Longtime mom-pop E. Hampton deli to close

Bucket's Deli stands as a reminder of a time when East Hampton village was filled almost entirely with locals who hung around and talked to the owner as he made them coffee or his special chicken salad.

Now the deli -- small, unimposing and one of the village's few cash-only businesses -- will soon make its last stand.

The business is named for its former owner, Norton "Bucket" Daniels, a one-term Suffolk County legislator from Sag Harbor. He sold it to Everett and Angela Griffiths 33 years ago.

The Griffiths are ready to move on, too, but instead of selling the business they're closing down, on Feb. 24. It's not because their rent is going up, or customers are flocking to the more trendy and pricier delis and upscale coffee shops at the other end of Newtown Lane. It's just time, they said.

"I'm tired," Everett Griffiths explained.

The three decades he and his wife have been getting up at 4:30 a.m. to bring in the rolls, set out the newspapers and make the coffee have finally caught up to them.

"When I started, we were open seven days a week, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.," Griffiths said. "We did it for a long time. Fifteen years ago, we started taking Sundays off."

Griffiths, 64, said he and his wife plan to enjoy doing nothing for a while. And not getting up before dawn.

"We'll travel a bit. We'll take it one step at a time," he said.

The red brick building at the north end of Newtown Lane is far from the fashionable clothing stores and art galleries but is closer to the railroad tracks. Its owner has put it up for sale, but any new tenant probably won't resemble the deli.

"There are very few mom-and-pop stores left here," Griffiths said.

The deli's absence won't go unnoticed.

"He's stayed in business for a very long time. That says something," said East Hampton Village Manager Larry Cantwell, adding that whenever he goes in he orders "Everett's famous chicken salad. That's what I call it."

Cantwell said there is a sense of loss in seeing another small business closing. "Over time, the village has lost a number of popular local businesses . . . it's a labor of love for him. Sustaining it for 33 years says an awful lot."