To celebrate my mother in law's 85th birthday we thought the new, hipped up Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton seemed like an ironic choice for an octagenarian. We had been there a couple of times in the mid 2000's for The Hampton International Film Festival (when I worked for Films in Review) for one event or the other and were always impressed with the cozy, wasp atmosphere.
Now, it is quite different thanks to a considerable, but not intrusive make over by Sweedish Hotelier Jenny Ljungberg who is well known for the "c/o Hotels philosophy; a mix of free-spirited Scandanavian design with a timeless sophistication." (as per the Maidstone website). Apparently, this means lots and lots of color.
We ate brunch at The Living Room in the Hotel. The restaraunt adheres closely to the "slow food" philosophy which endorses the promotion of regional and traditional cuisine (in a nutshell). That is all well and good, but our main concern was the food.
We need not have been too concerned; Lynn and I split a splendid plate of "Peconic Pride" Oysters and I had something that I think was called Toast Pelle Jannson which consisted of grass fed beef carpaccio with a garnish of Swedish lojrom caviar, creme freche, baby greens and shaved Vasterbotten cheese (it was superb).
When I ordered a negroni the pretty bartender concocted it without batting an eye. Feeling particularly sweedish I ordered an aquavit chaser (tough to find in any restarauint).
The hotel's manager was nice enought to show us around the hotel (without our having to ask). Each room had a theme related to a famous Scandanavian ("The Sonja Heine" suite made me think of my dad who was enchanted with the Olympian) and had a shiny Playstation 3 as part of the decor.
