New Owners Give Historic Orient Inn a New Spin as The Inn at Orient

The bed and breakfast long known as the Orient Inn has changed hands to a new family who renamed it the Inn at Orient to continue welcoming guests in the quaint community at the tip of the North Fork.

The seven-bedroom Arts-and-Crafts-style home with cedar siding built in 1906 was sold to Tracy and Alex Sutton on April 8 from couple Joan Turtorro and Howard LeShaw, who had run the B&B for two decades.

“Orient Inn thanks all of our wonderful guests, neighbors and friends for giving us the opportunity to serve you all with leisure, rest, good times and good food for the last 20 years,” read a statement posted on the bed and breakfast’s website. “All of you — including our vendors and staff — have made Orient Inn a success, and we are so very grateful.”

Besides renaming it, the Suttons, formerly of Southold, are making some changes, but in the words of Turturro and LeShaw, carrying on the “tradition of hospitality in the near future.”

And that near future is quickly approaching, with the Suttons hard at work in order to open up their home to guests in the winter of 2022. The Suttons came upon the home when last year they were looking to move from Southold to Orient.

“We just kind of fell in love with the historic charm of it,” Tracy says.

According to Sutton, the home was once called the Oyster Pond Manor, and through its years operated as a transient home for travelers, a senior citizen facility, a bed and breakfast and now an inn.

Since acquiring the property, the Suttons, with the help of some friends from the community, have re-finished the floors, installed new light fixtures, placed sconce lanterns and installed new porch flooring. The Suttons have also repurposed moldings on the historic walls within the home, repainted around the house, placed new tile around the fireplace and put new furniture on the wraparound porch and inside the rooms within the house.

The Suttons have documented their progress on their Instagram page @theinnatorient.

“(Our goal) is to just make a beautiful, comfortable place for people to come to and stay and go enjoy the North Fork, the property and everything that Orient and the North Fork has to offer,” Sutton continues.

This is the first inn that she has operated, yet her background in hospitality has surely come in handy. She attended the University of Denver for hotel management and transferred to the Culinary Institute of America in Upstate New York, later going on to studying interior design after her children finished high school.

“My vibe is antique, mixed with modern,” Sutton says of the inn’s aesthetic. “A little bit of old and a little bit new. I love the history and the antiques, and I love the charm of old wood. I always like to have wood and something natural.”

Sutton says she may explore serving food to guests in the future, but for now, with the continuing pandemic, she will likely stick with cookies and tea in the afternoon. There are five rooms that guests can choose from, with a view of the one-acre property. Guests have access to the spanning deck on the property with plenty of furniture to relax on, as well as plenty of space outside to stretch their legs and parlors on the inside that can be warmed with gas-powered fireplaces.

“We’re very excited to be here,” she says. “We have many friends who I’ve known for about 20 years, and now I actually live in their community and everyone’s been very welcome. … We’re excited to have people come see us.”

The Inn at Orient is located at 25500 Main Road, Orient. It can be reached at 631-323-6150.