Last Monday, a party was held at the Shepherd’s Neck Inn so that George and Marie Hammer, the former owners of the Shepherd’s Neck Inn, could say farewell to their old hotel and introduce to their friends the new owners. The new owners, Tom Feeley, Christopher Jones, Stephan Dupoux and David Ceva, under the real estate company Wavestone Properties, have bought both the Shepherd’s Neck Inn and will upgrade the building and turn the current hotel into a high end luxury resort and hotel. They have already started on the upgrades by renovating the restaurant at the hotel called Backyard with a fresh, nautical white color scheme and a new menu by executive chef Melissa O’Donnell, who currently owns two restaurants in Manhattan called Salt and Salt Bar.
The party which included an open bar, delicious food and a live band, brought Montauk residents as well as Manhattanites together so that they could celebrate the new energy that will be instilled into the large and beautiful, eight acre property. The name of the new hotel is called Solé East, which in Italian means sun. The sister hotel to Solé East is Solé, which is a hotel that was built in Miami and is owned by Wavestone Properties.
The new restaurant, Backyard, will be open for business this week and the general public is encouraged to go and check it out. “We have been putting in a lot of work into the hotel already and the restaurant is an example of that. Backyard has a very comfortable and open feel. Diners can eat either inside or outside and can enjoy the pool as well,” says Tom Feeley.
The food and beverage operations at the hotel will be lead by the GM of food and beverage at the resort, Stephan Dorian. The resume’s of all of the owners are quite impressive, especially that of Stephan Dupoux, who has designed countless restaurants and bars throughout the world, most recently, The Buddah Bar in New York City. The hotel operations manager is Danny Lee, who according to the partners is a great asset to the business.
All four of the new partners hail from New York City but have been coming out to the East End of Long Island for years. Chris Jones has a house in Sag Harbor, Tom Feeley has been coming out to Montauk to go surfing ever since he was a boy, Dave Ceva owns a house in Amagansett and Stephan Dupoux owns a house in East Hampton. Dave Ceva could not be at the party because his wife was having a baby girl that day.
Although the sign out in front of the building still reads “The Shepherd’s Neck Inn” much of the changes that are taking place are under way. “We have a new bedding package with a very high end mattress that we designed along with 300 count Egyptian cotton sheets. The original hardwood floors in each room have also been restored,” says Feeley.
The hotel and restaurant will be open for business all summer, but all of the major upgrades and changes to the hotel will take place throughout the year.
George Hammer passed over the symbolic keys to the hotel at the party and you could tell that he was happy to be putting it into the hands of such professional and energetic young men. What lies next for the Hammers remains to be seen, “I’ve got a couple of things that I have to take care of out here, but after that we’ll just have to wait and see,” George Hammer said.
Much of the Montauk community is looking forward to seeing what these four guys can do with the Shepherd’s Neck Inn, but like George Hammer said, we’ll just have to wait and see.
