Golden Pear Celebrates 30 Years In East Hampton Village

The Golden Pear Cafe will celebrate its 30th anniversary on Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village on Monday, April 26.

To honor the patrons who have kept the popular eatery churning out baked goods and prepared dishes for so long, owner Keith Davis will host an appreciate weekend on Saturday and Sunday with 30 percent off all breakfasts, $3 lattes and free pear-shaped butter cookies and cider.

When Mr. Davis opened the Golden Pear in 1991, he and his landlord and business neighbor Benhard Kiembock were just two of many locally-owned business owners on East Hampton’s other main street. Now they are two of only a few.

“Things have changed so much,” Mr. Davis said on Friday while making his daily rounds between the three Golden Pear Cafes in Southampton, Bridgehampton and East Hampton. “In the late ’90s and early 2000s East Hampton really got discovered by the major retail stores. Coach opened in the late 1990s … and then Ralph Lauren and the billboard fashion brands started coming. Sadly, that drove up rent to the point the local businesses couldn’t sustain. Those local businesses that were open year-round and their employees who were our customers, that all evaporated.”

In short order, however, the evolution of the South Fork community filled in the gaps. After 9/11, many second-homeowners, who would normally only use their homes in the summer, escaped the horror of the city and discovered the beauty of early fall in the region. Some moved to the area full-time and soon most second-homeowners began regularly using their East End retreats on shoulder-season weekends.

Mr. Davis said his business has also seen a big spike in patronage by laborers from the explosion in landscaping and construction trades that have made business in the off-seasons — even before the coronavirus pandemic blotted out the concept of the off-season — more stable and reliable. And summers — well, summers are just “holding on for dear life.”

Mr. Davis said that Mr. Kiembock’s dedication to keeping a stable, local business in his neighboring building is certainly a lynchpin to the Golden Pear’s longevity. The two businesses have also complimented each other well and traded customers.

“Without the support of your landlord, out here, you basically don’t have a business,” Mr. Davis said. “We’ve made a lot of friends here in East Hampton. Thirty years. It’s that is a long time in East Hampton. It’s a lifetime.”