Hamptons Celebrity Dining and Foodie Dish
Where They Dine
Bob and Lynn Balaban enjoyed lunch at Rowdy Hall on Friday afternoon.
Luke Wilson and girlfriend Meg Simpson dined with a group at Nick & Toni’s Saturday night.
East End music icon Billy Joel and his girlfriend, Alexis Roderick, enjoyed dinner at Bridgehampton’s Italian restaurant Osteria Salina. The couple was joined by Howard Stern and wife Beth along with Kevin James and his wife Steffiana De La Cruz. After the group finished dinner they graciously stopped to greet a few fans who were also dining at the restaurant.
About a Boy (the movie that inspired the show) actor Hugh Grant lunched with two friends at Southampton hotspot 75 Main, as did Chris Cuomo, host of CNN’s New Day, while Fox News reporter and anchor Julie Banderas sat at a table nearby.
Foodie Bites
Another hot restaurant on the Hamptons dining scene, Sybille van Kempen’s Bridgehampton Inn & Restaurant, began serving a prix fixe menu on Wednesday. The response has been huge—as expected.
Florence Fabricant’s Sunday interview series “Stirring the Pot: Conversations with Culinary Celebrities” at Guild Hall concluded with Chef Daniel Boulud. Boulud praised the produce and wine of the East End and noted that he was going home with a special package from the event’s caterer East Hampton Gourmet—tasty cookies for his “gluten-free daughter.”
Speaking of cookies, Kathleen King, founder of Tate’s Bake Shop in Southampton, has sold a majority stake in her famous cookie business to Riverside Co., a private equity firm.
East Ender Chuck Close’s art is featured in the September issue of Food Arts magazine. A repeated image of his face graces the walls of the new restaurant élan in New York.
Earl Fultz’s Cutchogue-based company, cHarissa, LLD, has been named one of only five companies nationwide to win the Wells Fargo Small Business Works award—and is the only company in the Northeast so honored. They will receive a $25,000 check, six months of mentoring from the Wells Fargo small business team and $5,000 to donate to a community nonprofit at the award presentation early next month.
Wölffer Estate Vineyard winemaker Roman Roth has now produced…drum roll, please…gin! Might brandy be next?!