, cheese counter and bottle shop. It is named for the seventeen jewels in the movement of a good mechanical watch. The regulator clock still keeps the time.

    Seventeen Jewels today →
    A green paneled bar at night, a glass of red wine, candles, a pendulum clock behind.
    The front room, open since September. The clock is the watchmaker's.

The people

Six names across three rooms.

Some of them you will meet at the counter, the rest next door or on Gristmill Row.

  • Chef and owner

    Ada Merrow

    Cooks at Sable Room five nights a week and writes the Turnspit specials on Mondays.

    Sable Room · Turnspit · Seventeen Jewels

  • Founder, Turnspit

    Paul Merrow

    Built the first rotisserie himself in 1994. Still tastes the gravy every morning.

    Turnspit

  • Founder, Turnspit

    Marian Merrow

    Ran the floor for twenty-six years. The bread recipe is hers.

    Turnspit

  • Wine, both rooms on Tallow Lane

    June Farrell

    Writes the Sable Room list and buys every bottle on the shelves at Seventeen Jewels.

    Sable Room · Seventeen Jewels

  • Kitchen lead, Turnspit

    Cal Okafor

    Runs the three Turnspit kitchens and the catering van.

    Turnspit

  • Cheese and the shop

    Wren Hartwell

    Great-granddaughter of the watchmaker. Cuts every wedge to order.

    Seventeen Jewels

The six who work at Sable Room →

The other two rooms

Lunch on Gristmill Row. A glass next door.

Turnspit is where the family started, and Seventeen Jewels shares our front door. One gift card works in all three rooms.

A daylit room with a wall rotisserie, chickens turning over the fire.
Wood-fire rotisserie

Turnspit

Chicken off the spit, bread from the hearth, lunch through dinner in three towns.

Huntington, Northport and Greenport, since 1994Visit Turnspit →
A green paneled bar at night, a glass of red wine, candles, a pendulum clock behind.
Wine bar and bottle shop

Seventeen Jewels

A wine bar, a cheese counter and a shop in the front room of the old watchmaker's.

The front room at 14 Tallow Lane, since SeptemberVisit Seventeen Jewels →

Sit at the walnut.

Twelve stools around one hearth, in the back room of the old shop. The book opens sixty days ahead.

Choose your stools

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