Business & Tech

Della Femina Restaurant To Close, Owner Blames Obama

Hillstone Restaurant Group plans to open East Hampton Grill by Memorial Day Weekend.

Jerry Della Femina has sold the that bear's his last name and has become a staple East Hampton restaurant for almost two decades.

Mei Li, the manager of marketing at the Hillstone Restaurant Group that has 47 restaurants around the country, confirmed on Tuesday night that it will open the East Hampton Grill next month.

Li said that it was a fast-paced project for Hillstone, as the restaurant plans on opening Memorial Day Weekend, in time for the summer season. Della Femina's, she said, won't close though until mid-May.

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She said she could not provide a dollar figure for the sale, but in his column "Jerry's Ink" that appeared in his newspaper The Independent on Wednesday, Della Femina said the building and the restaurant had both been sold.

In 1993, Della Femina, a former advertising executive, was part of a group that bought the building at 99 North Main Street. "North Main Street at the time was viewed as being on 'the other side of the tracks' compared to the rest of East Hampton," he wrote in his column. "The building at one time used to house a terrible Chinese restaurant where, at the dingy bar, more drugs were sold than egg rolls. I decided to build a restaurant on that site."

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"What did I know about running a restaurant? Exactly what I know today, 18 years later: nothing. But not knowing something is never bad – you can always learn, but thinking you know it all can be fatal," he continued.

With the help of those with more expertise in the field, Della Femina built a successfull, popular restaurant.

It was President Obama's election and subsequent tax hikes for the rich that made him sell, Della Femina wrote. Last year The New York Post wrote about his decision to leave the Hamptons and his East Hampton house is still on the market. "I'm just not ready to have my wealth redistributed. I'm not ready to pay more tax money than the next guy because I provide jobs and because I work a 60-hour week and I earn more than $250,000 a year," he said.

Manager Walter Struble and Chef Michael Rozzi will need a new restaurant after spending between 14 and 16 years there.

Li said the East Hampton Grill is in the process of hiring wait and kitchen staff for the dinner only restaurant.

The restaurant will be modeled after the group's Palm Beach Grill, but tailored for the South Fork crowd, Li said. "It will be a casual but elegant setting with top notch food," using fresh, local ingredients when available.

"We've been looking at the Hamptons for a little while and we're very, very excited to join the Hamptons community," she said.

While Hillstone does plan a small interior renovation before it opens, Li said a second "overhaul" will be done, most likely after the summer season.


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