Downtown Civic Group Celebrates Harvest

Most everyone's heard of the "I Love New York" marketing campaign. A group founded in hopes of promoting downtown and boosting economic development, "iloveriverhead," hosted its biggest event so far in its young history.

On Thursday, iloveriverhead - founded in January 2009 - held a dinner for 65 people at the Suffolk County Community College Culinary Arts Center on Riverhead's Main Street. The group is spearheaded by Nancy Swett of Jamesport, who said she was thrilled that so many people came out in the rain to support the organization.

"It's great they came out to celebrate our wonderful fall harvest," she said, referring to the three-course meal cooked by the students of the Culinary Arts Center for the occasion. The meal included fresh produce from Riverhead farms, such as butternut squash soup, roasted potatoes, sautéed broccoli rabe, glazed carrots, and apple cobbler, as well as pecan crusted chicken breast. Local wines, from Martha Clara and Palmer Vineyards, were also served.

"I had no idea what to expect," she said. "I think a lot of people were there for the meal, not necessarily for the iloveriverhead meeting. So we kept it light on issues."

The group meets on the first Wednesday of each month, and according to member Cindy Clifford, will try to hold four similar dinners a year open to the public and prospective members. While the group has developed a group of positive-thinking, like-minded members all devoted to seeing a thriving downtown since its first meeting last January, it begs the question: Is all love really all you need?

"That's a good question," Swett said. "We've met a lot of people, we have a sense of what's going on and we've tried focusing on positive and building on what does work. But we're trying to figure where to go next. It's great to engage the community and bring people together to enjoy positive things, but I think we need to put pressure on things that are not working."

Thursday's dinner, as Swett mentioned, was not as much about the issues as it was appreciating the local harvest and spreading the word about the group.

Clifford, owner of "Gotta Go" travel agency in Riverhead, and a member of iloveriverhead, spoke in front of the crowd and said she moved to this town 30 years ago, and fell in love with it.

"I met a lot of other forward-thinking business people who also felt this way, and we all got together to form this group," she said. "Our core philosophy is that we love Riverhead and we want it to be OK. The potential here is just fabulous."

Theodora Cohen, owner of "The Junque Shop," said she joined the new group because she met people who had the same vision for the town as she did. She named a laundry list of reasons why Riverhead is unique: it's a small town with a long history, agriculture, the County seat, a railroad museum, the Big Duck, great restaurants, Tanger Outlet shopping mall, an aquarium, science museum, Suffolk Community College, and the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall.

"We have the enthusiasm for our town to grow into a quaint, cultural, dining and shopping destination," she said. "We are the cheerleaders for the town, hoping that this enthusiasm and vision catches on."

For prospective members, the next meeting of iloveriverhead is planned for Wednesday, Dec. 1. For information, visit their website or sign up on Facebook.