For some visitors, the East End of Long Island is a place to inhale fresh air on weekends before blowing off steam, shelling out $1,500 for a daybed on the beach in Montauk, or vying for an on-air cameo by dining at 75 Main during the shooting of the upcoming season of the HBO Max show Selling the Hamptons spinoff Serving the Hamptons.
For some visitors, the East End of Long Island is a place to inhale fresh air on weekends before blowing off steam, shelling out $1,500 for a daybed on the beach in Montauk, or vying for an on-air cameo by dining at 75 Main during the shooting of the upcoming season of the HBO Max show Selling the Hamptons spinoff Serving the Hamptons.
So, when New York private night spot Zero Bond, which has played host to the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, as well as Elon Musk, Taylor Swift, Tom Brady and Kim Kardashian, announced its intention to take over East Hampton village’s quaint 18th century Hedges Inn, the news unleashed a major backlash. It’s a particularly bucolic area, just a stone’s throw from the homes of Steven Spielberg and Martha Stewart.
In a slew of town meetings, led by the village mayor, locals tried to put the kibosh on Zero Bond, and in May, they succeeded in instituting an 11 p.m. curfew for all of the town’s hotels (this particular property had been zoned for a 10 p.m. curfew for some time), effectively blocking the club, at least for this season. Zero Bond owner Scott Sartiano, was not to be entirely deterred, quickly pivoted, announcing this week that he would convert the space to an outpost of his restaurant, Sartiano’s, which has its flagship in Manhattan’s Mercer Hotel.
“Mr. Sartiano has greatly watered down his proposal so that it will simply be an Italian restaurant, and if that’s the case, we will roll out the red carpet, but if his ultimate goal is to open another Zero Bond, I think the neighbors should be very wary,’’ East Hampton Village administrator Marcos Baladrón told The Hollywood Reporter.
Just up the street and across East Hampton’s scenic little pond, another historic inn, The Maidstone, has been purchased by pharmaceutical and cannabis honcho Irwin Simon, along with hotelier Mayank Dwivedi. It is now being run by LDV Hospitality, the owners of Scarpetta, a rousing Nomad restaurant with a club downstairs, and an outpost at Gurney’s Montauk Resort, known for its upbeat scene.
In Southampton, KyKy Conille, who operated New York nightclubs Provocateur, PM and Bijoux, and has a following that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Gisele Bundchen, John Legend and Lionel Richie, has taken over the former Blu Mar restaurant, and morphed it into an outpost of his clubby New York Italian restaurant, Il Pellicano, with TV chef Rocco Dispirito at the helm. “It will cater to customers from 25 to anyone who can still walk,” he maintains. But there will also be a club in the back that will be decidedly less democratic.
“We will pick the clientele for the lounge,’’ said Conille. “My doormen will choose by the way they dress. We don’t want people coming in the lounge in the evening wearing shorts. I want to bring back elegance — for people to get excited to get dressed.’’