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Sky’s the Limit, but the ‘Prix’ Is ‘Fixe’
Hamptons Restaurant Week: A True Moveable Feast
by Alexandra Sanidad
March 22, 2007
Hamptons Restaurant Week is neither exclusive to the Hamptons, nor does it happen in a week.
“We probably should have called it ‘East End Restaurant Week,’” admitted Steve Haweeli, chairman of the executive committee for the promotion and founder of the Word-Hampton public relations firm. “The North Fork is closer than anyone thinks. We decided to be inclusive.”
The annual event—which runs for eight days, from Sunday, March 25, through Sunday, April 1—is now in its fifth year. Participants at press time included 71 restaurants—22 are new to the promotion—nine lodging establishments, three vineyards and one caterer.
Member restaurants will offer a threecourse $21.95 (up from previous years’ $19.95) prix fixe every night, except on Saturday, when the deal is available only until 7 p.m. The prix fixe will include at least three choices for each course at all restaurants.
Hamptons Restaurant Week was the brainchild of restaurateur and former ad man Jerry Della Femina, a longtime WordHampton client, back in 2003.
“Jerry suggested the idea to his maitre’d, who called us up in mid-January. We respect Jerry quite a bit, and we knew this event had some magnitude to it,” Mr. Haweeli said in a phone interview last week. “The idea appealed to us to do it in the off-season; it’s somewhat mellow out here in April.”
Mr. Haweeli and his team managed to coordinate the first event in six weeks. That year, 27 restaurants participated. The next year, 75 signed on. In 2005, 125 eateries were on board; the number climbed to 143 in 2006. These days, the WordHampton team works on the promotion for a good six months. “It is the most successful restaurant promotion on Long Island,” Mr. Haweeli said.
The East End version, inspired by a similar promotion in Manhattan, was so successful that it spawned a Long Island Restaurant Week, offered for the first time last November. That event included some Hamptons Restaurant Week participants as well as eateries in Nassau County. Mr. Haweeli also noted that restaurateurs from such cities as Detroit and Denver have called asking for advice on how to put together their own versions.
“It’s really heaven on Earth for a lot of folks who maybe can’t afford to go to a Plaza Café or a Mirko’s or a Della Femina. They might go three times during Restaurant Week,” Mr. Haweeli said. “A number of people from up the Island will think nothing of hopping in their cars and coming out, even during the week.”
For people who use the promotion as an excuse for an East End getaway, establishments like the Southampton Inn offer traveling gourmands lodging discounts. Dede Gotthelf, proprietor of the inn, has taken this year’s event as an opportunity to showcase the work of the inn’s new chef, Peter Dunlop, formerly of Café Des Artistes and Jean-Luc in New York and the American Hotel in Sag Harbor.
Mr. Dunlop has created a buffet brunch menu for the final day of Restaurant Week. “In the past, people have slept at the Southampton Inn as their base, and we would send them, like the spokes of a wheel, out to all the incredible dining opportunities,” she said. “But this is the first time we’ve gone out in a big way with our own promotion attached to it.”
The inn, which has participated in Restaurant Week since 2004, will give guests 10 percent off the regular room rates.
“We’re starting to see repeat customers,” said Ms. Gotthelf in a phone interview. “It’s such a wonderful idea for the season. It also lets all the people who live out east experience these phenomenal restaurants before the summer crowds come.”
Noting that several restaurateurs had expressed how happy they were with their participation in Restaurant Week, Rosemary Parker, who owns A Victorian on the Bay inn in Eastport, decided that this was the year for her to take part. Eager to sample the fare at a large variety of restaurants herself, she added in a phone interview that the promotion is “a great way for me to be able to guide my clients when they turn to me for recommendations. Like a concierge, I’ll make reservations for them and so forth.”
Ms. Parker is offering one night free with every two-night reservation. “To just arrive, go for dinner, sleep over and leave the next day wouldn’t be as beneficial to [my guests’] goal of having some stress-free time to unwind from work,” Ms. Parker said. “I encourage them to stay for more than one night to take in the whole event.”
