Pierre’s of Bridgehampton To Take Over the Sagg Store
This summer families will be able to keep the routine of stopping at the Sagg Store for sandwiches before heading to the beach, though there may just be a certain je ne sais quoi to doing so, as customers will find a French flair to the food and a different name on the door.
Pierre Weber, as in Pierre’s restaurant in Bridgehampton, bought the Sagaponack institution, closing the purchase of the business and the lease of the space on March 1, according to Melissa Green of Sotheby’s International Realty in Bridgehampton, who brokered the deal. Rich and Karen Thayer, fourth-generation owners, are holding on to the building, though they have decided to retire from the food business after a decade.
Mr. Weber has plans for a high-end takeout shop serving everything from soups and sandwiches to quiches and croissants, coffee and snacks to smoothies and homemade ice cream. The front portion will sell grab-and-go sandwiches, pastries, vegetables, and juices, while the back will offer rotisserie chicken, more prepared foods, and catering.
“It will be very similar in terms of the product — and French,” Mr. Weber said.
When he first came to the South Fork 20 years ago, he wandered into the Sagg Store and ordered a tuna melt. “I had no idea what a tuna melt was,” said Mr. Weber, who was raised in Paris, where his parents owned a bakery. “I never thought I would have this opportunity. When it came, I grabbed it.”
While he will “gut it out,” he will “put it back in” and “respect the history.” He wants the business to stay a center and meeting place for the Sagaponack community.
The store on Sagg Main Street, with its large plate-glass windows and front porch that it shares with the post office, has been a throwback of sorts despite a rapidly changing landscape. Gone are the days when the small village was home only to potato farmers. In 2015 Sagaponack was the most expensive ZIP code in the country, according to the online news site Business Insider. But while the price tags may have changed, food, groceries, and basic supplies have been a constant.
The building has always been a general store and post office. The older part dates to 1878, when Thaddeus Edwards ran it. An addition was built around 1900.
The Hildreth family bought the building about 20 years after it was constructed, and it has remained in the family ever since. Mr. Thayer and his wife purchased the building in the late 1990s from Mr. Thayer’s uncle, Merrall Hildreth, a postmaster who ran it for three decades as the Hildreth and Co. General Store.
However, the couple didn’t take over the business until 2006, after a tenant’s lease expired. They renovated the interior but stayed true to the store’s old feel. “Richie used to stick his hand in the candy jar in front and wanted it to stay the same,” his wife said at the time. They changed the name from the Sagaponack General Store to keep with how locals referred to it.
The move is bittersweet for Mr. Thayer, whose daughters, Mimi and Kasey, were doing most of the work there. “Times changed. People change,” he said by phone last week. When his family took over the Sagg Store, he retired from construction. “Now I guess I’m just going to retire.”
The post office will remain (Mr. Hildreth divided it and the general store into separate spaces in the early 1970s). Mr. Thayer said the postal service has another five years on its lease and three more five-year options.
Mr. Weber said he is putting out a call for “local talent” to work in the store. He hopes to open the front portion by the week after Easter, and the back by Memorial Day weekend. Two thousand sixteen “is going to be a good year for me. I feel very happy,” he said.