Hidden amidst the flowering vines, citrus trees and lace hydrangeas at Charlie & Sons Landscapes (26 Montauk Highway, Amagansett, 631-267-3182), you’ll find something other than garden-variety nursery offerings. Now, you’ll find friends drinking espresso citrus tonics, toddlers tearing into glazed donuts and neighbors sitting down for a community breathwork class at the recently opened Amagansett Coffee Company, tucked just inside the to the 53-year-old organic nursery and garden center, lending more than garden-variety flats of petunias and marigolds to the offerings inside — but that’s the point.
Charlie & Sons, a Montauk Highway fixture for ferns and foliage since 1973 when it was opened by Eleanor Whitmore as Amagansett Flower Shop, is hoping to become the neighborhood’s new Third Place.
The reinvention comes courtesy of Charlie Whitmore’s son, Matias, and his wife, Nikki, who have quietly been adding a thoughtful lifestyle vibe to the family-owned garden space with a coffee shop, boutique, art gallery and donation-based yoga and breathwork classes.
“My husband’s grandmother Eleanor started this business as a garden center, but she also had antiques and a beautifully curated gift shop,” says Nikki. “She would always lead with kindness, bringing cookies to her vendors, and I always admired that. We wanted to make something so that people would pause for a moment and sit down and take a breath.”
Third-generation Amagansett business owner and Amagansett resident Matias Whitmore and his wife, Nikki, have opened Amagansett Coffee inside the long-standing family landscaping business, folding coffee and community culture into the spaces, inside and out, of the family landscaping business. (Photos courtesy of Three Mile Media)
This season, they transformed the sprawling garden center, partnering with several local businesses to create a place where locals can relax, linger and enjoy the serene setting. To create a secret-garden vibe, they dotted the grounds with bistro tables and benches, couches and lounge areas. In the greenhouse, the younger Whitmores pushed citrus trees and tropical plants to the perimeter and added picnic tables down the center for groups to gather for coffee, a bite or a game of cards with the kids.
They partnered with Kyle Sanderson of Grindstone Donuts to open Amagansett Coffee Company, bringing in his famed brioche and cake donuts alongside classic lattes and espressos. He’s added a unique menu of coffee tonics that lean on flowers and citrus; there’s a Café Miel (espresso, honey, milk and cinnamon), a Rose Cardamom Latte, an Olla Latte made with burnt sugar and orange and an iced cold brew infused with citrus called the Mazagran. They also added a marketplace full of curated olive oils, fancy canned tomatoes and locally made pantry items and goods.
Next to the coffee shop, the Whitmores opened a pretty boutique selling fresh flower arrangements (a nod to Grandma Eleanor’s original use for Charlie & Sons) and an intentionally curated collection of goods: handmade soaps by Brooklyn’s Even Keel, skincare from woman-owned My Neighbor’s, stationery from Moglea, hand-poured candles and bath salts from Caroline Francis and a tidy capsule of durable gardening vests and shortcoats by Utility Canvas. A kids section filled with books and gardening tools also aims to bring young people outside.
But the heart of the new endeavor is a light-filled gallery and yoga space in the property’s former barn, now transformed into a sunny sanctuary run by ARC Fine Arts’ Adrienne Conzelman, a native of Sagaponak who has three other art galleries in the Hamptons.
“When Nikki invited me to use the barn as a gallery this spring, it was like a dream,” she says, “and one far better than I could’ve ever dreamed up myself to be surrounded by an abundance of flowers and plants.”
Conzelman has hung the work of 40 artists local to the East End for a show entitled “Artists Meet the Sea in Search of the Divine,” which opened July 17 and ends August 31, and runs donation-based yoga and breathwork classes.
“We like to think of it as a community-centric space where teachers who are only here for a little while might be able to teach, and also offer yoga in a beautiful and relaxed setting,” says Conzelman, who teaches alongside instructors like Tonia Slade, Jess Bellofatto and Jenna Walter.
“We want to create a community space where we can interact with our customers and have all these different experiences within what would otherwise be a more utilitarian garden center,” says Nikki. “Our role is to bring people together and to create spaces for more community.”
Amagansett Coffee Company is open 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily. Yoga classes are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8-9 a.m. and Sunday from 8:30-9:30 a.m., with breathwork on Saturdays from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. with Craig O’Brien of Hamptons Breathwork. Full schedule here.
