Robert's Restaurant In Water Mill Closes

Robert’s, a popular restaurant on Montauk Highway in Water Mill, has shut down after 15 years of operation.

On August 3, owner and chef Robert Durkin wrote in a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page that he was closing the business “after a long, contentious and profoundly illegal action” by the State Department of Taxation and Finance.

Robert’s was seized by the state on July 15 for nonpayment of taxes. According to James Gazzale, a spokesperson for the Department of Taxation and Finance, Robert’s owed $241,649.65 in sales and withholding taxes that had accrued since 2009.

Mr. Durkin did not elaborate further on the details of closing the restaurant in his Facebook post, nor did he respond to requests for comment. He did, however, thank his customers for their patronage and support through the years.

“I will, in the future, publicly share the sordid details of the immoral pogrom on the part of a bankrupt state, but that is the work of another day,” he stated August 3. “Today, I am feeling great sorrow and loss both for myself and the many people who contributed to making Robert’s the loving, living and thriving experience it was. I thank you all here for that.”

Opened in 1999, Robert’s was known for its “coastal cuisine,” a term Mr. Durkin dubbed for the combination of ingredients he used from the East End and abroad in his cooking, according to the restaurant’s website. The menu at Robert’s focused on roasted fish, meat, poultry and vegetables, and also featured homemade pasta and pastries, and an extensive list of wines.

On Saturday, yet another message was posted to the restaurant’s Facebook page that further confirmed the closing and once again thanked people for their support: “We hope your memories of the lives we all shared sustain you, and that upon occasion you will come across a taste that will stir in you a memory of a time we shared, or a sensation now only available to you as a shadow, a pale rendition or a faint echo of the everyday excellence we came to be known for.”