Main Street Market Opens in Southampton Village

Dane Sayles and Piero Zangarini have added a new eatery to their growing East End restaurant portfolio.

As of June 30, Main Street Market in Southampton Village is officially open for business. The shop offers a full menu of upscale made-to-order and grab-and-go goodies, and can seat up to 20 people inside while accommodating 20 outside courtesy of a spacious sidewalk seating area fronting Main Street.

Sayles and Zangarini conceptualized the new space as a fusion of a cozy cafe, a chilled-out wine and coffee bar and a specialty market. And they partnered with Jack’s Coffee and Orwashers Bakery to help supply a full selection of java and sweet treats.

Along with wine, stir-brewed coffee and artisan baked goods, the market serves up breakfast standards, meat and cheese platters, Roman-style pizza, focaccia and a generous selection of sandwiches. It is offering 15% discounts to first responders.

The partners met in 2015, when they worked together redeveloping the legendary Gurney’s resort in Montauk after it changed ownership. Sayles was the Corporate Executive Chef at the time and Zangarini was the Director of Hospitality.

By 2020, the pair had formed a restaurant and hospitality group. Through various partnership arrangements, Sayles, who hails from Kingston, Jamaica, and Zangarini, a native of Venice, Italy, have built a portfolio that includes over half a dozen signature East End establishments stretching from Southampton to Montauk.

Moving east to west, the partners now have significant stakes in N’amo, a seafood and raw bar that opened in Montauk in May of this year, and three eateries in East Hampton: Si Si (specializing in coastal Mediterranean cuisine;) Sunset Harbor (contemporary Japanese and sushi) and Village Bistro (upscale American casual).

In Southampton, Sayles and Zangarini helped create Enchante (formerly Red Bar), a French bistro that opened last year. They also recently acquired Paul’s Italian Restaurant in Southampton Village, which they plan to update in the Fall.

And now, Main Street Market joins Village Bistro and Paul’s as year-round establishments (the East Hampton and Montauk venues are open seasonally.)

Like all East End restaurateurs, Sayles and Zangarini have to wrestle with staffing issues — particularly since they run both seasonal and year-round venues.

“Out east is a different market,” says Zangarini. “It’s not like you’re opening in Manhattan where you’re year round, you can plan, you have data. Here on the East End, you’re always getting different data. You need to live it.”

Though well traveled, both Zangarini and Sayles have been “living it” on the South Fork for almost a decade. Both live in East Hampton full time.

“We felt very strongly about living and planting roots with our families in this market,” says Sayles. “We’ve been here for 10 years. With our restaurants, we ask ourselves how we can create experiences that we personally would want to enjoy.”

In terms of hiring, maintaining and juggling staffing, the partners think they have found the secret sauce.

“We’ve done a great job of retaining staff because of our culture,” Sayles notes. “There’s a lot of clichés around restaurant culture, but you have to create an environment for employees to succeed. Part of that means understanding that our staff are human beings. We have people that have been with us for the last 10 years. It’s a core group — maybe it’s just 10 of them —but those 10 will come no matter when we call them or what project we need them for.”

Sayles, who handles back-of-the-house operations, and Zangarini, who concentrates on the front of the house, are clearly not interested in churning out cookie-cutter eateries. Sayles speaks in terms of uniqueness — of creating restaurants (and hybrids like Main Street Market) that have a chance to ultimately become East End institutions.

“When a place has passed a threshold of 10 years and it’s still operating and still being consistent, it’s fair to call it an institution,” Sayles says. “At that point, the place generally becomes one of one. You can’t replicate it.”

The partners cite familiar names like East Hampton mainstays Bostwick’s Chowder House and Nick & Toni’s, as well as Rowdy Hall in Amagansett and Lulu in Sag Harbor, as the type of local institutions they both admire.

Given that their partnership was born at the tail end of a global pandemic less than five years ago, Sayles and Zangarini have expanded at a very healthy pace.

“We just saw a unique opportunity in this market after we helped re-develop Gurney’s,” Zangarini says.

“Piero and I work with no ego,” adds Sayles. “That’s been our motto — and that’s why we’ve been able to scale up so quickly over the last few years.”

Main Street Market is located at 70 Main Street, Southampton. For more information, visit msmsouthampton.com.