Bridgehampton Chamber of Commerce Is in the Works

The tiny hamlet of Bridgehampton does not have a mayor or a board of trustees. But if some local business people have their way, it will soon have a Chamber of Commerce.

The effort to form a chamber began a few months ago, when Stella Flame, owner of Stella Flame Gallery on Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton, began meeting with some other local business owners, and decided they needed an organization of their own to speak as one voice to the public as well as to government officials.

And there was one other reason: pride in Bridgehampton.

“This is the center of the Hamptons,” Flame told Dan’s Papers in an interview. “We need people to understand this is not just a place to drive through” to get to someplace else.

For years, Flame and others in Bridgehampton said, visitors to the Hamptons would drive through the hamlet on their way to Montauk Point or elsewhere.

There are, Flame said, tony restaurants, clothing shops, art galleries, and ample parking. It’s just that, she added, too many people didn’t seem to know it.

Flame and some others, including Ted Dickson, a wealth management advisor with Beacon Point, which has an office in Bridgehampton, and Sybille Van Kempen, of the popular Loaves & Fishes foodstore and cookshop,  put together a plan for what they will call the Bridgehampton-Sagaponeck Chamber of Commerce. Flame said she had traveled the area and spoken to businesses in Sagaponeck, who were also in favor of a chamber.

In all so far, she said, about 60 businesses said they were interested in joining. The organizers are currently applying for a non-profit charter from New York State. They can then open a bank account for the chamber.

Too many outsiders, Bridgehampton is best-known for the Hampton Classic Horse Show, a Grand Prix event considered one of the larger show jumping contests in the United States. It is generally held over the Labor Day weekend, and it doubles as a one of the huge social events of the summer. The shows began in the early 1900s.

It was also once known for the Bridgehampton Race Circuit, a 13-turn road course. But it has been converted to a golf course and homes.

And, it is known to legions of Major League Baseball fans as the home of the Boston Red Sox’s star Carl Yastrzemski, who was born and raised in Bridgehampton.

But to year-rounders’, Bridgehampton is a haven away from the hustle and bustle of Southampton town. It is a place to shop and stop for a meal or a drink after work or on a weekend.

But, say Flame and others, Bridgehampton needs more recognition.

So far Flame has been selected as president of the chamber and Dickson as its treasurer.

“There are two things about this,” Dickson told Dan’s Papers. “One thing is to have the businesses communicate with one another, and the other is to speak with one voice to Southampton Town.” The hamlet is a part of the town.

Dickson said the town has been helpful, but “I wouldn’t say we’re first on their list.”

Bridgehampton has a seasonal element to it as well, and Dickson said those businesses also need to be represented.

The hamlet has about 3,000 residents, according to the 2020 census, and it is a high-income area with a median household income of about $168,000. Most homes are valued at close to $2 million.

Its single-largest shopping area is Bridgehampton Commons, which houses a Barnes & Noble bookstore, a wine shop, an urgent healthcare spot and a Dunkin.

Van Kempen, of Loaves & Fishes, said the chamber would be an excellent addition to Bridgehampton.

“There’s strength in numbers,” she told Dan’s Papers. The days should be long past, she said, when Bridgehampton was little more than a drive-through community.

“We are now a solid destination,” Van Kempen said. “Everyone in the area supports this.”

Flame said that the Bridgehampton Improvement Society  and the Bridgehampton Civic Council, do a good job putting up posters and Christmas deocrations. But neither, she said, is promotes business in the hamlet.

Flame figures that the chamber will be up and running by the fall.

“If it takes a little longer,” that’s all right too,” Flame said. “We want something of quality.”