Farm Stand
The one on Scuttle Hole Road in Bridgehampton is really big. Everything is very fresh, and it’s well spread out and not too crowded.
Nicole Miller, fashion designer
The Green Thumb in Water Mill is great and not as expensive as, say, Round Swamp in East Hampton – which is great in that they do a lot of their own preserves and their own baking, but it’s très cher. If I want really good field-ripened tomatoes, I go to them. They grow almost everything they sell there, and their corn is fabulous.
Brent Newsom, caterer
New Restaurant
Robert’s in Water Mill is owned by Robert Durkin, who’s reinventing Italian food out there. And there’s a great wine list. Maya’s has a different menu every night, and is getting the big crowd now – the hoi polloi of the Hamptons. And Maya is a great chef; I ate there two nights in a row last weekend.
Robert Morton, TV producer
Maya’s is the hot restaurant in St. Barths that just took over the Sapore di Mare space in Wainscott; this is the new place for grilled food, local vegetables. My father – everyone – loves it.
Lizzie Grubman, publicist
Stop on the Way Out
T.G.I. Friday’s off exit 57 in Hauppauge; Get the potato skins and the quesadillas.
Chappy Morris, investor
Grace’s, right off Exit 70 in Manorville, has the best onion rings – crunchy, not soggy and greasy – and well-cooked, juicy hot dogs. It’s chic fast food.
Andrew Sasson, nightclub impresario
People-Watching
Meg Ryan was at Sunset Beach on Shelter Island on Saturday night having dinner; Helena Christensen is always there; Liv Tyler is always there, and socialites like Lulu de Kwiatkowski always turn up. We’ve nicknamed some of the customers the boat people, because they all come over on their incredible boats, and they leave $300 tips. It’s the biggest ego-trash – as opposed to Eurotrash – scene I’ve ever encountered.
Lucy Sykes, fashion editor, Allure
Sit down on a bench on Main Street in East Hampton, where I just saw Spielberg; a regular Who’s Who is guaranteed to walk by.
Andrew Sasson
Count on celebrities, great breast jobs, lots of bare belly buttons, and everything sold at Calypso and Scoop that week to wash up at the polo matches at Two Trees Stables in Bridgehampton. And of course, there’s the Hampton Classic Horse Show at the end of August.
Steven Gaines, author
Boutique
Scoop Beach in East Hampton is like a nightclub; every single person is in there trying to buy the latest Shoshanna swimsuit or the latest jeans jacket. Jeans are huge this year for the Hamptons. And everyone’s wearing a denim jacket – everyone.
Lucy Sykes
Calypso in East Hampton has lots of color; it’s great for dresses you would wear to cocktail parties. Above the Potatoes on the corner of Newtown and Main Street is very T-shirty, and it’s a little bit more junior so it’s great for beach stuff.
Nicole Miller
Fahrenheit 451 in Westhampton Beach has the best used jeans I’ve ever found in my life; Liz, the owner, hand-picks each pair.
Shoshanna Lonstein, fashion designer
You wear Steven Stolman in Southampton the same way you wear Lilly Pulitzer. He uses wonderful toile de Jouy and leopard prints. Also, Stubbs & Wootton nearby is great for needlepoint or velvet shoes with the most clever motifs: palm trees, ships, or cigars.
Karen LeFrak, socialite
A lot of men quietly wardrobe themselves at Edward Archer on Main Street in Southampton. He sells very, very understated tailored clothing that many who shop at Barneys or Bergdorf’s wouldn’t admit to buying because it’s so low-key.
Steven Stolman, fashion designer
Restaurant
Sant Ambroeus in Southampton easily serves the best food in the Hamptons without the scene. It’s definitely a Euro-hangout for cappuccino in late afternoon and Sambuca, which Americans don’t like because they think you’ve got a problem if you’re drinking before five.
Clive Cook, CEO of InterCapital
Red Bar Brasserie’s fun; the food’s great – and there aren’t that many major restaurants in Southampton, if you think about it.