Another newbie this year is Desmond’s Restaurant and Lounge in Wading River, which participated in the first Long Island Restaurant Week and experienced a 50-percent increase in business. “It turned out to be wonderful. We saw a lot of new people during the week and a lot of them are regulars now,” said Diane Figari, the restaurant’s director of operations.
“People would call and ask if we were involved” in the March promotion, she said. “We think it’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re going to put our best foot forward and re-introduce ourselves.”
For the event, Desmond’s new chef, Brian Shuren, has chosen three popular entrées from the restaurant’s regular “New American” menu in addition to two substitutions that guests can supplement for an additional fee. On a regular day, these entrées would average about $25 on their own.
Christy Cober, who handles front-of-the-house operations at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, acknowledged that customers’ perceptions of value explain why Rowdy Hall had not joined up with Restaurant Week before. “Burgers are $10, salads are around $7 or $8. People think of us as a quick bite,” said Ms. Cober. “Then we realized that what we could do is promote a lot of the other dishes that we’re not so well-known for.
“A lot of people will come to us and not even look at the menu. They come in for certain things. We change our menu three or four times a year, so we’re looking at this as an opportunity to give exposure to some things the chef does really well that some people may not have experienced yet. He does so many nice bistro-type items.”
Those items will include such selections as vegetarian chili and shepherd’s pie in addition to entrées that the restaurant occasionally serves as specials, like seafood stew. Rowdy Hall’s menu will change slightly every night during the promotion; the regular menu will be available as well.
Plenty of Restaurant Week regulars have signed up again this year. A handful of them turned out for a press event at Le Chef in Southampton last Friday, including Doug Gulija, owner and chef of the Plaza Café, also in Southampton.
“We were there from the first,” he said. “We were really conservative early on, but now we know what we can do.”
Mr. Gulija plans to write a new menu every day based on what will be available at the market.
“It’s a challenge,” he continued, “but it’s fun. It gets you going after the winter, when you’re in slow-motion. It gets you pumped up again.”
Noting the large number of people from Nassau County who dine at the restaurant during the event, Mr. Gulija added that plenty of regular customers take advantage of the promotion. “For them it’s like, wow, I’m getting the same great meal for a great price.”
Todd Jacobs, executive chef and owner of Tierra Mar in Westhampton—which has also been with Restaurant Week from the start—concurred, but also spoke about the number of new faces he sees during the event. “We’ll do anywhere from 100 to 200 dinners every night of the week, which is great. [Business] is, like, a thousand percent better than a normal week,” he said. “Usually, a few days before, the phones will ring off the hook and we’ll fill up.”
Mr. Jacobs said that Restaurant Week is also popular with people in the business. “We had a big table from Jedediah Hawkins [in Jamesport] from the last one. And I usually try to get my staff out, even if we’re open all seven days,” he said. “We also do well with the vineyards every year.”
This year, select restaurants will offer $21.95 bottles of wine from Wölffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack, Raphael Vineyards in Peconic, and Palmer Vineyards in Aquebogue. Those vineyards will in turn sell select Restaurant Week wines at a 10-percent discount in their tasting rooms.
In addition to deals from restaurants, vineyards and lodgings, East Hampton caterer and fish market Claws on Wheels will offer a $21.95 prix fixe dinner from its takeout shop.
Additional details about the event, including newly added participants and information about sponsors, can be found by visiting the official website, www.hamptonsrestaurantweek.com.
Noting that WordHampton has decided to forgo the traditional kickoff party this year, Mr. Haweeli said that his firm would still make its annual donation to the Suffolk Community College Culinary Arts Program.
“They help train a lot of chefs,” he said. “We thought there’s a bit of synergy for us.”
Only time will tell if some of those chefs-in-training will one day prepare meals for renowned Restaurant Week eateries, but for Mr. Haweeli, this much is certain: “Restaurant Week works. It brings people in. Everyone loves a deal.”
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