As unlikely as it may sound, the Hamptons’ newest luxe luncheonette is a family joint tucked inside a train station.
Chef William Pendergast crafted the menu and makes everything — from pillowy buns and flaky buttermilk biscuits to the breakfast sausage and crème fraîche — from scratch. His three young boys work the dish pit and shape the house-made bread.
One of them even designed the logo for the Little Gull cafe.
His wife Johanna Pendergast hung wallpaper in the bathroom before the restaurant’s opening last fall. She now waits tables, makes menus and does payroll.
“She does everything but cook,” Pendergast tells Alexa. Their quaint track-side eatery is nestled in the Remsenburg-Speonk station — Long Island Rail Road’s first stop in the Hamptons.
At the homey cafe (where the centerpiece is an oil portrait of Elvis) all of the ingredients are sourced from local butchers and farms.
“I think our big draw is the fact that we use almost exclusively local produce . . . and all our bread is made in-house,” says Pendergast, who used to work as a private chef. “Everyone loves an egg sandwich, but it’s so much better when it’s a local egg made on a warm squishy roll just out of the oven [$9].”
The meatloaf sandwich ($14) is another favorite — served on the chef’s freshly baked bread with sharp cheddar, cherry-pepper mayonnaise and pickled red onions. It comes with potato chips that he recommends stacking between the bread.
The Little Gull also offers craft beer from Moustache Brewing in nearby Riverhead and Brooklyn’s Other Half Brewing. As summer approaches, the family plans to add a dinner menu and live music.
“I’ve also been [baking] house-made, top-sliced hot dog rolls, which I’ll fill with Maine lobster for the best lobster rolls you can find anywhere,” says Pendergast. “Seriously, I’m from Cape Cod — worked at seafood shacks there, then Pearl Oyster Bar in NYC — so I take it all very seriously.”
