Almond Restaurant Looking for a New Home

Almond bar and restaurant will be closing its doors at its location of the past 10 years on Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton on Dec. 5, but it won't be closing them for good.

Owners Eric Lemonides and Jason Weiner, who is also the chef, have said that stalled lease negotiations have forced them to relocate the popular eatery and late-night hot spot. They're just not saying, yet, where the French bistro will move to, not even which hamlet, only that they're committed to reopening.

"All I'm willing to say about it, because we're in negotiations, is somewhere between the Shinnecock Canel and Montauk, not including the North Fork, " Lemonides said in a recent phone conversation. The East Hampton area is one possibility. He said he hopes to know for certain by the end of the week, though firming up a deal could last until the month's end.

"As far as we're concerned, it's one of the most positive things that could have happened," he said. "There's certainly a sadness, you grow an attachment to physical places. That said, the physical place isn't what we're about, our loving energy is more of what we're about. Last time I checked, no landlord ever holds that."

Having been located in Bridgehampton for a decade, Lemonides said the restaurant attracts people from all over the South Fork, including East Hampton Town. "We've got a boatload of people from Sag Harbor. We don't get that much from east of East Hampton Village. A lot of our client base is in Northwest Woods, Water Mill, Southampton Village."

He said he believes Almond's clientele will follow the restaurant to its new location for the laid back atmosphere for which it's so popular. Cars often flow out of the parking lot and line Montauk Highway.

"We don't really have a niche client. We literally have Alan Patricof sitting next to a farmer from Water Mill," he said. "I think that's always been the charm of what we've done."

Almond opened in the spring of 2001. The final night of service will be on Dec. 5, and the owners have invited fans to stop by "to bid au revoir" to the Bridgehampton locations. Until then, they are open Thursday through Monday. 

Lemonides and Weiner have two other locations -- one in New York City that opened two years ago, just after they closed Almondito in Wainscott, and another in Fire Island, which opened this past summer.

Keeping Almond on the South Fork -- what Lemonides refers to as "my hometown" -- is important to the pair. He has a house in Bridgehampton and Weiner has a house in East Hampton. "As soon as I pass the canal, I breath lighter," Lemonides said. "My hometown isn't necessarily Bridgehampton, my hometown, to me, is from the Shinnecock Canal to Montauk. As soon as I pass the canal, I'm home."