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From its perch at the Peconic Marina, overlooking placid Wooley Pond, The Coast Grill is still dishing out seaworthy favorites in a waterside setting, but it is now under new ownership, with a revamped menu and a spruced-up interior.
Co-owners Brian and Stacy Cheewing, who married in August and live around the corner from the restaurant in North Sea, signed a deal to purchase the place in April from its previous owner, Joe Luppi, who ran it for the past 25 years. Mr. Cheewing, who came to The Coast Grill in March 2009 as the executive chef under Mr. Luppi, has now stepped into an ownership role for the first time. And Ms. Cheewing, a real estate broker, also has entered the restaurant business for the first time.
Opening a restaurant together has long been a dream of theirs, the couple said in a recent barside interview. The two related how Mr. Cheewing has worked at a handful of East End restaurants, including the former George Martin in Southampton Village, and Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton, while Ms. Cheewing would dine at all those restaurants—and, in fact, met her future husband at George Martin.
When Mr. Luppi’s retirement gave them the opportunity to buy the restaurant, the couple happily seized it, citing their love of the location, with its waterview windows ideal for glimpsing sunsets. Because The Coast Grill “had a good name for itself,” as Mr. Cheewing explained, they decided to keep the name.
“Clean, rustic and local” is their desired ambiance, they said. The chef described his fare as “rustic New American seafood, not too complicated.”
After a “face-lift” that included new floors, new menus, several flatscreen TVs, and the installation of three conversation-sparking decorations—an oversize fork, spoon and whisk affixed to one wall—the new owners re-opened the restaurant in June.
This week, they finalized the fall menus and hours. The new schedule, as of September 20, offers a three-course prix fixe menu for $27 all night on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, in addition to the regular menu, and until 6:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
The prix fixe menu includes one of The Coast Grill’s “signature appetizers,” according to the chef: Long Island duck confit, which is served with lentils, shaved apple, sundried cherries and port reduction. Also offered as starters are a choice of a BLT Caesar salad, including romaine hearts, sundried tomatoes, bacon lardons and shaved grana; or stewed local littleneck clams, served with chorizo, cannelloni beans, cumin fennel and tomato broth. Prix-fixe entrées offer a selection of chicken scarpariello, served with sweet sausage, red potatoes, caramelized onion, lemon and Chardonnay; a seasonal vegetable fricasse, which includes fresh lentils, sundried tomatoes, fresh herbs and crumbled goat cheese; basil roasted salmon, which comes with sautéed baby spinach, horseradish smashed potato and chive beurre blanc; rigatoni bolognese with crisp basil and shaved parmigiano reggiano; or flat iron steak frites, which is served with roasted garlic butter and chianti bordelaise.
The dessert prix-fixe menu lists three choices: chocolate banana bread pudding with rum raisin gelato and crème anglaise; chocolate truffle cake, served with cappucino gelato and chocolate sauce; and a selection of gelato or sorbet.
The regular dinner menu expands upon the prix fixe offerings, including such chilled seafood offerings as Peconic pride oysters ($13), sesame pepper seared tuna and wild shrimp cocktail ($14/$28); seafood dishes such as seared local fluke, served with baby spinach, toasted farro, five-olive tapenade and saffron butter ($27); “today’s” whole roasted fish (price varies); local scallop and wild shrimp risotto ($28), served with asparagus, imported tomato, fresh oregano and shaved grana; and a steamed or broiled hard-shell lobster (price varies).
Pasta dishes include linguine with cockles, served with shaved garlic, pancetta, red chiles and local Chardonnay ($19). Salads include a baby arugula and apple salad ($10), which includes goat cheese, grape tomatoes, toasted almonds, endives and a sweet dijon vinaigrette. Hot appetizers include “nothing but crab” cake, composed of corn and wild mushroom fricasse and sweet pepper aioli ($13), and exotic mushroom risotto, which includes shaved reggiano and white truffle essence ($12). Sides, some of which include truffle parmesan fries and braised French lentils, are listed at $8.
The new drink menu includes seasonal selections like a $13 pumpkin martini, which includes Cruzan 9-spiced rum, pumpkin purée, spices and cinamon-sugar rum, as well an eggnog martini, also $13, which is made of Svedka vodka, Amaretto, Malibu rum, eggnog and cinnamon on the rim. And the bar menu includes crispy fried oysters, which include corn and bacon relish and chipotle aioli ($12); and lobster mac and cheese ($12).
“We’re not catering to anybody specific,” said Ms. Cheewing. “It’s anywhere from, you know, shorts and flip-flops off the boat, to dressed for a night out on the town going clubbing.”
“You can come here and get a 5-pound lobster or a burger at the bar,” added her husband, the chef.
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