Montauk restaurants hit by falling sales amid high Hamptons hotel prices

Montauk’s usually bustling restaurants are suffering a dramatic decline as skyrocketing hotel prices prompt inflation-stricken Hamptons revelers to seek cheaper destinations, Side Dish has learned.

Wine and spirits representatives who sell to Montauk restaurants said “on premise” sales are down about 20% this year.

“That’s a really big number,” said a full-time representative in the East End, adding that hotels are “light” during the week while weekends are still “heavy.”

The higher lodging costs stem in part from private equity firms in recent years buying up the few rural inns that dot the traditionally blue-collar haven.

Some have been converted into high-end resorts, with prices going up to $1,000 a night for a midweek stay.

“It’s cheaper to buy a ticket and go to Europe than to vacation in Montauk,” said Jayma Cardoso, owner of the 20-room Surf Lodge, one of Montauk’s nightlife hotspots.

“People who came for the month can now just come for a week or a weekend.”

Donny Evans — a restaurant consultant and founder of numerous Hamptons food festivals — is among those who gave up on the South Fork this summer after decades there.

Instead, he’s renting on the North Fork.

“You get more for your money,” he said. “People are fed up with prices and are spending less.”

Of course, there are exceptions in Montauk. Classic spots, often with the best sunset views, from Crow’s Nest to Duryea, where Jennifer Lopez was recently spotted, are still going strong.

But restaurateur Piero Zangarini, of popular spots including Mediterranean restaurant Sí Sí and this season’s new favorite N’AMO, said he has seen a shift in spending habits.

“Instead of going out three times a week, they’re going out twice a week,” he said. “There are fewer people around during the week.”

A Montauk favorite, Sel Rrose, didn’t bother to open it this summer, instead leasing the space to an East Hampton pop-up ‘cuisine maven’, the Daily Dose.

It closed at the end of July. Sel Rrose owner Kristin Vincent said it may only be open for weekends during August.

The restaurant has been a frequent target of East Hampton’s notorious noise police since opening in 2019, as Side Dish previously reported — similar to this summer’s attacks that Zero Bond owner Scott Sartiano has faced at his restaurant of the same name at the Hedges Inn in neighboring East Hampton. The village.

“As a restaurant owner, we are super pressed from all sides. But we can only be pushed so far,” said Vincent, whose chic oyster bar and restaurant is named for artist Marcel Duchamp’s female alter ego.

“We’re only open a few months a year. There is little room for profit. You can only raise your prices so much before you lose your customers.”