A Castle Near the Sand

Cecilia Dean and David Selig’s Rockaways retreat.

- WENDY GOODMAN

THERE’S A WEED THAT is growing rampant around the castle, and it’s this incredibly delicious, spicy arugula,” says surfer and restaurateur David Selig, pointing to the green tufts poking through the concrete cracks in the driveway of the 1913 whitewashed granite house by the sea where he has been living with his partner, the fashion entrepreneur and Visionaire co-founder Cecilia Dean. His theory: “It originates from the time of Frank Busto, the original builder,” an Italian immigrant who made good and erected his dream palazzo for the then-princely sum of about $40,000, following the success of his restaurant at 45 Beaver Street in the early 1900s, and “grew basil and arugula for his own use.” Apparently, it stuck around.