New Lobster Inn Owner Aims For Spring Opening

The restaurant formerly known as the Lobster Grille Inn, at the terminus of Sunrise Highway in Shinnecock Hills, is expected to reopen just in time for the summer season, under a new name.

Donna Lanzetta, one of several investors in the Manna Fish Farm — which has plans to open a fish farm on the South Fork — said this week that she hopes to be able to hold a month-long grand opening for her new restaurant, Manna Restaurant at Lobster Inn, in May.

“The restaurant is opening soon — this spring,” she said this week. “I don’t have an exact date, but we’re looking to this spring. We’re not setting a date until we have the permits in hand.”

Manna will be operated by Ryunosuke Jesse Matsuoka of Sen in Sag Harbor.

The first floor of the restaurant will be for casual dining, and the second floor will offer more formal, sitdown table service.

While traditional seafood options like splat bags — in which netted bags are filled with corn, potatoes and shellfish, then steamed — will be offered, the menu will primarily focus on underutilized seafood, such as skate, porgy, dogfish and sea robin.

“We’re going to find a delicious way to serve them,” Ms. Lanzetta said. “I think we can be creative and develop a demand for those and teach people how delicious they can be.”

Educating the public about aquaculture is part of the mission.

Ms. Lanzetta is involved in both the aquaculture farm called Manna Fish Farm and Manna Ocean Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at educating the public about fisheries, sustainable fishing and farm-to-table seafood industry trends.

Manna is setting up an aquaculture center across the street from the restaurant, which is expected to open either next fall or spring 2021.

Going along the lines of educating the public, purchasing the Lobster Grille Inn seemed to be on track with Manna’s plans.

Manna purchased the restaurant and farmland on the property, and the Town of Southampton purchased the marina and development rights of the farmland.

“In the sense that we’re side by side and the restaurant is in the middle of parkland now, the way I see it, we wanted to develop the restaurant to best service the community,” Ms. Lanzetta said, referring to the partnership between the town and her organization. “I see it as an integral part for the education portion regarding aquaculture. I think that it’s a wonderful platform to be able to teach, so it’s not just a restaurant.”