A team of entrepreneurs who converted the site of a kitsch store that sold fish and bear baits in Palm Beach, Florida, in a luxury cocktail room now wants to open a restaurant with a member club in Montauk, Long Island, a plan that has irritated local residents.
Although Glitz exceeded Montauk’s sand a long time ago, residents are swinging at the idea of the restaurant, Mary Lou’s Montauk, who will sacrifice how their owners call a “state guest component.” An annual $ 4,000 rate and a commitment to spend a minimum of $ 2,000 on food and beverage for summer will guarantee a seat in a section of the restaurant only for members. It will open on June 5.
“We have one of the richest postal codes in the United States, so many premises can pay it, but it is the feeling behind it,” said Kay Tyler, 49, who has a full -time resident in Montauk for 13 years. “For some community members, this may seem insulting.”
Last year, an attempt to open a version of the Zero Bond of the Private Club of Manhattan in East Hampton, the city that governs Montauk, was frustrated when city officials instituted rules, as an hour to close the 11 PM, which Woodd has to have it.
Mary Lou, which will open parts of your restaurant to the public, still has no licenses to serve liquor or have music, according to city officials. But Mary Lou’s owners say they operate and manage the place in relation to the development of NDT, a real estate hospitality firm in Palm Beach, which already has licenses for space. NDT did not respond to a request for comments.
Even if the owners have the appropriate licenses for Mary Lou, their location in the port, surrounded by fishing operations, it could be a deterrent element for possible members. “It is difficult to attract people to the port unless you are going to fish or navigate,” said Tyler, 49.
Massages are perhaps.
If Mary Lou’s Palm Beach is the model, everything is possible.
Inaugurated in January, Florida’s location is covered with peacock print, serves a “Big Mac” of $ 50 and encourages a “overloaded opulence” clothing code. Sword swallows and contortists entertain themselves together with DJs. “There is nothing really outside the kingdom of what we do in that room,” said Joseph Cervasio, one of the owners. “We had a snake charming, which was a great success in the room, curiously.”
The restaurant guests have included Michael Jordan, Venus Williams and Donald Trump Jr.
Montauk has a celebrity cache, but East Hampton makes it notoriously difficult to celebrate, prohibiting music at full volume after 9 pm and performing firefighter seafood patrols every weekend to verify companies for capacity violations.
The restaurant could also be blocked from the use of one of the best characteristics of the most baller property: the ship’s slippery.
Mary Lou would like her clients to have the option of arriving in boat: the ferry a block Island, Ri, is distance, and the local airport is on the other side of Lake Montauk. The city officials did not comment, but Mr. Cervasio, 41, said that everything should be shaken in favor of Mary Lou. “We are working on what we have and how many in particular,” he said, referring to the boot. “There were some that were already in use and they already paid, so we are solving it.”
Mr. Cervasio, who worked for known hospitality companies Cipriani, Rainbow Room and Tao Group, is part of a trio or owners. Topher Grubb, 42, another co -owner, worked for Surf Lodge de Surf Lodge of Montauk Live Music 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 customers, including Frieze Art Fair and Art Basel.
Mr. Melillo’s grandmother, Mary Lou Curtis, was the inspiration for the brand’s name. Mrs. Curtis, a former model, owned a boutique in Palm Beach. He also had other places, including two in the Hamptons, said Mr. Melillo. The fire was called the Shack, a name that denied his high -end clothes and his high profile client, which, according to his obitary, included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Betty White.
Mary Lou’s owners seem to enjoy playing in the dichotomy between high and bass, such as transforming the building containing the bait and beach tacle in Palm Beach in the luxury cocktail room.
In Montauk, Mary Lou’s, a place known for its turnover: last summer, the building was the location of the N’amo restaurant, and before that was the end, which I taught from Swallow East. According to the local tradition, the location is cursed.
Mary Lou’s owners have been working in renovations in recent months.
“Everything in Montauk has been about this slight air and waterwell appearance,” said Dottie Cervasio, 36, who directs marketing for the brand and is married to Mr. Cervasio and is Mr. Grubb’s sister. “We are doing sexy velvet and leopard print and peacock and, like, super decadent, lush materials and finishes.”
“I am excited that I only see our bathrooms,” said Mr. Cervasio.
Because Montauk is a season, companies really only have 10 weekends to get profits.
Membership rates could help Mary Lou’s Make Faits without having to light the tables quickly and pack the house, Cervasio said. “This is what it costs to make sure you have a seat here every weekend you want to enter, and there is no wait in line, and your table is ready with your favorite bottle or your order. It is just out of the vecularity of the service and the hospitality place.”
Mary Lou, through Tracey Way, a spokeswoman, refused to reveal how many members have joined so far.
But the private club model is not just about profits; His payment system in the party and his extravagance is also Meean to bring some to Montauk, the owners said.
Other owners of Montauk Club are not convinced that the model will work in the village, which is hippo for a hippie and surfer environment despite their wealth. The average annual income for residents is around $ 130,000, according to the US Census Office, even when multimillion -dollar houses are currently in sale.
“Montauk’s beauty is that you have fishermen next to writers next to the people of the coverage fund,” said Jayma Cardoso, owner of Surf Lodge, a restaurant in the town known for their great names (Diplo and Fisher). “You want to have everything. You want to have surfer with Bono seeing a concert.”
When the news began to leak around the city about Mary Lou, Mrs. Cardoso caused so many people to ask him if she was involved that she clarified the situation on Instagram. “Listen to rumors about a new location?” She wrote in a publication on May 1. “To clarify that we are not opening another location in Montauk and we are not affiliated with any new opening.”
Surf Lodge, a one -time beach knows as the place to be in Montauk, helped establish a path for other nightlife establishments that have opened in the last decade. Bunce, the nightclub, moved to a space that was once the careless tuna of the diving bar. Common Ground, a party and a sports bar, operated for years near the airport. This Summer Bagatelle, French Company Thatns Clubby Restaurants, is opening in the space that used to be go gosman’s, A Family-Owned Restaurant and Fish Market That Had Been Around Since 1951 Taking, Taking Taking, Taking, Taking Taking, Taking Like, Taking Like, Taking Like, Taking Like, Taking Like, Taking Like, Taking Like, Taking Like, Taking Like, Taking Like, Taking Like, Taking Like, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Taking, Take, restaurant, a bar and a hotel.
Jon Krasner, owner of the property that is bouncing in Montauk Opera, as well as Shagwong Tavern, a local diving bar, said he does not care about new businesses that try new approaches. “It is very difficult to make money in a restaurant or bar here, people look for ways to create a security network and get money through the door,” he said.
But he said that some companies come to the city without knowing the complexities of the city of the city of East Hampton and its extravagant rules. “The city has a way of teaching hard lessons. Don’t be too cooked, you won’t change the city,” he said. “He works with the people around you, be a good partner for the other businesses, be kind to the community and listen to the community, and they will support you again.”
Mr. Grubb, who worked at Surf Lodge for nine seasons, said he has learned valuable lessons on how to take all the necessary steps to attach a good relationship with the city officials, including the management of crowds and maintain the noise at least. “I know the Marshal of Firefighters. I have worked hard with him in recent years. It’s just and I know what he expects,” he said. “We want to do everything right next to us and the city.”
But will the city welcome Mary Lou as a member? The summer season awaits.
