East End Business Notebook: Local Wine to Pour at Obama Inauguration

Click the headlines for more on each story.

EAST HAMPTON

Sag Harbor-Greenport Ferry Won't Return in 2013

The Peconic Bay Water Jitney — a pedestrian ferry linking Greenport and Sag Harbor operated as a joint venture of Hampton Jitney and Response Marine — is not expected to return in 2013, according to The Sag Harbor Express.

The Express reports that Hampton Jitney President Geoffrey Lynch told the Sag Harbor Village Board Tuesday that while the service was a hit when it came to positive feedback, financially, it was a "bust."

SOUTHAMPTON

Meet the Owners: Crescendo Designs Marks 10 Years

Inside the Crescendo Experience Center in Southampton, at every turn there is amazing technology to discover — though you'd never realize when it's powered off.

In the showroom's bedroom, with the press of a button, a television pops out from under the bed and rises to eye level. In the living room, a painting lifts to reveal a hidden flatscreen television. In the home theater, a hidden projector lowers from the ceiling. And in the bathroom, there are invisible speakers in the ceiling, spackled over, and a television screen in the mirror. All of these devices, as well as the temperature of everything from the pool to the wine fridge, can all be controlled from touchscreen panels on the walls — or from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection.

Crescendo Designs' showroom gives just a taste of what the 10-year-old company can do in a Hamptons house or Manhattan apartment, for home automation and entertainment.

WESTHAMPTON-HAMPTON BAYS

Planet Fitness Gets a Makeover; More Renovations on the Way

Hampton Bays' Planet Fitness gym is in the process of getting a makeover.

After serving the community for 20 years — seven of them as Planet Fitness, and as World Gym in prior years — it was time for a renovation, said Nancy Kouris, the managing partner.

The project, she said, is being done in stages, with the first stage — a refurbishment of the locker rooms — completed late last year.

NORTH FORK

Obama to Drink Bedell at Inauguration

Bedell Cellars’ 2009 merlot will be one of the wines on the menu at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration on Jan. 21, according to a report from The New York Times.

The award-winning wine from the Cutchogue winery will be paired with bison and will be only one agricultural product from New York State to be featured on the lunch menu. As head of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, state Sen. Charles Schumer was responsible for the nod to New York in the food selection. Other products will include apples, cheeses, honey, maple syrup, and a dry riesling from the Finger Lakes region.