Last Call at Peconic Beverage East
“Dear Friends and Patrons of Peconic Beverage East,” the letter begins. “We regret to inform you that we will be closing indefinitely as of July 1st.”
The timing of the announcement, posted at the entrance to the East Hampton beer and soda distributorship, could scarcely be worse for both residents and imminently arriving visitors for the Independence Day weekend and beyond. The letter, signed by Kurt Cooper Moller, cites “circumstances beyond our control” for the impending expiration of the business’s license to sell alcoholic beverages and the refusal of its unnamed landlords to execute a lease.
The store could reopen, said Mr. Moller, who has been at the beer and soda distributor for about a year. “But right now it looks like it’s going to sit here empty for an undetermined amount of time.” His father, Gary Moller, has been managing the store in the absence of its owner, William C. Hurley, he said.
Mr. Hurley, a Sag Harbor resident and longtime owner of the beer and soda distributor on Pantigo Place, was sentenced to two years in prison last October after pleading guilty to multiple charges stemming from a July 2013 accident on Route 114 in East Hampton that injured the driver and her 6-year-old son. Mr. Hurley’s truck swerved across lane lines, colliding with a car driven by Elizabeth Krimendahl, whose son suffered a fractured skull; Ms. Krimendahl sustained a broken ankle in the crash. Mr. Hurley admitted to having consumed two vodka and grapefruit drinks before leaving the store on the day of the accident.
Prior to his incarceration, Mr. Hurley was in the process of selling the business to Gary Moller, the younger Mr. Moller said, but did not complete the sale. His sentencing had been postponed twice: a first time to allow him to get his affairs in order and again after he fell off a ladder and badly broke his leg. An effort by his attorney to gain an additional adjournment was unsuccessful.
Consequently, Mr. Hurley remains one of the building’s three owners, along with Matthew Worrell and Charles Hausman. “The other two landlords won’t give us a lease, because they want to take over the building,” Kurt Moller said. “That’s all I’ll get into. It’s a long saga.” Attempts to reach Mr. Worrell and Mr. Hausman, who lives out of state, were unsuccessful.
David Churchill of Churchill Wines and Spirits, next door to Peconic Beverage East, said that he had opened his business there in order to take advantage of the traffic coming to the beer and soda store. “I’m annoyed because of how it’s going to affect me,” he said on Monday. “It’s going to be vacant until somebody gets a liquor license.”
Peconic Beverage is the only spot in or around East Hampton Village to get kegs of beer. People looking for kegs after July 1 will have a choice among Montauk Beer and Soda on South Elmwood Avenue, Sag Harbor Beverage, at 89 Division Street, and Peconic Beverage on Montauk Highway in Southampton, which is not connected to Peconic Beverage East, an employee said yesterday.
“On behalf of Bill Hurley and the entire staff,” the letter reads, “we’d like to thank you for 35 years of support and patronage. I would also like to personally thank all of the good-humored people I’ve met over this past year. It is the array of good-natured comedic characters that really made Peconic Bev what it is today. . . . It has been a pleasure serving the good people of East Hampton.”