New Montauk Restaurant Will Replace Ciao By The Beach

Ciao by the Beach, the subject of many noise complaints in Montauk last summer, will become a new restaurant called The Arbor this upcoming summer season.

Marc Rowan, who also purchased Duryea’s Lobster Deck and Seafood Market in 2014, bought the beleaguered Ciao on Fort Pond Road last October for $2.7 million. The Arbor will be entirely separate from Duryea’s, Mr. Rowan said on Thursday, January 7. The size of the restaurant will remain the same but the space is undergoing a renovation. Mr. Rowan declined to go into any further detail about the new business.

Last summer, Ciao by the Beach had been the subject of complaints from neighbors for playing loud music. The East Hampton Town Board held a disciplinary hearing in September, the first it had ever held for a restaurant they said had repeatedly violated the conditions of the town’s music license.

In fact, Ciao had been issued five noise violations for exceeding off-property decibel limits while broadcasting live or amplified music outdoors after 9 p.m., from Memorial Day on. The board closed the hearing and later determined that the restaurant's music entertainment permit would be modified to prohibit the use of any outside loudspeakers for a year and prohibit any live music from being performed outside the premises for one year.

Not long thereafter, the owners closed the restaurant entirely, citing the negative impact from code enforcement and the publicity that came with it.

The site has been home to a restaurant with a night life for years. Longtime residents may remember it once being home to the Old Shebeen Pub and Restaurant, and, before that the Blue Marlin.