Almond Cracks Open L&W Market in Bridgehampton

Since Friday, South Forkers have been given the chance not only to continue eating very well indeed at the Almond bistro on Ocean Road and Main Street in Bridgehampton, but also to take home food that has been prepared in the Almond kitchen from the new L&W Market next door.

Eric Lemonides and Jason Weiner, business partners and co-owners since 2001 of Almond, have expanded their endeavors to include a market that sells many of the delicious things Almond is known for.

Mr. Weiner, Almond’s executive chef, and Jeremy Blutstein, the chef de cuisine, have introduced a line of fermented foods, Kimchi Jews, that includes kimchi, pickled garlic scapes, different fish sauces, sauerkraut, fire cider, and miso. L&W also offers harissa and other Asian-inspired foods that are made in the Almond kitchen. Customers will  find all sorts of prepared foods, thanks to the market’s doubling up with Almond’s kitchen, including sandwiches, lobster salad, green salads, baba ganoush, pickled herring, hummus, sausage, farro tabouleh, curried mussels, smoked fish, rillettes, gravlax, and even marinated octopus salad and roast striped bass.

Various chutneys, caponatas, and murabbas from Le Bon Magot can be bought at the market as well. In addition to sourcing their produce, grain, and protein from the East End, the team carries items from nearby farms such as Quail Hill, Amber Waves, Balsam Farms, and Foster Farms, and cheeses from Art Ludlow’s Mecox Bay Dairy. 

Coffee and pastries baked on site are  available, and, just in case you need a beautiful knife to cut them with, the market is carrying a line of knives made by Dereyk Patterson of East Hampton.

Mr. Weiner’s wife, Almond Zigmund, for whom the restaurant is named, said on Friday that her husband and Mr. Lemonides had spoken of the idea of a market for quite some time. Once the antiques furniture store next door moved out and the space became available, the partners pounced. With some design input from James McChesney, a Southampton architect, they actually built a lot of the market themselves. It is airy and spacious yet cozy, with a mosaic tile floor, black-grouted wall tile, and a pressed-tin ceiling — and a slightly old-fashioned Manhattan feel.

The market will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week.