THIS season in the notoriously decadent Hamptons, it’s been less about bling and more about bargains. Well, relatively speaking.
This has been summer in the Hamptons, recession style — where investment bankers have been replaced with unemployed investment bankers, and those with billions in the bank are acting like they only have millions.
“There used to be a sense that since this is the Hamptons, you could charge whatever you want, but that is definitely changing, ” says Jean Mackenzie, owner of the Southampton seafood market Clamman. The store has been selling fresh shellfish since 1982 and never before offered a two-for-one lobster deal — until now.
Nearby, there are sale signs are hanging outside the Chrysalis art gallery for the first time since the modern art dealer opened its doors 15 years ago.
Even the iconic Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge, which attracts the cream of the pastel-clad Hamptons crop, went without a paid celebrity host its opening weekend last Saturday. Guests grumbled about the free potato chips.
“I’ve been here since 1972, and this is worst I’ve seen business,” says Noel Hare, the owner of Herrick Hardware in Southampton. “Even if you are down to your last $500 million, you are still watching all your expenses.”
Hare should know. His store has been open since 1869, and according to local lore, “As goes Herrick’s, so goes the Hamptons.”
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“Everything here is on sale, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying,” says Eugene Remm, a co-owner of Tenjune and other clubs in Manhattan and The Estate in Sag Harbor, a fun palace he and his partners use to host private events and celebrities looking for a place to crash.
According to Remm, parties that used to cost $50,000 or more can now be staged for $10,000, he says, and whereas The Estate hosted four large events by this time last year, so far this year it’s only had one.
To be sure, there are still places on the East End people party are spending like it’s 2007. The Day & Night Beach Club at The Capri Hotel is one such place. Here the Koch brothers have recreated their now-legendary Merkato 55 Saturday brunch in the Meatpacking District. From noon to 6 p.m. every Saturday, thirsty revelers line up outside a velvet rope in the Capri parking lot to gain entry to a swank brunch scene of $30 lobster rolls and $350 magnums of Champaign.
“This is the most decadent party in the Hamptons right now,” says Derek Koch over pounding techno music.
“If you have 12 or 15 people at a table, they are going to spend. They might by a $75 bottle of Rosé instead of a $150 bottle of Champagne, but they end up buying two or three of them.”
Ten miles down Highway 27 is the new nightlife hotspot Georgia. A bustling restaurant that morphs into an even more bustling bottle service lounge at night, its parking lot is full by 10 p.m. Inside, tables of models and the dudes who buy them things pour drinks from $750 bottles of Grey Goose. Partner Matt Levine, who also runs the swank Eldridge lounge on the LES, says his goal is to recreate a certain kind of local exclusivity.
“Share-houses, bottle minimums, loud music and packed nightclubs with a younger demographic flooded this once exclusive and laid back community,” he explains. “Georgica has brought back an older crowd, great conversation and amazing cocktails.”
Some of today’s big-spenders have even adopted the politically incorrect stance that the recession is actually a good thing for the local party scene.
“Whatever you want to say about the economy, the fact is, it’s more selective in the Hamptons this summer,” says one young lady at Day & Night who asked not to be named. “It’s only a certain kind of person coming out here now, and honestly, that is the kind of person I want to be around.”
In the end, there are enough of those “certain” kinds of people to maintain the Hamptons’ status among the most ostentatious zip codes in the nation. Even if it’s pared down a bit.
As Russell Simmons put it when asked about his neighbors at his art benefit last weekend, “Most of the people here are never going to be without. It’s the Hamptons. These people are never going to be suffering.”