Nightlife Entrepreneurs Find Common Ground in NYC & the East End

There are many throughlines connecting Manhattan and the Hamptons — especially in the summer. The list of New York City restaurants and watering holes that have migrated east over the years is long, fueled by bold entrepreneurs, celebrity influencers, and deep-pocketed investors.

One such NYC-to-Hamptons nightlife story is currently being written by Chris Reda and Jesse Baer. Their company, Gansevoort Street Hospitality, operates a growing collection of popular Manhattan locations, several of which the team is re-creating on the East End.

In the shadow of the Whitney Museum, where the West Village ends and the Meatpacking District begins, you’ll discover the partners’ flagship nightspot, Common Ground, an undeniably hip yet somehow laid-back bar and nightclub that has established itself as a fixture of the downtown NYC party scene since opening in 2017.

Common Ground usually opens at around 2 p.m. It gradually gets more clubby as the night goes on – especially on weekends when the 23-and-older policy kicks in and groups of seriously dressed young people queue up outside.

“It’s a fun, high-energy place that gives you a little bit more at night,” Reda says. “That’s how we came up with the idea of Common Ground. It’s the perfect world between a nightclub and a bar.”

From the club’s front door on Gansevoort Street, if you head about 110 miles in a more or less straight line toward the ocean, you’ll eventually make your way to Common Ground’s similarly-vibed sibling, aka Common Ground East, on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton.

Now entering its third summer of operation, Common Ground East, open Thursday through Saturday nights for the 14 weeks or so of high season, is establishing the same kind of presence in the Hamptons that the original Common Ground enjoys in NYC.

After developing a similar space in Montauk in 2019, Reda and Baer moved Common Ground to its current location in East Hampton four years later. The new venue opened over the July 4 weekend in 2023.

The partners expect 2025 – only their second full summer season at the East Hampton location – to be their best yet.

“It takes you about two years to get into a space and really figure it out,” Reda says. “Business always gets a little bit better for the first three or four years.”

While the bar/club is seasonal, Little Charli, the casual Italian restaurant that adjoins Common Ground East (and a sibling eatery to the original Little Charli on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village), is now open year-round.

“We opened last year and it went really well,” Reda says. “Locals loved it, so we kept it open all winter.”

Reda and Baer are also in the midst of rolling out what amounts to yet another dual NYC-East End venture, this one with a country accent.

Cowboy culture is having a bit of a moment in the New York nightlife world, and the partners’ new spot, Common Country on 3rd Avenue in Kips Bay, is well-positioned to ride that horse.

You generally wouldn’t expect to find deer antlers on the walls, line dancing, country karaoke, and Southern-flavored DJ sets in Kips Bay. But they’re all part of the allure at Reda and Baer’s newest venue, as are food and drink offerings that lean decidedly Tex-Mex.

And the cowboy-oriented NYC venue is getting an East End partner of its own, this time on the North Fork. Reda and Baer will unveil a new incarnation of Common Country on the Greenport waterfront this Memorial Day.

The partners also plan to open several new spots in New York City, Palm Beach, and the North and South Forks later this year.

Of course, one of the most daunting challenges East End business owners face is staffing. Finding the right people – and often, helping them secure a place to live – is always a battle.

“We try to hire as many local people as possible,” Reda says. “And then we fill them in with people we work with in the city. But we have to make sure that the people we’re bringing out here have somewhere to stay – so we have to help subsidize the whole thing.”

With his fingers in so many different businesses, Reda is an exceptionally busy guy. There’s nothing unusual about a hard-working entrepreneur, but Reda is a special case.

In late 2023, just before he was set to run the New York City Marathon, he suffered a serious stroke.

His recovery has gone well, but he’s had to make some adjustments. For example, though he was never a big drinker, Reda, 50, quit drinking entirely after his incident.

“The real difference between now and 16 months ago is that now I not only have great partners, I also have an army of people helping me,” he says. “I’m not doing everything myself anymore.”

“I’m getting better every day,” he adds. “I still have some issues, but for the most part, I’m feeling great.”