Pamela Gross, executive vice-president, LuxuryFinder.com, and MetroGuide reporter on MSG
We go to Paradise in Sag Harbor a lot. B. Smith’s nearby has a good seafood selection – it’s more beachy than sole in some fancy sauce.
Nicole Miller
The Palm in East Hampton: The people who eat there every week are Ron Perelman, Penny Marshall, Martha Stewart – everybody. Another good one is Alison by the Beach in Sagaponack: It’s pretty food.
Lizzie Grubman
Peconic Coast in East Hampton is like my dining room: The food is consistently great – as is the service – and they don’t take reservations, so you know everyone has an equal chance. Della Femina in East Hampton is also very hard to beat.
Brent Newsom
The Lobster Inn in Shinnecock is casual and it’s airy, and the food is fresh and tastes of the sea.
Ann Dexter-Jones, style editor, Country magazine
Bagel
Twice Upon a Bagel in Wainscott has the best bagels in the Hamptons, the best egg salad, and the best cinnamon roll in America. The bagels are as good as H&H, if not better.
Lizzie Grubman
Breakfast
The new hip-hip-hip place is Fairway on the Green at Wainscott’s Poxabogue golf course. Paradise in Sag Harbor serves a terrific breakfast. Babette’s in East Hampton has egg-white omelettes; that’s where President Clinton stopped by to see the lady who runs it.
Steven Gaines
At Dreesen’s in East Hampton, they have this insidious Rube Goldberg-like machine in the window that makes doughnuts. They’re like little atom bombs – hot, crusty, but still moist.
Steven Stolman
Shortcut
I don’t even go on 27. I take Town Line Road to Daniels Lane to Gibson and then up Sagaponack Main to Sagaponack Road. I get out by Bridgehampton Commons. You totally circumnavigate Bridgehampton, which is a nightmare because the intersection on 27 becomes a huge logjam.
Matt Nye, fashion designer
The only shortcut out here is to do everything during the week and have things delivered on the weekends.
Jamee Gregory, socialite and journalist
Steak
There’s nothing like a piece of meat from The Palm. Just add some fried potatoes and fried onions and, man, if you felt healthy all weekend, now you’re ready for a good heart attack.
Robert Morton
The steak at Sagaponack’s Old Stove Pub just really tastes good; I can’t compare it to anything else.
Ross Bleckner, artist
Bookstore
BookHampton, on Main Street in East Hampton, is the biggest and best store. Rob Schumann, who runs it, will track down any book. The owners are always there, and the staff is terrific. They really, really believe in books, and they push them – but that’s what a bookstore should do.
James Brady, author and columnist
Pizza
Sam’s in East Hampton is the best pizza on this half of United States; I like Mario’s Mix, with artichoke hearts, goat cheese, basil, and sun-dried tomatoes. It’s to die, if you’re having to eat out with a vegetarian.
Brent Newsom
La Parmigiana in Southampton is a great little inexpensive Italian joint like you’d find in your neighborhood in Manhattan, and they have the best pizza. It’s run by this incredibly sweet Italian family, and you can buy stuff like old-fashioned antacid from Italy.
Alex Kuzcynski, Times media reporter
Fish Store
The Seafood Shop in Wainscott is fabulous; I’ve dealt with them for more years than I’ll say.
Jonathan Canno, philanthropist
I call ahead and have Southampton’s Clamman cook my lobsters; I don’t like to hear them scream.
Jamee Gregory
Beach
Everybody goes to Gibson in Sagaponack, a sceney beach that feels public, even though it’s private.
Lizzie Grubman
If you walk along Flying Point Beach in Water Mill, there’s a warm inlet of water where children can play because it’s shallow. Also, there’s never anybody at all on Wyandanch beach in Southampton.
Pia Lindstrom, television critic
Ice Cream
The Bridgehampton Candy Kitchen has a really yummy, yummy, yummy chocolate.
