Zero Bond Tried to Take Over East Hampton's Hedges Inn
By Dan Rattiner
Scott Sartiano has left town. He’s gone back to his Zero Bond private dining club in Manhattan where late into the night, the super wealthy enjoy being celebrated and catered to. Earlier, he’d announced his intention to turn East Hampton’s Hedges Inn into such a place. There’d be wheeling and dealing, the most expensive food and champagne imaginable, and after 11 p.m., live music and entertainment.
Of course, one would have to apply to be a member of such a club. It would be a great thing for East Hampton, or so he said.
Unfortunately, the village authorities were shocked when they learned of this because this inn is in the middle of a residential district that’s been designated a
historic site. Ordinances here do not permit a restaurant where only club members could get in and where loud music and entertainment can disturb the neighbors after 11 p.m..
Also, the village, after hearing of Sartiano’s plans, passed a new law making it illegal for a restaurant in the village to serve food or drink after 11 p.m.
Sartiano pivoted to oblige. Instead of Zero Bond, he opened a restaurant called Sartiano’s at The Hedges in early August, obeying all the laws while he fought to turn it into a Zero Bond. But it was not to happen.
One village board member suggested that Sartiano open Zero Bond at the East Hampton movie theater.
It is much larger than the Hedges, and is on Main Street, in the middle of the commercial district one half mile away from the Hedges. His upper-crust
could canoodle, confab and be in cahoots just fine in the middle of the commercial district.
Anyway, during the short time Sartiano’s was open, and with everyone welcome except in one particular room reserved for a private party of you-know-whos, lots of concerned citizens came and began sniffing around to find ordinance violations for this, that and the other thing there.
Much of the New York media defended Sartiano and criticized the village mayor, but it didn’t do the applicant any good. And now, the current owner of the Hedges, John Cumming, has announced that though Sartiano had rented for the summer with an option to buy, this agreement would not be renewed when it expired, which was last week.
With that, people are left with only the breathless reports of who in fact had been in that special room.
Some say Elon Musk, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Jeff Bezos, Kim Jong Un, Taylor Swift and Tom Brady were there. But nobody knows for sure. Well, now they will all have to find another quiet exclusive place to canoodle, confab and be in cahoots.
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