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Out on Noyac Road in Sag Harbor, a lonely white building stands at the side of the road, next to the parking lot for the Mill Creek Marina. The unassuming exterior of Oasis restaurant is easy to miss, but inside, the almost seven-year-old restaurant is a serene den of palms, beige wicker chairs, white votives and linens, and three walls of windows that look out to the marina beyond.
“We’ve stayed nice and busy through the winter, which is nice,” said Dara Abrams, who has been a waitress at Oasis for almost six years. Usually the restaurant closes down for about a month in March, but it has stayed busy enough, despite the economy, to remain open straight through, said bartender Tom Stein.
Co-owners John Donnelly, the chef, and Lou Dollinger, the general manager, opened Oasis in May 2002 with their wives, Gina Donnelly and Kerri Dollinger, who are sisters. Growing up in Nassau County, the women had an Italian grandfather who owned a restaurant in the Bronx.
“Every Sunday they would go have a nice Italian meal at his restaurant,” Mr. Dollinger said last week at the Oasis bar, “so their family life was very oriented around getting together to eat.”
As girls, they also used to summer in Noyac with their aunt and uncle. They had fond memories of a little hamburger shack on Long Beach called the Oasis, which had been there since the 1940s, Ms. Donnelly said in a follow-up interview.
“Couples used to go there on summer nights and dance and there was a nice breeze coming off the bay,” Mr. Dollinger said. When they decided to open their own restaurant, they decided to name it in honor of the place, and to try and evoke the same calm waterfront vibe.
Before opening the restaurant, Mr. Donnelly and his wife had been living on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Mr. Donnelly was the executive chef at the Park Lane Hotel and the private chef to its infamous owner, Leona Helmsley, and Ms. Donnelly was the chief concierge at the Soho Grande Hotel. They had been thinking of moving to open their own restaurant on the East End for a while. After 9/11, they decided they wanted out of the city immediately.
“It’s what fueled it more,” Mr. Donnelly said. “We were looking and then 9/11 happened and we switched gears.”
At that time, the Dollingers already lived in Sag Harbor and Mr. Dollinger was commuting to his job as the general manager at the Cold Spring Country Club in Nassau County. He had a small fishing boat moored in the Mill Creek Marina, but thought the restaurant there, called the Inn at Mill Creek, could be better. Coincidentally, the owners, the Kelsey family, wanted to leave the restaurant business and focus only on the marina, as they had just obtained the necessary permits to double its size.
“Timing is everything,” Mr. Dollinger said.
The Dollingers and Donnellys decided to open a restaurant together. Mr. Dollinger had a strong bookkeeping background, so Mr. Donnelly could focus on the food. They approached the Kelseys and closed on the deal soon after.
But they were a little nervous about their isolated location.
“We had a friend of ours come out and visit after we bought the place,” Mr. Donnelly recalled, “and she was like, ‘what were you thinking?’ And I was like, ‘alright, thanks for the vote of confidence.’”
But the brothers-in-law went right to work, gutting the whole place. Mr. Donnelly said they were not initially planning a complete renovation, but they realized they needed to make a big impact right away. Then they started spreading the word, “getting our name out there.” Once they opened, “the word of mouth reviews were very strong right from the start,” Mr. Donnelly said.
Their vision for the restaurant was partly the result of their dissatisfaction with other regional restaurants.
“They were chew-and-screw sort of places,” Mr. Donnelly said, describing restaurants that he thought tried to pack as many people in as they could, feed them, and then force them to get out quickly.
In their restaurant design, they spaced tables farther apart and planned for noise reduction with a special rug and acoustic tiles in the ceiling, Mr. Donnelly said. The cuisine is “eclectic ... new American,” Mr. Dollinger said, “a blend of the Spanish, Italian and French influences on American cuisine,” with a specialization in seafood.
The chef tries to get seafood from local fishermen, such as striped bass, depending on the season. Oasis oysters come from Peconic Bay.
Appetizers include the popular mini tuna tartare tacos: four are served with a mango and red onion salsa, avocado and a lime vinaigrette ($16). Another favorite is the crispy calamari salad with frisée, cashews, toasted coconut and an orange chipotle vinaigrette ($14).
The signature seafood entrée is pan-seared halibut with lobster mashed potatoes and a lobster reduction sauce ($32).
Other dishes beloved by regulars include the East End bouillabaisse, made of fresh fish, clams, mussels, shrimp and scallops in a saffron tomato broth ($30), and the pan-seared scallops served on sweet corn risotto with a carrot emulsion, ($30).
“Those items we must keep at all times, as that’s what we’re known for,” Mr. Dollinger said.
Winter specials include braised boneless short ribs served with sweet potato gnocchi ($34) and a chili-rubbed rib eye steak with sweet potato mashers and asparagus ($40).
Good service is another priority, and the owners’ approach is to treat their staff well, like “our own little family,” Ms. Donnelly said.
“Most of our staff has worked here since the inception, which says a lot,” Mr. Dollinger said.
“It’s a very family oriented place,” Ms. Abrams said. “There are no seasonal employees, so when guests come, they see the same faces.” When Ms. Abrams started working at Oasis six years ago, she was a friend of the sous chef, Bob Abrams, who had been with the restaurant from the start. They were married last November.
Ms. Abrams said that Mr. Dollinger also remembers every single person he meets, his or her name and even hometown. “He’s like a Rolodex,” she said.
Mr. Stein, the bartender, started working at Oasis in January 2008. He said on Friday and Saturday nights he gets a good bar crowd, a mix of locals and second-home owners. One of his specialties is a blood orange margarita, made with Patron tequila, Cointreau, lime juice and fresh blood orange purée ($12). Another is the Oasistini, made with pineapple and cranberry infused Absolut vodka and topped off with champagne ($12).
Oasis features a five-course wine dinner once a month with a different theme; March will be Italian. They partner with Cavaniola’s Gourmet cheese shop and Cavaniola’s Cellar in Sag Harbor and Mr. Donnelly makes a menu based on the wines being featured. Each course comes with a different wine and the dessert is a cheese plate. The total cost is $75.
The $30 prix fixe dinner is also popular. While many restaurants offer only a limited menu for a prix fixe, Oasis offers any appetizer from the regular menu, any entrée and any dessert, excluding the lobster salad and the strip steak. It’s offered all night every night except Saturday, when it’s offered only until 6:30 p.m.
Even though the restaurant may be “off the beaten path,” as Mr. Dollinger said, the owners are happy it is. “We’re a ‘destination,’” Mr. Dollinger said. “When people come here, they’re coming for us.”
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