“This isn’t a summertime gig for us,” said Tora Matsuoka, a co-owner of Tip Top Hospitality, which recently opened Smokey Buns at 68 Park Place in East Hampton, on the newly renovated, brick-lined, Eastman Way. “We wanted to provide the community with a family friendly, fun, flavorful, and affordable restaurant. Those concepts are important in all of our restaurants because we live here.”
“Burgers + Bourbon” reads the tagline that hovers over video of grilled smashburgers being prepared on the restaurant’s website. If you’re not up for a burger, Smokey Buns also serves ups such things as a crispy chickenwich, fishwich, chili pot, slaw pot, and interestingly, the most expensive item on its menu, a $15 haloumi sandwich. Haloumi is a hard Mediterranean cheese. Smokey Buns pairs it with slaw, arugula, avocado, tomato jam, and lemon vinaigrette, and places it all in a spinach wrap. Mr. Matsuoka is particularly proud of the veggie burger, dubbed the mushroom smash.
David Hart, the culinary director and co-founder of Tip Top Hospitality, “worked on it for six months. If you don’t want to eat meat, why eat fake meat? Fake meats aren’t healthy. The ingredients are unpronounceable, and their sodium content is high. We wanted to create a great veggie burger that had real ingredients and held together. Even for a hardcore meat eater, I enjoy it very much.”
“Shakes go with burgers, so we did a cool little ice cream shop too. One concept with two expressions,” Mr. Matsuoka said. Scoop and Waffle, which occupies a connected space open to the restaurant, features 12 flavors of ice cream. “Real sugar. Real cream. Full flavor,” he said.
While Smokey Buns is new, Tip Top Hospitality is not. Tip Top also operates Kumiso, on an alleyway in East Hampton, K-Pasa and Sen in Sag Harbor, and Kizzy T’s, about a mile and a half from downtown East Hampton Village. They’ve hit upon a formula that’s been successful, despite the challenges of the Covid era.
At Smokey Buns, there are more than 50 bourbons and whiskeys on the menu. “Kumiso focuses on sake, and with K-Pasa we got to nerd out with tequila. With Smokey Buns, we asked ourselves, ‘What goes great with burgers?’ Dark spirits. The smokey sweetness of bourbons is so good with a burger.”
“The Hamptons is too small to duplicate a concept, but we looked at the market and thought something fast and casual would be appropriate,” Mr. Matsuoka said. Responding to feedback he’s heard in his other restaurants, he said Tip Top wanted to create a place for adults and kids, where a family could quickly pick up a bite without having to sit at a table. “We focus on staple foods: tacos at K-Pasa, sushi and ramen at Kumiso, but there’s only so many staple foods and there’s Italian all over the Hamptons, so we said, ‘Let’s do burgers.’ ”
Mild controversy surrounded the redevelopment of Eastman Square, which Jay Eastman’s family has owned for 55 years. Until recently, it was home to Khanh Sports, which had been at 60 Park Place for nearly 30 years, and Warren Tricomi, a hair salon that spent decades at 66 Park Place. The leases for both tenants were not renewed. The corner of the Reutershan lot was torn up for months as new septic systems were installed to handle the flow from the new restaurant and from the new Amber Waves outpost at 64 Park Place, which offers grab-and-go salads, wraps, iced drinks, flowers, and merch.
“The Eastman family told us the municipality was encouraging the transition from dry space to wet space, and that’s when we opened Kumiso,” Mr. Matsuoka said. “The landlord came back to us, told us they loved what we were doing, and said they’d love food service in the square. The Eastman family has a focus on community and to do what’s good for the village. It’s not just a business for them, which is something I admire and respect.”
Smokey Buns plans to remain open seven days a week, year round, from noon until 10 p.m.
