The lobster salad on Main Street in Sagaponack is a
creamy blend of mayonnaise, lemons, dill, capers and fresh Maine lobsters. If
you want some, join the line at Loaves and Fishes Gourmet Take-Out before 3
p.m., when it runs out.
And bring money: It costs $100 a pound.
The other day, a woman snapped up 12 pounds of lobster salad. That's $1,200
plus tax. Others preferred to carry out the filet of beef ($65 a pound), the
olives ($18 a pound) and the key lime pie ($34).
"Sometimes we feature things that are a little outrageous," said owner
Sybille Van Kempen. "It's our obligation. People who come here want to treat
themselves to something special."
A few miles away, at Claws on Wheels, a deli near the East Hampton train
station, lobster salad costs $70 a pound - up from $55 just six months ago. The
store sold out all three days of Memorial Day weekend. Owner Bruce Sasso said
one man took home an $800 order.
Call it the Consumer Lobster Price Index - the measure of how much the rich
and mega-rich are willing to pay for delicacies. This year, it seems, no price
is too exorbitant in the Hamptons. At Pacific East restaurant in Amagansett,
the Kobe rib eye steak, imported from Japan, costs $200.
That's far from the most expensive item on the menu. For discerning diners,
the sommelier recommends the Screaming Eagle 1996 cabernet, which is $2,800.
During Memorial Day weekend, Pacific East sold both of its bottles. It also
sold all 11 bottles of its Dom Perignon ($225 each). With the summer season
about to go full throttle, the distributor is sending more.
For years, prices have been high for Hamptons meals and lodging - as well
as basics such as a gallon of milk - but this season promises to break all
records. Even summer staples cost twice as much as they do elsewhere on Long
Island. From Southampton to Sag Harbor, the going price for a single scoop of
ice cream is $4.50 or more.
A gallon of gas? Don't ask. It's hovering over $4.
"We're reeling from the prices out here - they're ungodly," said Peter
Matthiessen, author of "Men's Lives," a history of South Fork fishermen.
Matthiessen started coming to the Hamptons as a child in the 1940s and has
lived in the area since 1954. He says local clerks and shop owners are dazed by
the influx of new money and new attitudes. "They didn't used to see people who
are so crass, so aggressive - they insist on having what they want, and
they're willing to pay anything for it."
Within a one-block radius in the center of East Hampton village, a shopper
can buy a $15,000 pair of chairs covered with patchwork fabric at the new J.
Roaman store, a $240 men's bathing suit or a $139,000 women's watch at London
Jewelers.
Hamptons residents have spent decades complaining that it used to be
different. This time, they might be right. Much of the money comes from a surge
in hedge funds, securities trading, mergers and acquisitions and other Wall
Street sports.
At the end of last year, Wall Street spread around $23.9 billion in
bonuses, an increase of 17 percent over the previous year. Many of those with
second homes in the Hamptons are giddy, and with reason: Executive compensation
firms such as Johnson Associates predict that this year's bonuses for
investment bankers will jump another 10 percent to 15 percent.
By any measure, the South Fork is riding an economic boom. Last weekend,
Claws on Wheels sold out its 200 pounds of lobster salad - $12,000 worth of
Canadian crustaceans.
Sasso said lobster prices spiked in recent months because of a shortage,
but they've started to drop. He added that Hamptons retail prices reflect
Hamptons costs of doing business.
"Everything is more out here - fuel, electricity, labor, insurance, general
overhead," he said.
At Pacific Pearl, home of the $200 Japanese steak, the chef-owner Mike
Castino, points out that he also offers a $22 fixed-price meal that appeals to
locals.
Of course, there's one expensive token of the Hamptons that locals and
weekenders alike know all too well: the parking summons. East Hampton hands out
7,000 a year (that's a lot considering there are only 1,334 year-round
residents in the village).
Castino remembers an especially costly shopping trip to buy his favorite
Purple Label clothes at Polo on East Hampton's Main Street. "I got a $200 shirt
and a $60 parking ticket."
