Photography by Doug Young
What does fine dining really mean? Does it really matter? Is it really worth it?
The late, great Anthony Bourdain said, “I think fine dining is dying out everywhere… but I think there will be — and there has to always be — room for at least a small number of really fine, old-school dining restaurants.”
In the Hamptons, and in most places across the globe, the fine-dining descriptor has taken on a broader, looser interpretation. Locally, the days of performing white-glove service at restaurants may be gone, but there are dozens of eateries across the South Fork that still fill the fine-dining bill. It could be argued, however, that there are only a handful that consistently leave guests satiated, impressed and looking to return soon because they can’t get the experience anywhere else.
Stone Creek Inn (405 Montauk Highway, East Quogue, 631-653-6770) is among the select few that stand the test of time and trend. The nearly 30-year-old mainstay, owned by husband-and-wife team Christian Mir and Elaine DiGiacomo, is widely considered an East End institution. Continually lauded by professional critics from the likes of The New York Times and Newsday, Stone Creek is both beloved and revered for its discreet sophistication and deftly prepared cuisine, calling upon traditionally executed dishes as well as refreshed, modern takes on classics, with an obvious yet thoughtful nod to what’s in season and what can be locally sourced.
But its success goes beyond the excellent food. It’s born of an innate sense of hospitality from two longstanding pros who understand the key ingredient to keeping their restaurant’s concept fresh: listening.
“It’s important because if your customers are telling you what they want, and you don’t do it, it’s a missed opportunity to really grow your business,” says DiGiacomo. “If they’re telling you something, you should listen.”
For that reason and many more, Stone Creek holds court as the ultimate special-occasion spot on the East End — and a spot that can, ultimately, make any occasion special.
A creek runs through it
Located on the western end of Southampton Town in the unofficial gateway to the Hamptons, Mir and DiGiacomo’s classic French-Mediterranean-influenced mainstay sits a bit off the beaten path, a noticeably healthy distance from the faster-paced hustle and bustle found in the hamlets east of the Shinnecock Canal. Grandly perched upon a five-acre plot on a sleepy stretch of Montauk Highway, the space holds about 150 or so seats across two light and airy dining rooms in tones of sand, cream, white and wood, as well as a clubby 12-seat bar. It manages to create a vibe that’s opulent yet free of pretension.
The over 5,000-square-foot, three-story Victorian-style building was initially a private residence built in 1910 by Whitefield Terrell, the original proprietor of the Tiana Beach Pavilion in Hampton Bays. Not long after, it was sold to Henry Frank, who turned it into a restaurant dubbed the Ambassador Inn.
During Prohibition, it was a speakeasy with a small cottage located in the back of the property that was used to receive and cleverly store contraband liquor.
“The cottage had moveable porches around it which could be swung open when liquor was delivered by car under cover of night,” read late Quogue historian Pat Shuttleworth’s notes from a 1982 conversation with Marie and Paul Villa, who became owners of the Ambassador in 1938.
After about five years, the Villas opened Villa Paul in the downtown section of neighboring Hampton Bays, and Delphine Lecari took over as owner of the pretty Victorian. However, the large space proved difficult to maintain, and Lecari eventually abandoned the business while maintaining a residence in the property’s cottage.
Close to a decade after the Ambassador shuttered, DiGiacomo and Mir struck a deal with Lecari in 1995, reopening their own restaurant in the space with Lecari as the leaseholder. After extensive renovations, it debuted in 1996 as Stone Creek Inn — named for one of the bodies of water that runs behind the property.
Manhattan meets Mediterranean
“I’m a real paysan,” Mir says with a smile, nodding to his country upbringing. “I’m from a small village,” he says of the rural town of Villemur, just north of Toulouse in the southwestern countryside of France and a little over a hundred miles from the Mediterranean Sea.
After attending culinary school, Mir worked at a handful of classic French restaurants, starting out as a chef de partie and eventually moving up the ranks into the role of executive chef. During his stint at Le Catellas, he received a notation of 14 from Gault & Millau, a French restaurant guide comparable to Michelin that typically focuses more heavily on the quality of the food and how it is used.
In the early ‘90s Mir left his French homeland, setting his sights on the culinary world within the United States, specifically New York City.
“I had traveled a little bit but had seen nothing like New York,” he says.
He landed in Manhattan in 1991, working for three years as executive sous chef at the iconic Tavern on the Green, immersing himself in American-style cuisine. It was here that he met his future wife and business partner, as fellow cook DiGiacomo was completing a paid stage in the restaurant’s Italian station.
