Earlier this month, on Oct. 8, Union Burger Bar moved from its longtime location on Bowden Square in Southampton into the space inhabited by its sister operation, Southampton Social Club, located at 256 Elm St., just steps away from the train station. Rebranded as Union Southampton, the newly opened resto will double as an event space and venue, with the interests of the local community in mind.
“At that venue [Union Burger Bar] our lease came up,” says owner Ian Duke. “We tried to negotiate. We couldn’t get to a a number. We like to believe we’re a big part of the community. We didn’t want to end it. So, our idea was ‘why don’t we take the best of what we do at Burger Bar, we’ll move it over to where Social Club is, and we will operate as Union Southampton, where we now take dynamics that Social Club had as well, meaning our sushi program, along with elevated cuisine compared to what we were doing at Burger Bar, and now we’re doing all of it together.”
And while Social Club, an upscale restaurant, bar and event space which for the past 16 years has operated during the summer months, will remain as such during peak season, the two entities are slated to coexist under one roof, with Union Burger Bar elements taking charge as we head into the winter.
Serving lunch and dinner every day, Union Southampton will offer up some of the beloved Burger Bar favorites, such as specialty burgers, sandwiches, salads and familiar pub fare. For dinner, additional entree options up the dining ante with options including filet mignon, butternut squash ravioli and maple grain mustard salmon. Additionally, a hand-rolled sushi menu is offered
Merging the two genres of hospitality looks to not only benefit the Southampton dining scene, but the entire Southampton scene in general, as Union Southampton seeks to provide live entertainment, in some form, for the masses on a regular basis.
“Whether it be trivia on Wednesdays, bingo on Fridays, live music on Friday nights after bingo and Saturdays, there’ll be sometimes we do DJs. We’re going to be doing things. There’ll be bourbon dinners, wine dinners. We wanna, we wanna make the place somewhere that has something going on all the time. To be very straightforward, I got so tired of hearing that there’s nothing to do in Southampton in the offseason.
This weekend, Union Southampton celebrates Halloween with their “Nightmare on Elm Street” party, featuring a costume contest, food and drink specials, and live music from Cat-5. For more information, click here.
We’re going to be incorporating facets of what we did with Social Club, in addition to stuff we do at Union,” Duke says. “The goal is to create a venue that has something going on, if not every day, nearly every day.”
