How a Creator of a Women-Centric Whiskey Brand Spends Her Sundays

Kate Rosante’s passion for cocktails is thanks to her father, who built a bar in the living room of her childhood home. “I loved gathering around the guests and fetching drinks,” said Ms. Rosante, 43, a co-founder of the bourbon brand Boss Molly (slang for a stubborn female mule). “As a kid growing up in the suburbs in Long Island, that felt special.”

Ms. Rosante, who is also a vice president of marketing production operations at the cable network A&E, said the idea for Boss Molly was born during a poker game in 2013 with her friends and co-founders Brandi Bowles and Victoria Horn. “The bourbon world is hypermasculine and very niche,” she said. “We have respect for the tradition, but we didn’t feel it spoke to us. We wanted to open it up to more people.”

Ms. Rosante lives in a one-bedroom apartment at 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue with her husband, Adam Rosante, 43, a fitness trainer and influencer who created Good Eats, a nonprofit that gives schoolchildren food on weekends. For the past seven years they have spent their summers in Amagansett, where they own a two-bedroom 1940s cottage.

MORNING MEDITATION I’m up at 7:30 or 8 a.m. Adam gets up before me and meditates in the other room. I do 10 minutes of meditation breath work in bed. It sets my day with an intention. I feed our two rescue cats, Sabrina and BB, then get the cold brew coffee I made the night before. We buy beans from Cashin Coffee Roasters, a local coffee roaster in Montauk. I add half-and-half. I grew up with full fat — it’s my Irish roots.

KITCHEN BALLET While Adam is at the kitchen table planning his workweek, I’ll check the marine report, then get some physical activity by doing 60 to 90 minutes of ballet in the kitchen. The counter acts as the barre because I need to hold onto something that’s above hip level. I have a portable rubberized floor so I’m not slipping around. Then I make a kale, peanut butter, whey protein and apple smoothie.

FRUIT FIRST If the weather is good, we drive our ’66 Mustang convertible, which Adam bought off the side of the road over a Fourth of July weekend, and get berries at Amber Waves Farm. You can pick the raspberries off the bushes if they’re ripe. If not, then it’s already-picked blueberries, strawberry and rhubarb, which I’ll use to bake a fruit crisp.

OUT ON THE WATER We pick up our boat, a 20-foot Grady-White bowrider, at Uihlein’s Marina around 1 p.m. We bought it from them during Covid. We wanted something to do when we couldn’t be around people. The boat is called “Seabird.” Spending time out here made me appreciate birds. I became fascinated by the different gulls. Being on the water and exploring different areas — and saving hours normally spent in car traffic by getting somewhere by boat — became our go-to. It also connects us with the culture of Montauk, which is all fishing and boating.

FISH OF THE DAY We tool around and circle Lake Montauk, then we go through the inlet, drive into the bay and dock at Duryea’s, which was an old lobster place, for lunch. It’s since been bought and renovated, but they kept the spirit of the place. You get a paper menu, mark off what you want, bring it to a window and they bring the food to you. We usually order half a dozen littleneck clams and the grilled fish of the day. Their shoestring French fries are key. We eat that on the bay so you’re looking out at the water.

JUMPING IN We usually shoot over to the Navy Beach pier, which is a dock jutting out into the water. We tie up the boat and then jump off the dock. It’s a little scary, but it’s so much fun. The water feels really good in the summer. If it’s too windy for the boat, we drive to the White Sands beach in Amagansett. Most of the beaches don’t have official names; they’re usually named after visual markers or descriptors. This one is near the White Sands Hotel. Adam goes surfing in the ocean and I sit on the beach and read. I’m halfway through “Fairy Tale,” by Stephen King. I’m also reading “Sag Harbor,” by Colson Whitehead. It takes place in the summer on the east end of Long Island in the mid- to late ’80s.

DOWNTIME We go back home and I’ll nap or read in the hammock. I hang out until I feel I need to do an outdoor shower, which happens around 5 or 5:30.

BEACH DINNER We might pick up food at Dive Bar Pizza in Napeague, which is between Montauk and Amagansett. We have a portable grill, so if we don’t do pizza, we get steak at Tony’s Meat Market or Gosman’s Market. We go to the beach and make a bonfire. Adam does the grilling, and we have dinner with friends we’ve made out here. Then we watch the sunset, which is magical. I don’t really see sunsets in the city, and each one out here is different. It’s a time to be together and appreciate the beauty of the place we’re in. We normally don’t talk through it.

COCKTAILS AND A FLICK We head home by 8:30 and watch TV. We finished “Succession” and “Jury Duty,” which was very funny. Now we’re on to movies. There’s a roster of ones we’ve already seen, like “Jaws,” “Point Break” and “Stepford Wives” (the original, not the Nicole Kidman), that are tied to the season we’re in. I make my own syrups and bitters, and theme cocktails to the movies. For “Jaws” I made a New York whiskey sour with red wine. In “Stepford Wives,” the women drink a lot of Scotch. I make a riff on a dry Manhattan and steep whisky in chamomile tea, then I add dry vermouth. I’ll make these as Adam tees up the movie.

BEDTIME Adam and I get in bed; the cats follow. Neither one of us can sleep with the light on, so we both end up going to sleep at the same time.

Sunday Routine readers can follow Kate Rosante on Instagram at @katerosante.