More Photos (2)

When the 1770 House reopened in 2002, it snagged one of the Hampton’s hottest chefs for its restaurant: Kevin Penner, the former top toque at Della Femina and Wainscott’s Star Room and a frequent guest speaker at the James Beard Foundation. His New American menu (dishes include roasted heirloom beets with goat cheese, pan seared diver sea scallops and roasted local back sea bass) at the 1770 House does not disappoint, nor does the restaurant’s airy, well-designed dining room, with its exposed wood ceilings beams, Oriental rugs and well-placed wicker chairs. Downstairs, a more casual dining room offers the same menu as well as one with more standard bistro fare.

Read about the hotel.

UPDATE: Kobe Club has closed (as have the branches in Miami and New York). Now in its place: Philippe.

Jeffrey Chodorow has brought his pricey Kobe Club to the Hamptons (there are also branches in Manhattan and Miami Beach). The menu is dominated by Kobe that comes in a variety of preparations (think carpaccio, tartare, hot dogs, sliders, even ravioli).

More Photos (3)

Since opening in late May, the revamped restaurant at the Maidstone has already garnered rave reviews from locals and longtime visitors for its Scandinavian-inspired cuisine that’s focused on locally grown, seasonal products. Executive chef James Carpenter is well-known around the East End, having run the kitchens at the American Hotel, in Sag Harbor, and Della Famina in East Hampton. To devise the menu of the Living Room, located in a cozy room on the ground floor of the Maidstone, Carpenter brought Swedish-born chef Björn Ericsson from Stockholm, to help with such traditional dishes as räkmacka (an open-face sandwich with baby shrimp) that is served at lunch.

Carpenter and Ericsson are both longtime subscribers to the Slow Food movement and the menu will change frequently (it’s printed to resemble a daily newspaper). Already, there are different menus for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner, as well as special meals for kids and even for dogs (the owner of c/o hotels is a big believer in pet-friendly properties). A recent lunch included a paper-thin tarte flambé with cured, sustainable-farmed salmon and crispy veal schnitzel, served with a cucumber-and-radish salsa and sweet potato cubes. At dinner, the menu has a heavy slant towards local seafood.

The renovations of the Maidstone have opened up the ground floor, so that the bar area spills seamlessly into the restaurant. The hotel also hopes to obtain a license for outdoor dining, which would surely turn the romantic small garden behind the historic inn into the table to get. Best of all, the Swedish company that bought and transformed the Maidstone has a green philosophy and is big on giving back to the local community. Besides showcasing a long laundry list of local purveyors, from the dairy to the wines, the Living Room works with Natura Water, a purification system that eliminates the use of plastic water bottles altogether (normally, the restaurant would go through 6,500 bottles during the summer season alone). 10 percent of the dining proceeds are donated to Group for the East End, a non-profit dedicated to preserving and restoring the environment of Eastern Long Island. A congenial setting, innovative Slow Food cuisine, and a big heart powering the project: the Living Room epitomizes the spirit of the Hamptons this summer. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week. Reservations are encouraged.