Il Buco at Mostrador Marram Brings NYC Flavors to Montauk

After a successful first season in 2019, Montauk’s Marram hotel is shaking up its Latin American café experience with a fresh summer residency, hosting popular New York City restaurant Il Buco.

The new Il Buco at Mostrador Marram pop-up is a meeting of worlds—drawing on Il Buco’s simple ingredient-forward preparations and the eclectic, laidback spirit of Marram’s Montauk property—and it’s the culmination of the years-long friendship between Marram chefs and restaurant partners Fernando Trocca and Martín Pittaluga and Il Buco owner/co-founder Donna Lennard. With Marram’s chefs currently exploring new flavors in South America, hotelier and Bridgeton Hospitality CEO Atit Jariwala saw Lennard as “the perfect fit” to step in and re-envision the Mostrador Marram café’s summer dining experience. “Selfishly, I’m most excited about trying all the great new foods that Il Buco chef Justin Smillie and Donna come up with,” Jariwala adds. “But in all seriousness, I’m excited to see how a great New York brand can get creative to bring fresh beach food to our guests.”

Both Il Buco’s first seasonal pop-up and first East End venture, Il Buco at Mostrador Marram offers a unique blend of the restaurant’s classic dishes and Hamptons summer favorites for breakfast, lunch and dinner. “We’ve adapted our menu extensively, but with a lot of our NYC favorites. We’re serving Alimentari’s pastries, desserts, salumi and breads, and we’re still offering many of our standard items like short ribs and fresh salads,” Lennard says. “Of course, we added some more beach/summer favorites like a smash burger and our lobster roll on homemade focaccia, which people seem to be enjoying a lot! Our entrées are changing daily based on what’s available in the market, and we’re always offering Il Buco-style fish, crudos, roast chicken, pizzas and, yes, avocado toast. Oh, and Justin is outside smoking and grilling meat, fish, fruits and vegetables all the time.”

Lennard also notes that her team has brought a limited number of their favorite wines, in addition to seasonal cocktails, spritzes, juices and more. The full bar features drinks by David Giuliano, Il Buco’s beverage director, and focuses on lighter, Aperitivo-style cocktails such as an Italian Daiquiri, Rome with a View, Basil Paloma and Contratto Spritz.

With takeout at the core of the business, Jariwala says that most guests have preferred to take their food and drinks to-go and enjoy them overlooking the water. He adds that the hotel as a whole has actually performed quite well throughout the pandemic, “Given our beachfront location, people looking to leave more dense areas for an escape have been flocking to Marram to get fresh, clean outdoor air.”

Lennard expresses her excitement for the chance to further Trocca and Pittaluga’s concept while they’re away and adds how much she’s enjoying working with the Marram staff. “We found kindred spirits in the hotel ownership and management, and it’s also really fun to have our NYC customers find us out here and experience what we’re doing this summer,” she says. “It’s a positive and optimistic feeling in a time that has been incredibly difficult. It’s a bright spot during this whole period, and we know we’re fortunate to be able to be here.”

To learn more about Il Buco at Mostrador Marram, visit marrammontauk.com/dine.