Georgica Owner Looks Back on 6 Years as Restaurant Prepares to Close

Georgica Restaurant and Lounge has been a hotspot at  108 Stone Road in Wainscott, on the border of East Hampton Village, for six seasons—much longer than most nightlife destinations in the Hamptons last—but now its long run is coming to a close.

At the end of Labor Day weekend, Georgica will shutter.

Georgica opened in 2009 with much fanfare, with Robert Hessen and Seth Levine, both alumni of Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen. It ended its run with 19-year-old chef wunderkind Greg Grossman, a Ross School alumnus.

“When we first opened Georgica the concept was new to the East End, but we feel that the time is right to move on,” owner Antonio Fuccio says. “We started a trend in the Hamptons. In many ways, it shaped the entire industry out here, with many other venues following our approach.”

Fuccio says the closure is bittersweet, but on their own terms. “We are very proud of what we created and the memories we are leaving behind with the Georgica brand.”

Over the years, Georgica welcomed notables guests such as Lauren Bush, Rachel Zoe, Russell Simmons, Avril Levine, Sam Ronson, Shannon Doherty and Gigi Hadid to name a few.

In addition to hosting weddings, engagement parties and other private functions, Georgica also hosted a number of fundraisers, including for the Angel Wings Foundation, Ovarian Cancer Research Fund and VOSS Foundation. The VOSS fundraiser helped established a Georgica well in Liberia, Fuccio says, bring clean drinking water to the rural Timba District.

For the final weekend, Georgica will open the bar and dining room and present entertainment from DJs including Adam Lipson and Matt Heckman.

On whether a new restaurant will take its place there next summer, or if he will open a restaurant someplace else, Fuccio says he is not sure what the future holds.