Monday Briefing: Has downtown Riverhead arrived?

It looks like Charles Barkley painted downtown Riverhead red this weekend, with Barkley sightings at Jerry in the Mermaid on East Main Street — where he treated the crowd to a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My way’ on the Karaoke machine — and at Digger O’Dell’s bar and restaurant on West Main.

No word yet on where else he may have been seen, but we do know he was staying at the Hyatt Place East End, whose management team has spoke often about booking golf vacations. Sir Charles is an avid golfer. My guess is he was hitting the links.

I’m wondering whether the arrival of the hall of fame basketball player means our long-beleaguered Main Street has arrived, too. I think it just might. Either way, it would seem Sir Charles had a blast in Riverhead. I hope he tells his wealthy pals to ditch the Hamptons and head downtown.

• The Riverhead Blue Waves made a strong statement Friday, less than week after defeating the top-ranked East Islip team in the football season opener. Charles Bartlett (not to be confused with Barkley — yet) ran for a career-high four touchdowns — all in the first half — as the Riverhead Blue Waves ran its record to 2-0 in Suffolk County Division II. The Waves beat the Hauppauge Eagles 45-13. Here’s our game story, in case you missed it.

We also covered Shoreham-Wading River’s 19-0 shutout of Greenport in Shoreham.

• Temple Israel of Riverhead was in the news this weekend as well, as the temple is celebrating its 100-year anniversary. And its members found out by accident as they were putting together a fundraising raffle! We were at the services Saturday and got the background, in case you missed it.

• Long Ireland Brewing Company hosted a grand opening bash Saturday at the company’s newly opened brewery and headquarters on Pulaski Street in Riverhead and we were there taking photos.If you haven’t checked out these pics, it’s worth it just to see Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter tapping a cask!