Work Begins On New Hampton Bays Restaurant

The public will have a chance to view and comment on a new proposed restaurant in Hampton Bays, which the owner hopes to have open by the summer.

On Nov. 14, the Southampton Town Planning Board will hold a public meeting to go over the site plans for the “Good Ground Restaurant,” which is expected to take over the space once occupied by 3 Aces Italian restaurant on Montauk Highway in Hampton Bays.

According to owner and newly trained chef Ed Hilinski, the Good Ground will serve classic American comfort food, such as burgers and steaks. A small bar will be installed, and perhaps a small TV mounted behind the bar, but Hilinski said he isn’t targeting the sports bar crowd.

“I’m not really going for that,” Hilinski said. “I want people to come here and be able to have conversations and concentrate on their meal without that kind of distraction.

Hilinski, a Smithtown native with a home just around the corner from the restaurant, hopes to serve his first guests by June 1, just in time for the summer crowd. In addition, Hilinski plans for about 20 outdoor seats so diners can enjoy the warm weather.

“It’s going to be awesome,” Hilinski said, adding that owning a restaurant has been a long-awaited dream. Hilinski is a pharmacist by trade, who sold his independent pharmacy to a Walgreen’s and decided to attend culinary school in Manhattan. He closed on the old 3 Aces property in December of 2012.

Currently, the restaurant only has a demolition permit and workers are inside gutting the existing space as specified in the drawings from Bohemia-based architectural firm Enspire Design Group. Hilenski said the existing refrigeration has been removed and some structures in the back of the restaurant have been torn down.

Elevation drawings of what the outside of the building will look like are viewable in the photo gallery accompanying this story. The drawings do not call for any extensions or expansions of the existing structure. The planning board meeting will mostly center on issues such as parking configuration, signage and exterior lighting. In addition, the structure setback from the street will need to be discussed as it no longer conforms to the 40-foot code recently adopted, according to Hilinski.