A team of entrepreneurs who turned the site of a kitschy store that sold fish bait and beer in Palm Beach, Fla., into a luxury cocktail lounge now wants to open a restaurant with a members club in Montauk, Long Island — a plan that has riled local residents.
Though glitz overtook Montauk’s grittiness long ago, residents are balking at the idea of the restaurant, Mary Lou’s Montauk, which will offer what its owners are calling a “status guest component.” An annual fee of $4,000 and a commitment to spend a minimum of $2,000 on food and beverage for the summer will guarantee a seat in a members-only section of the restaurant. It will open on June 5.
“We have one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the United States, so a lot of locals can afford it, but it’s the feeling behind it,” said Kay Tyler, 49, who has been a full-time resident in Montauk for 13 years. “To some community members, this may feel insulting.”
Last year, an attempt to open a version of the Manhattan private club Zero Bond in East Hampton, the town that governs Montauk, was thwarted when town officials instituted rules, like an 11 p.m. closing time, that would have made it difficult for the club to operate.
Mary Lou’s, which will open parts of its restaurant to the public, does not yet have licenses to serve liquor or to have music, according to town officials. But the owners of Mary Lou’s say they will operate and manage the venue in connection with NDT Development, a real estate hospitality firm in Palm Beach, which already has licenses for the space. NDT did not respond to a request for comment.
Even if the owners have the proper licenses for Mary Lou’s, its location on the harbor, surrounded by fishing operations, could be a deterrent for would-be members. “It’s difficult to lure people to the harbor unless you are going fishing or sailing,” said Ms. Tyler, 49. “Are they offering something else that other restaurants don’t have, like a foot massage while you eat?”
Massages are a maybe.
If Mary Lou’s Palm Beach is the model, anything is possible.
Opened in January, the Florida location is covered in peacock print, serves a $50 “Big Mac” and encourages a dress code of “overdressed opulence.” Sword swallowers and contortionists entertain alongside DJs. “There’s nothing really out of the realm of what we do in that room,” said Joseph Cervasio, one of the owners. “We even had a snake charmer, which was a big hit in the room, oddly.”
The restaurant’s guests have included Michael Jordan, Venus Williams and Donald Trump Jr.
Montauk has celebrity cachet, but East Hampton makes it notoriously hard to party, prohibiting loud music after 9 p.m. and conducting fire marshal patrols every weekend to check businesses for capacity violations.
The restaurant could also be blocked from using one of the best, most baller features of the property: boat slips.
Mary Lou’s would like its patrons to have the option to arrive by boat — the ferry to Block Island, R.I., is feet away, and the local airport is on the other side of Lake Montauk. Town officials would not comment, but Mr. Cervasio, 41, said everything should shake out in Mary Lou’s favor. “We’re working on which ones we have and how many in particular,” he said, referring to the boat slips. “There were some that were already in use already and already paid for so we’re figuring it out.”
Mr. Cervasio, who worked for well-known hospitality businesses Cipriani, Rainbow Room and Tao Group, is part of a trio of owners. Topher Grubb, 42, another co-owner, worked for Montauk’s live music venue Surf Lodge for nine years. The third co-owner, Alex Melillo, 40, opened bars in New York City before starting an event production company that worked with clients, including Frieze Art Fair and Art Basel.
Mr. Melillo’s grandmother, Mary Lou Curtis, was the inspiration for the brand’s name. Ms. Curtis, a former model, owned a boutique in Palm Beach. She also had other locations, including two in the Hamptons, said Mr. Melillo. Her brand was called La Shack, a name that belied its high-end clothing and high-profile clientele, which, according to her obituary, included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Betty White.
The Mary Lou owners seem to revel in playing on the dichotomy between high and low, like transforming the building that held Berto’s Bait and Tackle in Palm Beach into the luxe cocktail lounge.
In Montauk, Mary Lou’s is taking over a place known for its turnover — last summer, the building was the location of the restaurant N’amo, and before that it was La Fin, which took over from Swallow East. According to local lore, the location is cursed.
The Mary Lou’s owners have been working on renovations for the last couple of months.
“Everything in Montauk has been about this light airy, linen whitewashed look,” said Dottie Cervasio, 36, who runs marketing for the brand and is married to Mr. Cervasio and is the sister of Mr. Grubb. “We’re doing sexy velvet booths and leopard and peacock print and, like, super decadent, lush materials and finishes.”
“I’m excited for you to just see our restrooms,” said Mr. Cervasio.
Because Montauk is so seasonal, businesses really only have 10 weekends to churn a profit.
Membership fees could help Mary Lou’s make ends meet without having to turn over tables quickly and pack the house, Ms. Cervasio said. “This is what it costs to make sure you’ve got a seat here every single weekend you want to come in, and there is no waiting in line, and your table is ready with your favorite bottle or your order. It’s just offering a different level of service and hospitality that’s really hard to execute in a super crowded venue.”
Mary Lou’s, through Tracey Manner, a spokeswoman, declined to disclose how many members have joined so far.
But the private club model is not just about profit; its pay-in-advance-to-party system and its extravagance are also meant to bring something new to Montauk, the owners said.
Other Montauk club owners are not convinced that the model will work in the village, which wants to maintain a hippie, surfer vibe despite its wealth. The median annual income for residents is around $130,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, even as multimillion-dollar houses are currently listed for sale.
“The beauty of Montauk is that you have the fishermen next to the writers next to the hedge fund people,” said Jayma Cardoso, who owns the Surf Lodge, a restaurant in the village known for its big name music acts (Diplo and Fisher both DJed there last year). “You want to have it all. You want to have the surfer next to Bono watching a concert.”
As news started to leak around town about Mary Lou’s, Ms. Cardoso had so many people ask her if she was involved that she clarified the situation on Instagram. “Hearing rumors about a new location?” she wrote in a post on May 1. “To clarify we are not opening another location in Montauk and are not affiliated with any new openings.”
The Surf Lodge, a one-time beach shack now know as the place to be in Montauk, helped set a path for other nightlife establishments that have opened in the last decade. Bounce, the nightclub, moved into a space that was once the dive bar Sloppy Tuna. Common Ground, a party and sports bar, operated for years near the airport. This summer Bagatelle, a French company that owns clubby restaurants, is opening in the space that used to be Gosman’s, a family-owned restaurant and fish market that had been around since 1951. The people behind Gospel, a trendy nightclub in New York City, are taking over the camp-like campus that once was Ruschmeyer’s, a restaurant, bar and hotel.
Jon Krasner, who owns the property that Bounce in Montauk operates in, as well as Shagwong Tavern, a local dive bar, said he doesn’t mind new businesses trying fresh approaches. “It’s so hard to make money in a restaurant or bar here that people are looking for ways to create a safety net and get money coming in through the door,” he said.
But he said he worries that some businesses come to town without knowing the intricacies of the town of East Hampton and its quirky rules. “The town has a way of teaching hard lessons. Don’t be over-cocky, you aren’t going to change the town,” he said. “Work with the people around you, be a good partner to the other businesses, be nice to the community, and listen to the community, and they will support you back.”
Mr. Grubb, who worked at the Surf Lodge for nine seasons, said he has learned valuable lessons about how to take all the steps needed to maintain a good relationship with town officials, including managing crowds and keeping noise at a minimum. “I know the fire marshal. I’ve worked with him a lot in the past couple of years. He’s fair, and I know what he expects,” he said. “We want to do everything right by us and the town.”
But will the town welcome Mary Lou’s as a member? The summer season awaits.
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