Around 7 p.m. Thursday — just after the aperitivo hour — plates of $85 veal parmesan and $82 strip loin landed on white-clothed tables at the East Hamptons outpost of Sartiano’s, the trendy Soho Italian restaurant frequented by celebrities such as Paul McCartney, Martha Stewart. , Margot Robbie and Gisele Bündchen.
But outside the Hedges Inn, which is a hotspot, there is trouble. As The Post watched, East Hampton police surrounded the building four times in less than 30 minutes.
After 10 p.m., a restaurant staff whispers, “There’s a SWAT team outside” — an exaggeration, of course, but three police officers surround the hydrangea entrance to slap Sartiano with two village infractions for “disturbance,” including recorded music. , which could be heard “from 50 feet away,” a restaurant insider told The Post, citing no fines.
However, as The Post observed, the music – the softest yacht rock, including America’s “You Could Do Magic” – could not be heard outside the building at any time and turned off at 9:20 p.m.
“They came out to get him,” murmured one diner, a 45-year-old banker who lives nearby.
“He” is Scott Sartiano’s, a restaurant that, according to insiders, has been visited by health inspectors or local police almost every day since its namesake sign opened in mid-July.
As The Post’s Jennifer Gould previously reported, local residents claim letters from village administration were sent to Hedges neighbors asking them to call in noise complaints.
But some, including other East Hampton business owners, say it’s an all-out war and that Sartiano was wrongly targeted by village officials, including Mayor Jerry Larsen, a former police chief.
“They’re watching Scott because other people have restaurants that have evolved into clubs after certain hours,” the longtime East Hampton business owner told The Post. “He is a smart and respectful business man. They don’t want to create controversy.”
It has hardly been la dolce vita out east for Sartiano this summer. Back in March, he began talks to bring his private social club, Zero Bond — a Noho location that is a favorite of Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian and Mayor Eric Adams — to the historic Hedges Inn.
But the East Hampton Village Board killed that dream in May, passing an ordinance requiring all eating and drinking establishments in the village’s historic district to close at 11 p.m.
A lawyer for the lodge, Chris Kelly, told The Post in April that the ordinance was apparently designed specifically to keep out the club.
“Let’s face it, Zero Bond is really a nightclub…” village administrator Marcos Baladron said at the village board meeting where the legislation was passed on May 17, according to the East Hampton Star. “If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s a duck, and no ducks are allowed here.”
“This guy has a vendetta,” a source close to the situation previously claimed to The Post of Mayor Larsen.
In an email received on Aug. 2, Larsen told The Post that police have responded to four noise complaints at Sartiano’s since opening — though a source close to the restaurant said, “They’ve sent police seven out of 10 nights. It’s been open.”
“The property is restricted because it is in a residential district. These rules/laws must be followed in order to be respectful of the neighbors,” Larsen said in the email.
Meanwhile, on Friday night, the Maidstone Hotel – .2 miles away from Sartiano and also in the residential area of the historic district – was almost silent. Standing about 50 feet away, The Post could clearly hear the tenor of “That’s Amore” on the outdoor patio at Italian restaurant LDV, opened last month by LDV Hospitality, the group behind Scarpetta in Manhattan and Gurney in Montauk.
Just before 10 p.m., the cast was heard encouraging the clapping guests to “sing along!” for “Sweet Caroline.”
“They play until 9:30 or 10. We don’t want to get in trouble with the city,” the LDV host told The Post, noting that he doesn’t have any problems with the police.
Some neighbors and business owners said Sartiano’s agita seemed to exceed the decibel level.
“The point is, they want to control the noise and they don’t want a party scene in East Hampton Village. The mayor is against Zero Bond, that’s exactly what he’s doing,” the business owner said.
At the May 17 hearing, resident Robert Burch complained about the prospect of Zero Bond: “They will not be open to the public, they will be open to celebrities and everything that brings them; their entourage, hangers-on, a fleet of Suburbans and black Escalades, and lots of paparazzi.
“Mr. Sartiano stated in a Vanity Fair interview (May) that his philosophy is to be able to do ‘whatever he wants,'” neighbor Kenneth Lipper, who also spoke at the hearing, told The Post. but he wants to, doesn’t he meet the law and the covenant that governs it.”
What Sartiano said in the interview was about the nature of Zero Bond’s private club.
“That’s one of the reasons celebrities love it: People who are there every day, you never read about what they eat, who they’re with,” Sartiano told Vanity Fair. “That I am very proud of. I went back to the late 90s, when people could do whatever they wanted. And he wouldn’t do anything he wanted like that again, because he was so nervous.
Lipper added: “It’s no big deal that someone who violates the fire laws governing the historic district, occupancy or noise rules and assigned closing times will cause fire inspectors and police to visit Hedges.”
According to restaurant insiders, the “fire law” reference is related to the violation Sartiano received for the greenery that was quickly removed.
Local residents told The Post, however, that this is not just about Sartiano.
“Last year (the restaurant at the Hedges Inn) was the James Lane Cafe. The neighbors objected to outdoor dining and activities,” the business owner told The Post. In fact, Hedges has had to close every night at 10 pm since the 1981 zoning board decision.
Others have suggested that Larsen may be trying to keep the locals happy for his own benefit.
The mayor owns Protec Security, a private security company he runs with his wife, Lisa — and has clients in the neighboring Hedges Inn, The New York Times reported in June.
“Neighbors, with whom the mayor has ties, may want to ensure there is no disruption to their neighborhood,” one East Hampton business owner told The Post.
The Times noted “it wasn’t hard to find triangular Protec signs emerging from the lawns of several nearby homes” Sartiano.
“The truth is, I have one client within earshot of the Hedges Inn and they have never contacted me about this issue,” Larsen said in an email to The Post.
A manager at another restaurant in East Hampton Village told The Post worried that the police focus on Sartiano might be for other businesses.
“This gives me a little concern. Is he (Sartiano) wrong to rub someone in a village hall meeting? I know vendetta BS like that,” said the manager.
He compared the “pettiness” of Zero Bond / Sartiano’s “vendetta” to the East Hampton pub Rowdy Hall received in violation of his painting of a black facade earlier this year – when the village’s architectural review board said the color was not “harmonious”. ” in the colors of the historic district.
The owner appealed and won.
Several people who dined at Sartiano’s on Thursday and Friday told The Post they live nearby and are happy to have a new restaurant in Hedges.
“We live next door and we’ve been coming here (in East Hampton) for 20 years,” said a woman named Teresa, who asked that her last name not be withheld. “You can’t hear anything.”
While Sartiano declined to comment on specifics, he told The Post: “Despite the challenges I see every day, I am committed to providing the East Hampton community with a great culinary experience at The Hedges Inn.”
