Crow's Nest | Montauk, NY
A seeming million miles away from the City, the Crow’s Nest has all the style of the Hamptons while preserving the natural charm of old Montauk.
In this series, I’m calling out a few of my all-time favorite restaurants — and how my experience with them has shaped me in ways both large and small. With a keen interest in the people behind each venture, I’m sharing what got the founder started and why they stayed, how the restaurant approaches sustainability across its food and design, and how each restaurant’s design details craft and enhances the dining experience.
“I’ve always loved the romance of being at the end of the road, the last stop at the end of the island,” says Sean MacPherson, the visionary behind Montauk’s Crow’s Nest, “I wanted Crow’s Nest to somehow conjure the feeling of having traveled as far as one can travel.”
Perched on a grassy hill at the foot of Lake Montauk, MacPherson’s Crow’s Nest certainly has captured that feeling.
A seeming million miles away from the City, the Crow’s Nest has all the style of the Hamptons — while avoiding feeling overdone or pretentious — while preserving the natural charm of old Montauk.
MacPherson, a native Californian, has kept a relatively low profile, though he’s the hotelier and restaurateur behind many of Manhattan's (and Los Angeles’) top hangouts. (The New York Times Style Magazine calls him “the man who shaped Downtown.”). In the last twenty-five years, MacPherson has opened The Bowery Hotel, The Ludlow, The Jane, The Waverly Inn, and the Maritime Hotels — amongst other surely familiar names. Most recently, he’s transformed Hotel Chelsea — better known as the Chelsea Hotel — into a luxury boutique hotel, all while preserving the romance of the hotel’s history. No small feat.
Renovated and reopened in 2011 by MacPherson, the Crow’s Nest hits just about every mark: location, style, service, and food.
A meal best enjoyed after a day at Ditch Plains, Crow’s Nest has all the elements of a romantic East Coast summer evening. Of course, the scenery itself — a built-in sunset view of Lake Montauk; a sandy beach; tall, sweeping grass — certainly doesn’t hurt its case.
Fairy lights, lanterns, fire pits, and torches light the lawn. Distressed, hand-crafted wooden benches and tables dot the grounds. The lawn — a luscious, East Coast green — leads down to the Lake where pre-dinner cocktails are served out of wooden pergolas. (What more can I ask for?). The Watermelon Cooler — vodka, mint, lemon — is a must.
Partly open to the outside, the restaurant’s interior is homely and thoughtfully designed. The mushroom wood-paneled walls are decorated with African textiles and even a few Pirate flags. (Trust MacPherson to make this work). Reclaimed rafters — built to look original to the space — stretch across the three narrow rooms that make up the restaurant. The space is filled, too, with subtle treasures: A painting of John and Yoko hangs in one room. Antler scones hang in another.
The restaurant’s New American, Mediterranean food is unpretentiously presented on wooden platters and painted plates. It’s been nearly a year since I ate at Crow’s Nest, but the house-made whipped ricotta with lavender honey and perfectly grilled ciabatta remain unmatched. Another must. The dish is in close competition with the Mezze Platter (a selection of local vegetables with hummus, baba ghanoush, and whipped feta), the Montauk Bass, and the Balsam Farms Kale Salad. Safe to say, each of the dishes screams my name.
The Crow’s Nest — I’m fairly convinced — is the perfect summer restaurant.
Learn more about Crow’s Nest here.