Lucy Sykes
Carvel opposite Bridgehampton Commons is just a throwback-to-the-fifties kind of place. Get the chocolate-and-vanilla swirl.
Chappy Morris
Sant Ambroeus in Southampton has $185 ice-cream cakes and great flavors. In East Hampton, a Mister Softee kind of cone at Poppy’s Snowflake is something special.
Steven Gaines
Pasta
Nick & Toni’s in East Hampton, if you can get in – if your name is Mr. Gere.
Brent Newsom
Writers’ Haunt
The American Hotel in Sag Harbor is still holding its own. There’s a very swank, wonderful bar, and you can go in there late at night and see Michael Thomas and Candace Bushnell at one table, Thomas Harris at another, and Jimmy Buffett.
Steven Gaines
Local Hangout
Shippy’s isn’t a glitzy, and it’s patronized by the locals and the old-guard Southampton people. It has cozy booths, and there are delicious lobsters and baked potatoes.
Jamee Gregory
Barrister’s in Southampton has pubbish, simple food; it’s like J.G. Melon. Then there’s The Driver’s Seat in Southampton for the burgers and chili. Rowdy Hall in East Hampton makes the best onion soup I’ve ever had in my life.
Lizzie Grubman
Breadzilla in Wainscott – it’s the world’s worst name, and it looks like it’s run by Woodstock hippies, but that girl, Nancy, she is gifted. The homemade doughnuts with raspberry fillings are just extraordinary.
Steven Gaines
Clotheshorse
Alexandra von Furstenberg is the most groomed; she’s very pretty, she has a great figure, but most important, she just coordinates everything beautifully. Also, Lulu de Kwiatkowski, because she’s original and is not frightened of color. Mica Ertegun always looks fabulous; she has a wonderful ultrachic mélange.
Ann Dexter-Jones
Liz Cohen is so right-on for the Hamptons; she wears the newest thing from Scoop, the newest thing from Shoshanna, the newest in pashmina. It took me three years before I could work out which bikini to wear with which sarong to wear with which flip-flops with which bag. Aerin Lauder Zinterhoffer has the lifestyle, which comes through in her dress. Tiffany Dubin has the best handbags; whenever I’ve seen her, she has a new handbag for the beach.
Lucy Sykes
Kid Stuff
Andrew & Co. in Sag Harbor is great for clothes, nothing dressy, just mostly T-shirts, little rain jackets, and things like that. I also like The Wharf Shop nearby.
Nicole Miller
I always go to Harry Lillywhite’s in Southampton, where we get tricycles for 3-year-old kids. Aunt Suzie’s in Southampton has wonderful dresses that look almost like couture for kids.
Denise Rich, fund-raiser and songwriter
Southampton’s toy-and-candy store Going Nuts is probably my favorite in all the Hamptons. I actually tried to get a job there when I was about 5: I told them that I would ride around town on my bike with Going Nuts balloons, yelling, “Go to Going Nuts.” I wanted them to pay me in candy. It didn’t work.
Shoshanna Lonstein
Wine Store
Herbert & Rist in Southampton won’t give you the stuffy treatment. The selection is good, especially for European wines, like Rioja. And they don’t mind coming around to my house and delivering it within about 5 minutes, so I never go thirsty.
Clive Cook
We always go to Wölffer’s Sagpond Vineyards in Sagaponack: They have the best rosé.
Nicole Miller
If you find on a Sunday that you’re having a lunch and you realize you don’t have enough wine, all the liquor stores are closed, but you can go to the vineyards and buy it because they’re governed by a different, agricultural law.
Pamela Gross
Michael Cinque of Amagansett Wines & Spirits is a world-class sommelier, and patrons include Ron Perelman and Mort Zuckerman. It’s as good as any store in the city.
Steven Gaines
Desserts
There are great pastries at Sylvester & Co. in Sag Harbor, and blueberry muffins that are really sour.
Nicole Miller
Kathleen’s Bake Shop in Southampton has the most delicious chocolate-chip cookies. They’re so buttery, they stick together and you have to peel them apart.
