Another Hamptons season is here and it smells good. Across the East End, restaurants — both casual and clubby — are making their summer debuts and adding flavor to the long established mix of restaurants, cafes and bars that are the South Fork’s social hubs.
Expect burgers, “billionaire bacon” and boat loads of seafood.
Ready to dig into the East End? Here’s a look at the newest restaurants and menus from Westhampton to Montauk.
Ocean Club | 32 Star Island Road, Montauk
The massive, Carl Fisher-designed Star Island property that’s home to the latest iteration of the Montauk Yacht Club has seen a lot of change in recent years. It went from a modest and somewhat dated hideaway to a five-star escape under Gurney’s ownership.
Now, sans Gurney’s, it’s going strong under new ownership as the largest luxury resort-marina in the Hamptons. The resort gave its 4,500-square-foot Ocean Club restaurant a full gut renovation — adding an open kitchen and wood-fired oven — with a fresh new menu from Chef Jarad McCarroll. It’s heavy on the crustaceans (you’re welcome): There’s lobster Caesar salad, lobster pasta served in an aromatic broth and, of course, a lobster roll made with lemongrass mayo and topped with crispy onions.
Need some turf with your surf? Chef is curating prime steak like picanha, New York strip and tenderloin. The waterfront views are complimentary.
Fēniks | 75 Jobs Lane, Southampton
Chef Douglas Gulija and cousin Skip Norsic are bringing a taste of the Adriatic to the East End this summer with Fēniks. As of June, the new, year-round restaurant (named for the Croatian spelling of Phoenix) will operate from the Southampton Village space previously occupied by Le Chef.
Following a full reno, the historic building’s two-story atrium now sports an exclusive eight-course chef’s counter, an a la carte dining room and a cocktail lounge. The menus are inspired by Gulija and Norsic’s Croatian roots, as well as local ingredients and Gulija’s nearly three-decade tenure at Southampton’s Plaza Cafe.
Expect seafood-centric items like local black sea bass with udon noodles; Catsmo wild salmon with spring pea pancake, vodka creme fraiche and wasabi tobiko; and even Peconic escargot with green herb risotto, roast garlic-parmesan “snow” and snail caviar (at the chef’s table). Nazdravlje!
Shuck Truck | Wherever you are; 2025 Montauk Hwy., Amagansett
Amagansett’s Clam Bar is as close to a Hamptons dining institution as it gets, with 44 seasons under its (ahem) shell. Now it’s coming to you with a real pearl of a perk: a mobile raw bar service, aptly named the Shuck Truck.
After an exhausting hunt for a vehicle as cool as they are, owners Kelly and John Piccinnini scored a 1966 Citroen H Van — the gold standard for stylish high-end food trucking — and tricked it out. Aimed at private events big and small, the Piccinninis will customize a menu to your needs and deliver live-shucked clams and oysters, shrimp cocktails, plus wines, spritzes and cocktails to your next sunset soiree.
It’s okay to be shellfish.
Artie’s in the Hamptons | 203 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, Bridgehampton
Last season, Michelin-starred chef Joe Isidori opened the new “old school” red sauce restaurant Arthur & Sons in Bridgehampton. This season, the chicken parm and meatballs are back but with a delicious little extra called Artie’s in the Hamptons.
A spin-off of Isidori’s Artie’s Backroom, his bar and lounge in Murray Hill, the new menu is all about classic burgers. The Late Night Burger is a leaning tower of American cheese, special sauce and pickles, while Artie’s Burger is decked in provolone, special sauce and cherry peppers. The French fries and onion rings? They come with special sauce, too.
Cut through all that fat with an acidic specialty margarita — golden, strawberry or spicy watermelon — while a mixed bag of feel-good music sets the mood.
Wayan & Ma•dé | 313 Three Mile Harbor Hog Creek Road, East Hampton
This summer, EHP Resort & Marina is adding a second waterfront restaurant to its sprawling 9-acre property from city restaurateurs Cédric and Ochi Vongerichten. You probably already noticed the name and, yes, top toque Jean-Georges Vongerichten is Cedric’s papa.
The husband-and-wife team are behind Wayan in Nolita (the name given to the firstborn child in Balinese culture) and Ma•dé in Soho (Balinese for “second born”). Their East End residency will feature Indonesian-French fare lifted from those restaurants with a waterfront twist. During sunset over Three Mile Harbor, they’ll be serving oysters with chili-lime mignonette, popcorn shrimp with sambal oelek and a warm Balinese lobster roll.
After the lights go down, dinner dishes will include crab fried rice with kerupuk and cilantro; whole black sea bass with sambal tomat; and lobster noodles with black pepper butter and Thai basil.
Now how do you say “eat, pray, love” in French?
Swifty’s | 74 James Lane, East Hampton
It’s been nine years since society cafe, Swifty’s, served its final meatloaf and haricots verts on the Upper East Side. But when a restaurant is good and its regulars include names like Michael Kors and Aerin Lauder, sometimes it gets a second, even third life.
Three years after shuttering its Lexington locale, the restaurant, backed by Mortimer’s alum Robert Caravaggi, reopened at The Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, where it has gone on serving the same chummy clientele. Now, it’s following its primo patrons to their summer haunt. Swifty’s will replace Sartiano’s at the Hedges Inn in East Hampton, which ran afoul of locals with its, eh … obstreperous ambience.
The new restaurant is serving a similar menu of clubby classics — we’re guessing they can cook you up some Billionaire’s Bacon, caramelized in brown sugar, if you ask nicely.
Gigi’s Montauk | 290 Old Montauk Hwy., Montauk
Gurney’s Montauk Resort & Seawater Spa is cooking with gas. This season, the celebrity favorite hideaway is debuting a fresh flagship dining room to replace Scarpetta — Gigi’s Montauk — along with a new cafe and cocktail lounge, opening June 16.
Executive chef Justin Lee, formerly of Mina Group, and executive chef de cuisine Mbaba Danso, a Gurney’s vet, are behind the new concept: a family-style menu of shareable dishes like The Angry Lobster (1.5 pounds of lobster tossed in smoky, spicy sauce), The Giant Shrimp Scampi (baked, halved shrimp in a lemongrass-infused mayo) and the signature Gigi Sushi Roll (spicy hamachi topped with tobiko and crispy shallots).
It’s designed as a social stage with 4,000 square feet of elbow room for 120 guests indoors and 110 on the patio. Come to see someone you know — and everyone you want to know.
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