Micoles opens in Westhampton Beach

Mark Jones, a local builder and seasoned restaurateur, has opened Micole’s, a new fine dining restaurant on Montauk Highway in Westhampton Beach. A lifelong Westhampton Beach resident, Mr. Jones said in a recent interview that for many years he thought the village was in need of an additional restaurant, one that would provide a casually elegant dining environment all year long.

A former partner in JT’s Place in Hampton Bays—“I got out of that in 2006,” he said—Mr. Jones said that he always wanted to open a bigger restaurant.

Micole’s, he said, offers everything he hoped for, namely a larger space that satisfies the area’s need for more year-round dining options.

Mr. Jones said the menu, focused on traditional American cuisine with an emphasis on local ingredients, flavors and seafood, will change seasonally, with winter specials being introduced during the colder months.

“We’ve had a tremendous response to the seafood menu,” Mr. Jones said of the restaurant, which has been open since the beginning of June.

A builder by trade, Mr. Jones said he oversaw the restaurant’s entire construction process, selecting everything from the hardwood flooring to the golden color of the walls. He said he was committed to building a bar—“built for a large crowd”—to serve as the centerpiece of the restaurant. The dark, hardwood bar is flanked by comfortable booths.

Mr. Jones said he wanted the bar and surrounding seating area to be a social gathering place during the summer and off-season, a place where locals and visitors alike can have an appetizer and simply hang out.

“I wanted it to have a Hamptons feel,” he said, “but more like you were being entertained in someone’s living room.”

“I want people to come, socialize and be comfortable,” he said. “I wanted it to be elegant, not pretentious.”

Mr. Jones said he has enhanced the comfortable, unpretentious atmosphere at Micole’s by making the restaurant a family affair. His wife, Lynne, who owns Lynne’s Cards and Gifts on Main Street in Westhampton Beach, works in the restaurant, along with his teenage son and daughter.

Mr. Jones has turned the kitchen over to Brian Finegan, who serves as executive chef and brings more than 30 years of experience cooking on the East End. A Babylon native, Mr. Finegan has cooked all over the world, but his Hamptons resume includes a recent nine-year stint at the Coast Grill in Southampton, time at The Patio and Hampton Square Restaurant, both in Westhampton Beach, and a turn at the Inn at Quogue.

Mr. Finegan says his goal is to offer “very good food at relatively reasonable prices,” at Micole’s.

Mr. Finegan’s menu includes a Long Island chowder for $8.50 and a daily soup du jour, priced according to ingredients.

Appetizers include macaroni and three cheeses with roasted pepper and tomato, $8, and seared yellowfin tuna over sesame noodle slaw, $12. Mr. Finegan also recommended the South Fork crab cake with orange caper mayonnaise, $12.

Salads range from the Micole’s house salad, a blend of greens and vegetables with balsamic dressing, $6, to Caesar salad with herb marinated shrimp, $17.

Entrées are organized into seafood, pasta, and meat offerings.

Seafood includes almond crusted flounder with lemon butter, $19.50; pan seared local sea scallops with wild mushroom and Montrachet sauce, $22.50; and grilled swordfish with sun-dried tomatoes, lemon, and basil pesto, $27. Mr. Finegan flagged the baked halibut fillet over Mexican corn chowder, $28, as a kitchen favorite.

Micole’s offers two pasta dishes—whole grain pasta with vegetables and herbs, $17, and grilled, marinated shrimp with angel hair pasta, $18.50.

Meat-based entrées include breast of chicken sauté with prosciutto, Gruyère cheese and mushrooms in a sage and sherry pan sauce, $18.50; roast rack of Australian lamb with herb crust and Madeira reduction, $28.50; and prime New York cut steak with cabernet grilling butter, $30.