Bay Burger To Close Its Doors Permanently This October

Where in Sag Harbor can one find a cheeseburger made from fresh-ground beef topped with lettuce, tomato and onion on a bun baked in-house for less than $10? For more than a decade, the answer was Bay Burger—but that will no longer be the case after October, when the family-owned burger joint closes its doors for good.

The popular counter-service restaurant located on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike announced on its Facebook page last week that Monday, October 8, will be its last day in business.

First opened in 2007, Bay Burger earned popularity for its family-friendly environment and affordable prices. Co-owner and co-founder Joe Tremblay said that he and his wife, Liza Tremblay, will be putting both the business and the building on the market.

“We were young when we opened the business,” Mr. Tremblay said. “We have a family now, and our lives are very different. Running a seasonal restaurant out here is very demanding, and there are lots of challenges. We’ve lost a lot of our casual dining patrons, and that makes it even harder for us to do this.

“We’ve just decided that this is the right thing for us personally to find a different line of work. It’s important to us that whatever it becomes, it be something that’s right for the community.”

“I feel like it’s time,” Ms. Tremblay agreed. “We’re going out on a good note. We’re both going to be 40 next year, and there’s a lot of other things we want to do. It seems like the right time.”

Mr. Tremblay said that he and his wife, who are also residents of Sag Harbor, will be taking some time off after selling Bay Burger to figure out what they want to do next, but plan to remain in the village.

He said that Joe and Liza’s Ice Cream, the couple’s brand of homemade ice cream sold in stores and farmers markets on both the North and South Forks, also will be discontinued after this coming Thanksgiving.

Mr. and Ms. Tremblay both said they will miss their frequent customers and the connections they’ve made with the community over the years.

“It’s great to have been embraced so fully by the community,” Mr. Tremblay said. “Especially for children who have grown up here with this business always being a part of the town. I’ll be at the grocery store checkout and have a little kid see me with my Bay Burger hat on and say, ‘That’s my favorite restaurant,’ or have a family friend say, ‘My 8-year-old was in kindergarten, and he came home with a picture he drew of Bay Burger, and it’s got the counter, the chairs all in the right places and he labeled all the employees by name.’ It’s good to know what you mean to a lot of families. We’re a real resource for families here and that’s hard to let go.”

“Our first customers on our first day was this couple, Ari and Barbara, and their son, Simon, and he was 10 months old at the time,” Ms. Tremblay said. “Now he’s going to be 13—and they’ve been coming in all of those years.

“When we started the restaurant, we still wanted to make it a family-friendly place,” she said. “Now, we have two kids, and we’ve added even more kid-friendly areas over the years, like the toy area in the back. I think we’ve just responded to our own children’s needs when they’re out at a restaurant.”