New Proprietors For G&T Chicken House

The G&T Dairy Chicken House, owned and operated since the 1940s by the Tillinghast family of East Hampton, will likely be sold to Arthur Seekamp, an owner of Brent's General Store in Amagansett.

Robert and Frank Tillinghast, the owners of the Race Lane, East Hampton, deli, said no money had changed hands yet, but that a contract was in the mail.

A bigger and better deli, along the line of Brent's, is the plan, according to David Winthrop, a Brent's manager. The business will be closed for renovations for about six weeks, he said.

Night Business

Among other things, new salad cases and a steam table will be installed. Mr. Seekamp hopes to attract night-time business, said Mr. Winthrop, and to offer a wide choice of hot meals. The new store will carry many more grocery items, too.

Mr. Seekamp has been asking the brothers about the G&T "for about four years," said Frank Tillinghast, but they were not interested. Now, he said, with his children through college, he "just wants a change."

The Tillinghast family ran a dairy business in the village for many years. They have sold milk at the store since 1942; it was expanded into a deli in the 1970s.

Same Name

Mr. Seekamp, said Mr. Winthrop, "has always wanted to get that place." His partner in another delicatessen, in Woodbury, will join him in this venture as well. The property itself will be leased for now.

One aspect of the business may stay the same - the name. Since most East Hamptoners will continue to call it the Chicken House anyway, Mr. Winthrop said, Mr. Seekamp may just go along. The strategy worked well with Brent's, another neighborhood institution.