Karen LeFrak
Bloody Mary
The Driver’s Seat in Southampton has a thick tomato thing with celery. It will straighten out your hangover – God, I sound like an alcoholic.
Andrew Sasson
Grocery-shopping
Behind East Hampton High School, Iacono Farms is a real local fixture that sells chickens killed fresh that day, so it’s the best chicken you can possibly get. But the farm tends to run out of them around noon.
Matt Nye
The place in Southampton, which is absolutely the best, is family-run Catena’s Market for meat. It’s much more expensive than anybody else, but it’s worth it.
Mai Hallingby, socialite
Benefit
The Parrish Art Museum in Southampton does an amazing job; there’s an arboretum with an air-conditioned tent over it that Robert Isabell designs.
Chappy Morris
Southampton Hospital is fun because everybody goes to it – everybody.
Jamee Gregory
Butcher
Jimmy at the Bridgehampton Country Market has been doing my meat for seventeen years. Dreesen’s in East Hampton is good, and the shop delivers; it’s a fabulous if you don’t mind paying $18 for veal scallopini. I get the same quality of meat from Jimmy at less than two thirds the price. If I need frenched lamb chops, I just phone him, I don’t even bother my chef with it.
Brent Newsom
Water View
The fact that the beach is here – and that it’s so unpopulated – makes anywhere on any of the beaches special. And any beach is unpopulated if you walk about 500 yards to the right or left; it always amazes me that all these people choose to park their stuff in the same place. The bay at Three Mile Harbor is also quite beautiful.
Ross Bleckner
East Hampton Point is one of the few places that reminds me of Sausalito, where I was raised.
Brent Newsom
House
Jane Wenner’s in Amagansett; architect Ward Bennett just cannot be faulted. The house is on the Double Dunes and it’s all about the view, with wonderful, amazing vistas on every side. Also, Billy Joel’s house nearby, designed by Robert Stern. When I walk in that house, I feel like Alice in Wonderland who just drank the drink that shrunk her; the dimensions are great, and there’s a fabulous widow’s walk on the roof. And the French country house on Further Lane where Jackie and Lee Bouvier spent their youth. This is the ultimate house that my husband, Mick, covets every time we drive by.
Ann Dexter-Jones
You can almost pick out any house in Sag Harbor – those wonderful old Victorians with the porches and the wonderful roofs. As you enter from the Bridge-Sag Harbor Turnpike, that whole section by the museum is full of great houses. Also: Those two Gwathmey Siegel houses side by side on dunes in Bridgehampton; they were designed together so they have a vocabulary between them.
Preston Phillips, architect
Takeout
I can only afford Sagaponack’s Loaves & Fishes once a month – it seems like it’s $20 for a quarter-pound of anything – but the lobster salad’s incredible.
Andrew Sasson
Villa Italian Specialties across from East Hampton train station makes its own sausage; the “combo” sandwich is the best Italian hero I’ve found. Frankly, they don’t need much touting – you damn near need a ticket to get in the door.
Brent Newsom
Antiques Shop
Chris Croft in Southampton gets shipments from England; it’s not outrageous or whimsical furniture, it’s just solid and very useful, like tables that you always use and nice armchairs. American Wing in Bridgehampton has amusing rattan and bamboo things that aren’t expensive.
Mica Ertegun, interior designer
The Cedric Dupont collection in Southampton has some wonderful things – really, really fabulous things and very important antiques, not just medium things or the country type of antique. Ann Madonia on Job’s Lane also has wonderful things, and I always go to the antiques show in Southampton College, usually at the end of August.
Mai Hallingby
The Bridgehampton Community House has many antiques shows that are terrific for browsing, and you can get wonderful buys. Don’t laugh – I got some stone poodles, the kind that greet you at the door. A few too many of them, but then, I own giant white poodles.
Karen LeFrak
There’s a lot of old, great-looking stuff – real treasures – at Ruby Beets in Bridgehampton. I got a dressing table for my bathroom there; it’s all sort of understated and distressed.
