Hold the foie gras and frog legs — this summer, many of the Hampton’s best new restaurants are unpretentious, nostalgic and downright delicious. From a new food hall showcasing the best local ingredients to a bevy of authentic Italian joints, the East End is eating pub grub, red sauce and pizza pies.
But gourmands won’t be left hungry either, with a menu of “luxury Italian” classics coming to East Hampton.
Below, Alexa presents a plating of the newest chef-driven eateries coming to your favorite summer holiday destination.
Arthur & Sons | 203 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, Bridgehampton
To call it Italo-Americano classico, the sauce must be red.
But expect more at the second iteration of Arthur & Sons: Here it’s a crimson as bold as Barolo.
A sister to the iconic West Village restaurant of the same name, Arthur & Sons is the Hamptons’ latest polestar of primo pasta.
Michelin-starred chef, restaurateur and cookbook author Joe Isidori says the joint is an ode to his family’s multigeneration legacy in the NYC restaurant industry.
To that end, he’s kicking it old school at the 85-seat Bridgehampton locale with a ’90s hip-hop meets Rat Pack vibe and food that evokes a time when Little Italy wasn’t a suburb of Chinatown.
Mixing family recipes and new dishes, the menu plays the hits with meatballs, spicy rigatoni alla vodka, chicken parmigiana, shrimp scampi, spaghetti carbonara and veal Marsala. Pair with a classic Italian wine and cap it all with “Spumoni My Way.”
Bada bing, bada boom.
The 150-year-old Main Street institution that is the Maidstone hotel is reopening this season with a fresh new flavor.
John Meadow of LDV Hospitality (a restaurant group that includes Scarpetta and American Cut in NYC and Isabelle’s Coconut Grove in Miami— as well as eateries in Vegas, London, Tokyo, and Doha, Qatar) is bringing an “Italian luxury” restaurant, dubbed LDV at The Maidstone, to the boutique inn this June.
This entirely new concept will be managed under the toque of Scarpetta chef Jorge Espinoza, who has created a menu of “coastal delights” aimed at evoking an Italian summer.
It will, too, as long as your idea of summer in Italy is yachting in Capri.
The menu includes caviar service, white truffle pinsa, chilled lobster salad, Dover sole and a seafood plateau.
Even the squid-ink linguine comes with costly crabmeat and uni.
Now that’s la dolce vita.
Barbecue buff and burger booster Billy Durney (pictured) is taking his carnivore cuisine from Brooklyn to the shores of Sag Harbor.
Durney is known for his Red Hook restaurants Hometown Bar-B-Que and Red Hook Tavern, where the cheeseburger is “absolutely mandatory,” per the New York Times.
Can his new 40-indoor-seat Sag Harbor outpost also become de rigueur?
Will the cheeseburger be on the menu?
Likely, yes and yes, if posts are to be believed.
When Durney announced the restaurant on Instagram with a picture of his famous burger, Jimmy Fallon was quick to comment: “I want a booth.”
The follow-up post was a classic burger pairing: a bottle of Krug.
However, expect a more seafood-focused menu than back in BK, according to Eater.
The restaurant will replace Sag Harbor Kitchen (which had taken over the old Dockside Bar & Grill space) and is due to open at the end of the month.
Although full menus have yet to be released, the tavern is already one of this summer’s buzziest openings.
Hampton Eats | 74 N. Main St., East Hampton
If you’ve been wintering in warmer climes, you’ll have missed the fall arrival of the Hamptons’ answer to The Plaza hotel’s food hall: Hampton Eats.
Scientifically shingled, this multicook compound — the first on the East End — is the vision of Rashid Sulehri (owner of Westhampton’s Beach Bakery & Grand Cafe) and Adam Potter (real estate developer).
Located on the edge of East Hampton Village, in a modern, renovated space, the hall serves breakfast, lunch and dinner year-round.
Sulehri says his goal was to gather the best of the Hamptons under one roof — thus saving you the trip from Southampton to Montauk for jelly croissants from Montauk Bake Shoppe.
Other local businesses represented include Paul’s Pizza, Villa Italian Specialties, Beach Bakery & Grand Cafe, Stuart’s Seafood (pictured), Eli’s Bread and Hampton Coffee Company.
Fresh produce and packaged groceries are also for sale.
Do your shopping while the kids gaze at the wall of candy toppings at the self-serve fro-yo station. Indecisive types beware.
Rowdy Hall | 177 Main St., Amagansett
Old pub, new digs, still rowdy?
After 26 years of serving the strongest drinks on the East End, Rowdy Hall has moved — not just to a new street, but to an entirely different Hampton.
A mainstay of Main Street in East Hampton, you’ll now need to visit Main in Amagansett to get a snootful of Schlafly, Captain Lawrence, Radiant Pig or Guinness.
The upgrade comes courtesy of Honest Man Hospitality (the team which owns and operates Hamptons restaurants Nick & Toni’s, Coche Comedor, La Fondita and Townline BBQ).
And while the Rowdy burger, French onion soup, and steak frites are all still on the menu, the new locale comes with fresh recipes.
Stop by for roasted codfish brandade (with beurre blanc and wilted greens); duck and smoked pork cassoulet (with white beans and Halsey apples); or cider-brined Berkshire pork chop (with red cabbage and mustard sauce). Charcuterie and cheese boards have also been added, as have daily specials. (Stagger over on a Monday for Ed’s Meatloaf.)
They may call it “rowdy,” but for our money, they’re flirting with “refined.”
One of the world’s most popular purveyors of pizza pies is heating things up in the Hamptons with a new wood-fired pizza trailer.
Not content to settle down, Motorino Pizzeria Napoletana — with 15 locations around the world, including Hong Kong; Manila, Philippines; Singapore; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and, of course, NYC — won’t have a permanent address on the East End.
Instead, its Motorino Mobile pizza party will come to you, whether you’re hosting a summer soirée at home or find yourself craving crust to pair with your rosé at Wölffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack. French fine-dining chef turned gourmet dough-tosser Mathieu Palombino is behind the new concept, which will customize its Neapolitan-style menu to your crew’s liking.
(For instance, they do vegan.)
But signature pizzas are also available, with an emphasis on local ingredients.
Try a cherrystone clam pie (with fior di latte mozzarella, freshly shucked local clams, oreganata butter and a lemon wedge), a Brussels sprouts pizza (with fior di latte, smoked pancetta, Brussels sprouts, garlic and pecorino) or the one that never misses: classic margherita.
Accessorize your festa with a prosciutto station, antipasti or a gelato cart. That’s pizza with pizazz.
