Breakers Restaurant In Montauk Is to Reopen
The Breakers Motel on Old Montauk Highway in Montauk is going back to the future, according County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, who owns the motel with his sister, Helen Ficalora.
Mr. Schneiderman, who has reached the term limit and cannot run for re-election, is planning to renovate the motel’s restaurant, which has not been open for some time. But, he said Monday, it will be quite a different restaurant than those in Montauk that have some residents on edge.
“This is not going to be another Surf Lodge,” he promised. “Closing time will be 9:30, maybe 10, on weekends,” he said.
The Breakers, which has 25 motel units in 12 buildings and several cottages that were once part of the old fishing village, was opened by his parents, who bought and merged three motels.
Mr. Schneiderman said he had yearned for many years to reopen the restaurant, which was called the Burgundy House Buffet. “You could smell the blueberry muffins,” he said, recalling childhood mornings.
The restaurant will have a new name (the shingles were painted burgundy back then) and the menu will be different. “Very healthy,” he said, “a lot of vegetarian dishes and seafood.”
The plans call for moving the kitchen to a downstairs space, fully renovating the dining area, and creating an ocean view. Because restaurants are permitted in hotel zones, officials have had no issue with its having been abandoned, he said.
Mr. Schneiderman said the Suffolk County Health Services Department had approved seating in the restaurant for 60 people after looking at photographs and postcards to determine what was in the old restaurant. There will be tables for 32 in the dining room, a new bar will seat 8, and the outside deck, already in place, will seat another 20 patrons. The septic system has been replaced with a modern one that can handle the additional flow.
According to a memo to the East Hampton Town Planning Board from Marguerite Wolffsohn, head of the Planning Department, the interior alterations can proceed without site plan approval.
Mr. Schneiderman called the clientele at the Breakers eclectic, with a mix of Europeans, artists and writers, and families, many of whom return year after year.
With fingers crossed, he is hoping for a July Fourth opening, although, given what he acknowledged was the difficulty of finding contractors at this time of year, he concedes that August might be more realistic.
There will be lunch and dinner served during the season and a continental breakfast. And, Mr. Schneiderman hopes, fresh blueberry muffins.