Sound View Restaurant opened for the season yesterday with the East End Lions Club annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration.
The dinner at the Sound View is a traditional rite of spring on the North Fork and it’s one of many traditions at the iconic Sound-front restaurant and motel that won’t be changing under new ownership.
The restaurant and resort was sold by its longtime owners, the Levin family, this winter.
Yesterday, its new owners opened the restaurant’s doors for the first time, reopening for the season with the traditional St. Paddy’s Day dinner. (The Lions Club event continues today from 12 to 8 p.m. See photos and more information.)
Don’t expect any dramatic changes at the Sound View any time soon.
Business partners Ingrid Summerfield, Erick Warner and Stephen Chan fell in love with the place on first sight.
“We have a great love of working with properties that have a great sense of place and destination, properties that are unique, like this,” said Summerfield, who runs Filament Hospitality and is overseeing operations.
Warner, who grew up in Delaware and lives in New York City, loves the North Fork, where he’s vacationed for years.
“It reminds me a lot of where I grew up. It’s beautiful and there’s really no place like it in this region,” he said.
Returning restaurant patrons will see plenty of familiar faces at the Sound View, where all of the staff have been retained, Summerfield said.
The motel will see some improvements this season — new mattresses, pillows, linens and plush towels, she said. A makeover will take place in stages.
The motel, originally the 12-unit Sound Shore Motel, was built by Jack and Donna Levin in 1953. They purchased the Sound View Restaurant in 1968. The Levins added to the motel and restaurant over the years, expanding to 45 units and a 10-unit apartment complex. They also added a piano bar lounge and a 150-seat banquet room to the restaurant.
The next generation of Levins took over operations and continued in the family tradition. “Throughout all those years, we have operated the enterprise just as our father taught us: give good value, charge a fair price, and reach out to your community neighbors when they need a helping hand,” the family said in a statement announcing the sale posted on the Sound View’s Facebook page in January.
“Circumstances change, family needs change, and we have found it necessary to make this change at this time,” said Rachel Levin Murphy and Ellen Levin Wiederlight. Family patriarch Jack Levin passed away in 2014 at age 105.
“It is our hope and expectation that the Sound View will continue to grow and to serve our local residents and visitors to the North Fork communities,” the Levins said.
Warner and Summerfield share that vision.
“The longtime owners truly created something special,” Summerfield said last night, as her staff served guests at the East End Lions Club annual St. Patrick’s Day dinner.
“We want to enhance and improve it, to add value and not change its bones.”
