Gwyneth Paltrow's Hamptons Ten
Mischievous local news by Rory Satran. Plus: Hamptons mah jong mania; a billionaire's Sagaponack estate lists for $152.5 million; a tree with better jewelry than you.
Knicks fever is ripping through The Hamptons, with watch parties from Barlume Beach to Townline BBQ (do not sleep on the latter’s pretzel). Last night, at Anu Duggal’s Camp FFF at the Montauk Yacht Club, female founders and investors packed in to watch Game Three after honoring founder of the year Tory Burch and eating a farm-to-table dinner by “chef in residence” Alison Roman. And the East Hampton windmills are lit up blue and orange: delightful.
Another monumental showdown I’ll be watching is the final episode of the Summer House reunion tonight. If there’s anything I’m proud of this year, it’s turning my husband into a Summer House Man. Common Ground regulars who want to discuss how the cast’s antics have changed the tenor of Hamptons nightlife, email me: rory@thehamptonschronicle.com.
Our signature questionnaire where we ask Hamptons insiders about their favorite spots. This week, none other than the arugula baddie and Goop CEO Gwyneth Paltrow, who has been coming to the Hamptons since she was a child, and bought her own home there in 2006. Her Goop store in Sag Harbor is one of the area’s best year-round boutiques, carrying her own Gwyn label and also brands like Fara Homidi, La Double J and Jennifer Fisher. Gwyneth’s Hamptons is an earthy, barefoot, bougie dream.
Describe your perfect Hamptons day.
A class at Tracy Anderson followed by a stop in at Jack’s Coffee in Amagansett. Lunch at home and a walk to the beach where a long afternoon is spent with a good book and many dips in the ocean.
What’s your favorite spot for a drink?
The East Hampton Grill has good, solid cocktails.
What’s your secret shopping spot?
Not sure how secret it is necessarily, but I covet everything at E-E Home.
Who would you love to bump into at the farmer’s market?
Ina Garten.
What’s your main gripe about the Hamptons?
Same as everyone, the traffic. And that people bring their city attitude to what should be the most peaceful place in the world.
What would be your dream dinner: spot, order, company?
Dinner at home with my family and best friends. I love it when the kids and all their SO’s are home, and my mom wanders up from her house for dinner. Especially if I have one of my childhood friends and their families staying. I love to eat from the garden or from Balsam Farm Stand and linger with everyone while the fireflies come out. If you are asking for a spot out, you cannot go wrong with Il Buco Al Mare— in my opinion it’s the finest food out east.
What’s your advice to newbies about a visit out east?
I would say to center your stay around cooking at home and biking or walking to the beach. People think of “The Hamptons” as a big social scene, but I think that is the wrong approach and one I personally avoid like the plague. I love connecting to the East Hampton I knew and loved as a kid, green and very serene. That still exists if you know how to navigate.
Where do you go in the Hamptons to be alone?
Louse Point.
Who can’t you live without in the Hamptons?
The Culinistas for supplying chefs for dinner parties.
Who makes the best lobster roll?
My old friend Pat Keane. I wish he would open a shack. Nowhere out there can compare.
The Hamptons Mah Jong Boom
At 4 p.m. on Sunday, women wearing gold Cartier Love bracelets and carrying customized Louis Vuitton bags filed in to a private, wallpapered room at Shelter Island’s Pridwin Hotel for a mah jong game. Organized by co-founders Lindsay Carroll and Liz Lachcik of Hamptons Mahj, the meetup is part of an explosion of such games in the area.
The recent mah jong renaissance has been well covered, from its fertile business opportunities to accusations of cultural appropriation. The mah jong set market, which includes options by Louis Vuitton and Hermès, is projected to reach $5.2 billion by 2034. As an extension of Upper East Side and Palm Beach drawing rooms, the Hamptons has long hosted games, but this season has reached another level. Hamptons Mahj, which produces its own tile sets, has hosted games year-round at Wolffer and the Maidstone, and recently did a session at the Forbes Shook Top Women Advisor Summit in Palm Beach. Parlour Mahj, founded by two women from Westchester, is hosting events at The Drawing Room and the ultra-selective Sag Harbor country club The Bridge this summer.
Nearly every library hosts lessons; the East Hampton Library one was especially hopping when I stopped by this week. (I cannot play mah jong; my interest is purely anthropological.)
Hamptons Mahj co-founder Carroll, who also has a day job at a non-profit in New York, says the group has been getting a massive amount of inquiries from summer people “wanting a seamless continuation of their lives in the city.”
Hedge funder Zach Schreiber listed his Sagaponack compound for $152.5 million (ah, to be a fly on the wall at the meeting when they added the “point five”). If the oceanfront estate sells for that, it will break the all-time Hamptons record of $147 million for Barry Rosenstein’s 2014 purchase of three contiguous parcels on Further Lane. The house is full of wellness amenities, including a sauna, gym, plunge pool, and pilates room (pictured).
At Lisa Perry’s East Hampton exhibition space Onna House, the fabulously eclectic jewelry designer and photographer Lisa Eisner installed a bronze face on a tree (look closely in the photo above). Eisner says of the work, which is an edition of three: “Bronze and trees are grandfathers-old and wise.” Will tree jewelry be the next frontier in Hamptons gardens that are already rich in Marders’ flowering trees?
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The Culinistas are it.
Yard art! Love this sculpture incorporating the environment.