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The venerable Shagwong Tavern in Montauk is in contract to be sold.
Jon Krasner, an owner of Harlow in Manhattan and Harlow East in Sag Harbor, confirmed this week that he is buying Shagwong for an undisclosed sum in partnership with Beau Campsey of Sag Harbor. The 1927, Carl Fisher-era bar and restaurant on Main Street, which has been on the market for about five years, was listed this month for $3 million. A closing has not yet taken place.
Mr. Krasner is also taking over the former O’Murphy’s Pub on the Circle in Montauk, where Saltbox will open in May, serving “the coldest beer in town” along with food like burgers, fish tacos and lobster rolls.
Danny Ye, of the Nobu and Fat Duck restaurants, will be the consulting chef as well as a partner at Saltbox, said Mr. Krasner.
Shagwong’s current owner, Jimmy Hewitt, bought that establishment from Mary Wood in 1969. During Mr. Hewitt’s tenure, drinks have been poured for everyone from generations of Montauk locals to the Rolling Stones, the model Cheryl Tiegs and the photographer Peter Beard. Mr. Beard’s photos, along with other, historic ones, have lined the walls framing copper tabletops under a tin ceiling for decades. The menu at Shagwong will be much the same as it is now, only “simplified,” Mr. Krasner said.
“Shagwong will stay Shagwong,” he said, adding that the place is “a classic, fabulous spot that we all grew up going to.”
Mr. Krasner, 37, has a house in Southampton, spent a lot of his teenage years in Montauk, and worked his first job at the Lobster Roll on Napeague.
“The old-school Montauk is more exciting to me than the newer stuff, so I’d like to just preserve the good old Montauk vibe,” he said.
Virginia Garrison on Apr 23, 2015