Couple With Roots in Restaurant Trade To Take Over Coast Grill in North Sea

The Coast Grill, long a North Sea staple, will be transformed this month into Captain Jack’s on the Coast, a new establishment run by a young couple with roots that are both deep in the community and the restaurant trade.

Mike Soleau, whose parents, Bob and Donna Soleau, ran Sunwater’s Grill in Hampton Bays for many years, and Erin Reiser, whose parents, Jack and Linda Reiser, ran the Main Sail restaurant in Sag Harbor, have leased the space overlooking Wooley Pond on Noyac Road.

This week, they were busy sprucing up the dining room in time for a soft opening on May 20, although they have encouraged passersby to keep an eye open because as early as May 15 the restaurant will be open for limited hours, and “we’ll showcase a couple of our menu items each day,” Reiser said.

While Soleau’s parents have retired and moved to Florida, Captain Jack’s is named after Reiser’s father, who said this week he will be there to help out.

“If you have ever been in the restaurant business, you know there is always someone who doesn’t show up,” he said. “I may be old, but I can do it all.”

Reiser said he expected take on the role of host, but said he would get behind a stove or even wash dishes in a pinch.

Both Erin Reiser and Soleau said they had grown up in restaurants, with Reiser saying she began to help out when she was as young as 8 and worked at the family business through her school years. “I bought my first car with the money I made,” she said of her career as a waitress and the Mazda 626 that was a dividend for her toil.

“Our upbringing was one of the things we bonded over,” Soleau said of growing up as the children of restaurateurs. “It’s a very unique dynamic. Your parents are always there, so you have to be there.”

Jack Reiser said he had never intended to give up the Main Sail and was negotiating with the owner of the building to buy it when she unexpectedly died literally the night before the closing.

Erin Reiser worked in other restaurants and catering businesses before becoming manager of Twin Forks Pools and Spas more than a decade ago. “I’ve wanted to be in a restaurant ever since we lost the lease,” she said of the end of 1994 when the Main Sail closed. She said she planned to work more on the business side of the business, although she will serve as hostess and fill in as needed.

Soleau said he had landed a plum job, working on the gas dock of a neighboring marina when he was a teenager, when his parents told him they needed him to work at their restaurant. “I was 14 when I started on the fryer,” he said. A long career in a string of restaurants has followed, most recently at One North Steakhouse in Hampton Bays.

Soleau, who will run the kitchen, promises a menu that will feature plenty of seafood, but with a “Southern twang,” including dishes such as grilled oysters and lobster hushpuppies. Entrees will range from the mid-$20 to high-$30 range.

The new owners said they plan to be open seven days a week during the season for lunch and dinner and expected to cater to both a local and weekend crowd.