Pamela Gross
Hotel
The Maidstone Arms in East Hampton is just a brilliant, stunning place; they also have separate outdoor cottages and a terrific kitchen. Each one of the eight rooms at The American Hotel in Sag Harbor is decorated differently; they’re exquisite. They’re my friends over there, and I called and said a top exec at Warner Bros. Pictures was coming; they said, “Oh, no, forget it,” and they blew me off.
Steven Gaines
I’ve stayed at Sunset Beach, which is beyond; it’s like staying at the Chateau Marmont, it’s so well designed and chic and fabulous inside.
Lucy Sykes
Flowers
Artistry in Flowers in Southampton, where the owner is the most accommodating young man. He knows the people you’re sending them to, and he knows where they might place them, he’s been around so long. I could spend a couple of hours watching them arrange flowers at Mecox Gardens in Southampton: They have beautiful, impeccable style.
Karen LeFrak
Topiaire in Southampton does everybody’s flowers. The woman there comes to the house to see what your décor is and she works with you; she always gets things there the same day or the day you want them.
Pamela Gross
Sushi
What’s so great about Sen in Sag Harbor? That it’s Japanese, and it’s out here. The sushi is very fresh. I go there a few nights a week.
Ross Bleckner
Garden
Marty Richards has an oceanfront house in Southampton with a legendary rose garden. Jack Lenor Larsen at Round House in East Hampton and Bob Dash of Madoo in Sagaponack both run foundations based on their gardens. Charlotte Ford’s in Southampton is a beauty; it’s about 10 acres, and she has a pond. She’s got everything from a driveway lined with perfectly manicured crab-apple trees to the traditional cutting garden.
Preston Phillips
Barber
Ralph’s Barbershop in Southampton is right out of Mayberry R.F.D. He’s a young man, a beefy bass fisherman who lives in Sag Harbor, and he’s got a one-man operation. He gives a great haircut for $12, but it’s basically sit-down-and-take-a-number. It doesn’t matter who you are; very often have to wait an hour.
Steven Stolman
Hairdresser
They just redid La Carezza in Southampton and expanded it, so it’s totally clean and modern. Everybody’s nice, and they do a really good job with manicures, pedicures, and waxing.
Pamela Gross
Gay Hangout
Paradise in Sag Harbor goes completely gay at about nine o’clock on the weekends. Then there’s late-night dancing at The Swamp in Wainscott – still the only show in town.
Steven Gaines
Swimming Pool
Marty Richards’s in Southampton is mega-Olympic, and he keeps it nice and warm. The gardens are spectacular, and honey, from an English girl, you can’t get a better compliment.
Ann Dexter-Jones
Tennis Court
There’s nowhere better on earth than Southampton’s Meadow Club. What is it – 36 grass courts? I don’t think there’s anything nicer or softer on your knees.
Jamee Gregory
Golf Course
I’ve never played Shinnecock and I’ve never played the Maidstone, because I’m Jewish. But I have played the fabulous Hebrew National, which is the Atlantic in Bridgehampton. It’s the best course I’ve played on. I also belong to Hampton Hills in Westhampton, which is the best hidden, unknown course. It’s not a pretentious course – it’s a very, very low-key nice course, and from what I understand, it’s also a course that has a richer membership than any of them out there.
Robert Morton
Irish Bar
The Pig n’ Whistle between Amagansett and Montauk is an offshoot of the West Side bar of the same name, and it’s packing the kids in. It’s staffed by Irish college kids who do the summer work in bars and restaurants out here, so there are genuine Irish guys pulling the beers.
Neil Travis, gossip columnist
Lawn
Bob Taft and Philip Moloney’s Hill Street lawn in Southampton just defies description. Bob’s a former publicist at Hill & Knowlton; Philip is a retired Wall Streeter. Their lawn looks like a Stark carpet, and they nurture it as if it were their child.
Steven Stolman