Loulou La Plage Debuts French Eats & Creative Cocktails at The Maidstone

Chelsea charmer Loulou Petit Bistro debuts in the Hamptons tomorrow with a summer pop-up in the historic Maidstone Inn. 

Restaurateurs Mathias Van Leyden and Mino Habib are bringing a beach-side version of their French eatery – dubbed Loulou La Plage – to the Greek-revival-style hotel in the Village of East Hampton for nightly dinner service throughout the summer, with brunch served on weekends, and a bar turning out cocktails featuring names like The World is Yours (pictured above), served in a crystal-ball-shaped glass and finished with edible flowers. 

Executive Chef Evan Bergman is charged with creating the bistro’s signature dishes, and a dedicated mixology team will be spinning new takes on artfully presented cocktails worthy of the Chelsea spot’s popular downstairs speakeasy. 

“We’re making a bigger cocktail program for East Hampton,” said Habib, “bringing all the fun glassware that we do, we actually have a better mixology team that we brought in to make it very, very special.”

The dining area at the Maidstone will have 170 seats, and includes indoor and outdoor seating, as well as the bar and lounge that the owners hope fit seamlessly into the hotel’s Scandinavian beach-chic aesthetic.

According to Habib, whose background is in nightlife and hotels, the Maidstone reached out to Loulou while the Chelsea eatery was already in the process of making plans to expand. 

“When the hotel reached out to us to have Loulou at Maidstone, we came and saw it was a beautiful place. We decided to make a quick move on it, very last minute, we took the place in mid-June, and here we are opening two weeks later … it’s two weeks of scrambling, getting things together, so it’s like a race.” 

Habib said that while the bistro serves a classic array of traditional French dishes, “We still try to bring some modern concepts and flavor into it that are coming from different places, we’ll have things like merguez, which is north African, we have lamb chops, we have things that are not only french traditional dishes.”

The Chelsea menu, meanwhile, is packed with French bistro staples like steak au poivre, escargot, duck confit, foie gras, and ratatouille. Brunch options include the LouLou burger, a croque monsieur, and a smoked salmon sandwich.

More than 150 years old, the building at 207 Main Street in East Hampton was constructed just before the Civil War by the Osborne family, according to the hotel’s owner, and the current structure has foundations dating from the 17th century.

Contact The Maidstone at 631-324-5006 or themaidstone.com to learn more.