Makers — local food

What happens when you combine a former professional ballet dancer with a tennis pro? Well, you get a tea that settles for nothing less than perfection, naturally. Founded by husband and wife team, Tathiana and Alessandro Teixeira, PLAIN-T is a whole-leaf boutique tea company nestled in Southampton Village. Operating out of their beautiful T-LOFT they frequently host tastings and educational gatherings centered around their flawless tea. PLAIN-T was founded with the belief in the mental and physical benefits of consuming whole leaf tea, and for Tathiana discovering the right blend has been a life’s work. During her time as a...

It all began with a candied orange peel. Husband and wife team, Corey and Sara Meyer, now make all sorts of strange and wonderfully curious confections out of their state of the art manufacturing facility in Plainview. But it all started with that orange rind Sara candied for her husband. Corey’s overjoyed reaction to the peel immediately plunged Sara into a candying kick. Soon she candied pretty much everything that was edible, including some leftover jalapeños. Corey thought she was crazy, Sara’s co-workers, however, did not. After bringing chocolate covered candied jalapeños into her office, orders were immediately placed. So,...

Bon Bons has been located in Huntington Village since 1979, but the Meinersman family had no part in the business until Alice Meinersman (Susannah's mother) saw a Bon Bons newspaper ad in 1984 searching for a chocolate dipper. "My mother always loved to cook and bake and garden, all those things. She took a couple flower arranging courses, but nobody would hire her because she didn't have any experience. One of those Catch-22's," says Susannah. "The first time my mother tried dipping she was so nervous her hand was shaking. But the woman there said she reminded her of a...

"For my mother (Nanci Steiner), this has been so surreal. Every time we have an interview she cries," says Jennifer Steiner Pool, President of Steiner's Coffee Cake. "It's still not real to her. We'll go to a grocery store, she sees the product, she's crying. She can't believe it." . For Nanci and Jennifer, the story of Steiner's Coffee Cake is deeply personal. It is the fabric that weaves together the generations of the Steiner family. A tie that was woven by an old school tin box that once belonged to Jennifer's Grandfather (Malcolm Steiner) and was passed down to...