“We got married and had every intention of opening a restaurant, but we were initially looking in New York,” DiGiacomo says. The New Rochelle native, who was introduced to the South Fork during summers spent at her family’s home in Westhampton Beach, began considering locations on the East End after her father, a general contractor who had a hand on the pulse of the community at the time, recommended they check out the vacant East Quogue location.
“My father said, ‘Why don’t you kids look at the Ambassador Inn?’ because we were trying to find a place in New York. I really like my city life, but you know, the city can be really difficult.”
A scene stealer with a touch of old school
The prospect of opening a new restaurant in East Quogue proved an exciting one, as there weren’t a whole lot of options in the historically working-class hamlet.
“We came here, we dined around and we saw that there weren’t any real fine-dining places,” DiGiacomo says. “Everybody had diner silverware because it was so seasonal. So, we thought for our own, ‘Let’s do it right!’”
And they did, pulling out all the stops by arming their soon-to-be-open space with some of the best china, flatware, linen and stemware they could get.
“It was appreciated and it really stood out then, in 1996, us putting all this effort into the tabletop but also creating a whole new experience of dining out,” DiGiacomo says. “I know I want the whole experience when I go out. I want to be treated nicely, I want to feel comfortable. That’s what I look for when I’m trying to share a nice meal with friends and loved ones, so that’s what I try to promote here.”
The food, of course, followed suit. “It’s what we were doing anyway,” says Mir of Stone Creek’s initial culinary style. “A lot of this [our decisions] has been very consistent. That’s probably the most important part of the success.”
While it’s apparent the menu takes its fair share of inspiration from traditional French cuisine, practices and techniques, Mir and his 10-strong kitchen staff generally take a broader approach that draws from a Mediterranean influence when crafting both signature and seasonal dishes.
“Coming from France, I had different ideas about how to eat, what to eat, especially when it comes to seasonality of food and eating local,” he says. “It’s a little overused these days, the idea of farm-to-table, but it’s still what we are doing here.”
While timeless, crowd-pleasing classics are well-represented as menu mainstays (like the warm egg custard topped with Kaluga caviar, the Provençale-crusted rack of lamb and the Scottish salmon with lemon beurre blanc) there’s also a menu section dedicated to seasonal dishes that celebrate local bounty. Additionally, there’s an ever-changing $45 prix-fixe option served practically nightly on a year-round basis, as well as plenty of shareable sides and bites for diners to consider.
“We’ve found a way to navigate the menu,” DiGiacomo says, “because there are adventurous eaters [who] don’t always want to see the same thing. We wanted to, of course, keep the items that we know are winners, but also have space to showcase whatever the new things are.”
Once a Stone Creeker, always a Stone Creeker
With over 40 people working at Stone Creek between the back and front of the house (with up to 30 FOH staff alone during the summer season), general manager Gabrielle Walsh is part of a staff that tends to stick around.
“I make a joke to everybody: once you become a Stone Creeker, you’re a Stone Creeker for life,” she says. Walsh, a Westhampton Beach native, has worked at the resto since 2007, starting out as a server and moving into assistant managing around 2010. “I don’t have children, but I have bussers,” she laughs, adding how rewarding it is to see her nurturing efforts with coworkers come to fruition. “I think the nature of the staff here, it’s one of those things that really sets us apart.”
Walsh has been nestled in her current role for about a decade. She’s also Stone Creek’s wine and beverage director, consistently earning them the coveted Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator annually, touting a variety of regions, styles and price points. More recently, her efforts include initiating a specialty cocktail list inspired by the building’s former incarnation as a speakeasy over 100 years ago. Additionally, Walsh has crafted a special au courant agave cocktail section, highlighting tequila and mezcal-based drinks, as well as ample nonalcoholic cocktails.
Joining Walsh as a longstanding staffer is Maeghan Byrne, who has been an assistant manager for about 15 years. Longtime bartender Phil Eberhardt retired this past spring after working at Stone Creek for 25 years, and in the kitchen, Justina Napoles “has been with us since day one,” Mir says, adding that she was the very first person he interviewed.
“They make me look great,” says Mir of his wife, Walsh, Byrne and the rest of the team. “The customer satisfaction, the mentoring of all of the staff we’ve had; it’s very rewarding, what we do here.”
The old Victorian building’s original purpose as a residence was, indeed, short lived. But under the vision of Mir and DiGiacomo, the notion of hominess-meets-hospitality is alive, well and thriving.
“When customers come here, they feel like they’re in somebody’s home, and that’s what we want. It’s that warm welcome we can give you,” Walsh says. “When you’re trying to figure out where you want to go to eat, you’re going to end up going to the place that makes you feel good. That’s the relationship we have here. And aren’t relationships what life is all about, anyway?”
