Rowdy Hall Opens in Amagansett Behind Black Facade and a Town Summons

The venerable local pub Rowdy Hall opened in its new Amagansett location this week — behind a black facade and a gold nameplate, identical to the proposed aesthetic that the business’s ownership had presented to the Architectural Review Board, which the ARB rejected late last month.

Painting crews began covering up the putty-colored exterior of the previous tenant at 177 Main Street in Amagansett, the Main Street Tavern, behind a matte black veneer, last Wednesday, November 8.

Town code officers, tipped off by calls from passersby apparently aware of the saga that had swirled around the Rowdy application to the ARB, were on the scene by midday and issued a stop-work order, but not before the entire frontage had been darkened.

Mark Smith, a co-owner of Rowdy Hall, said on Wednesday, November 8, that the painters were simply using a dark-colored primer on the outside of the building.

But by this week, the name and two heads of Bacchus — the Greek god of wine — were emblazoned in gold above the black exterior, black mullioned windows and black doors.

Kevin Cooper, the head of the town’s Code Enforcement Department, said that the business was issued a stop-work order and two tickets for conducting work without building permits — both related to the paint job — but that the orders did not bar the business from operating.

“They changed the color of the exterior facade, and since it’s a commercial business it requires ARB approval and a building permit, which they did not have,” Cooper said this week. “They are allowed to open the business — they just can’t do any further work.”

Cooper said the violations issued to the business will be heard in East Hampton Town Justice Court on December 4.

Rowdy Hall closed its East Hampton Village location on November 1 after 26 years at the back of an alley off Main Street, where the small frontage was painted jet black, with the pub’s emblem in gilded lettering.

The owners had proposed the same look for the new space and said it was important to the branding of the relocated business.

But ARB members had bristled at the proposal. The building is within the Amagansett Historic District, and town code dictates that the ARB only allow aesthetics that complement the historic look of the hamlet center. The board members said that to jibe with the historic palette, the building’s facade should focus on a mostly white, wood shingles or brick motif.

Over four months, the owners presented two other color schemes to the ARB, one mostly deep green, the other gray. The board said it would approve the gray scheme with black window trim and a black banner above the doors, but could not endorse the fully black frontage.

But the business withdrew the other proposals and asked that the ARB only issue a verdict on the black color scheme. The board voted 3-1 to reject it and has issued no approval for any new color scheme.

On Tuesday, Jeff Bragman, an attorney and former East Hampton Town councilman, accused Town Board members of not taking swift or forceful enough steps to force Rowdy Hall to reverse its “defiance” of the ARB order. The summonses and stop-work orders, he said, would only result in fines that many business owners see paying as a cost of doing business and would not address what he said was an affront to the town’s regulatory authority.

“The question of the paint color may be small … but the idea that an applicant can receive an adverse ruling from an administrative board and then just go out and paint the facade in defiance is not something that the town can tolerate,” Bragman, who served on the Town Board from 2018 to 2021, said.

“People are watching this — applicants are watching this,” he added. “You cannot tolerate an applicant who defies the law and rejects an order of the ARB … without tanking the enforceability of your code.”

He suggested the town should take the business to court and seek an injunction that forces the building to be repainted a neutral color while the owners seek recourse through the proper legal system.

He also insinuated that members of the Town Board were too close with the Rowdy Hall ownership, noting that the town’s Democratic Party had held its election night gathering at another restaurant owned by the same company, and made note that the attorney who had advised the ARB during the case, David McMaster — and butted heads with Rowdy’s owners and attorney — is no longer working in the town’s legal office.

Board members did not respond to Bragman’s criticism or suggestion for courses of action. But the new supervisor-elect, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, said the town would be taking a look at the codes that guide the ARB’s decision-making.

During the hearings before the ARB, Rowdy’s representatives and some board members had expressed frustrations that the town code guidelines were not more specific about what, exactly, made an aesthetic “complementary” to the character of the historic district. Board members pointed to descriptions of the district’s general aesthetic being whites, wood shingles, and brick, but Smith noted that did not specifically say black was not an option and wished there was more specific guidance an applicant could go by.

“If there’s ambiguity and vagueness in the code,” Burke-Gonzalez said on Tuesday, “then it’s incumbent upon us, the legislators, to tighten up the code.”