Ciao Bids Adieu to Montauk

A Montauk restaurant called before the East Hampton Town Board for a review of its music entertainment permit after being cited five times over the summer for violations of the town noise code has “made a decision to close” for good due to the negative impact of the enforcement actions, and publicity, Sharon Buckler, a representative of the restaurant, told the board on Tuesday.

The restaurant, which she said employs 26 people, a third of which are local, had been slated to stay open after the summer season.

Ms. Buckler acknowledged that the board has been taking a hard line to address ongoing code violations in Montauk that brought residents to complain en masse about untenable conditions in the hamlet. But, she said, “Ciao by the Beach is not the problem.”

She said that the restaurant had hosted more than 30 musical performances during the season without incident, and took issue with the circumstances surrounding several of the summonses that were issued. In one case, she said, while music equipment was still set up past a 9 p.m. music cut-off hour set by the town, the band was no longer performing but was sitting down to a meal. Nonetheless, the restaurant was ticketed, she said.

Ms. Buckler also refuted statements about excessive noise from Ciao made by several Montauk residents at a Sept. 1 hearing held by the town board on the restaurant’s music permit. According to the law, after an establishment receives three summonses in one year, the board may have a hearing and decide to revoke or revise the terms of a business’s permit.

The statements “were lies,” she said. John Allen, a Rough Riders Landing resident who complained to the board last week, happened to be on hand, and took issue with being called a liar. “I don’t lie,” he said. “I heard loud music, and it was after 9 o’clock.”