Anthony Martignetti has worked hard to build a big life. With his brother Tom, in the last two decades he’s opened twelve restaurants in New York City, among them The East Pole, Canal Street Oysters, and Eastfields, as well as a nightclub and jazz club. He started his own wine brand and wrote a satirical book, Deep Thoughts from a Shallow Grave: Epitaphs to Die For. One day in 2016, he was driving around the North Fork of Long Island and spotted the crumbling Old Mill Inn, first built in the 1820’s as a grist mill, which was on the market for two million dollars. Martignetti decided to buy it, figuring it would be a fun and easy restoration project. What could possibly go wrong?
He closed on the property in February 2019. And now six intense years later, after putting a fortune into the restoration—enduring pandemic delays and historical renovation board runarounds, and raising the entire building to 28 feet over the Mattituck Inlet to adhere with FEMA guidelines (lifting the structure five feet, and installing 67 new timber pilings in the water)—the Old Mill Inn is fully restored and open for business as a classic American seaside tavern
I first met Martignetti and his wife Angela Ledgerwood at a New York state winemaker event in Manhattan, “Cab Franc Forward,” promoting the state’s most successful grape varietal (they were pouring tastes of their Old Sound Vineyard Cabernet Franc). He mentioned his massive restoration project and the tavern he planned to open in May. Intrigued, I followed up with a call a few months later.
“The Old Mill Inn was such a gem of a building,” said Martignetti when I reached him. “There was nothing like it on the East Coast. This 199-year-old mill was sitting here completely unloved, sinking into the water. I said to myself, ‘I must save it.’”
Hidden away on a dead-end road facing a little marina, the Old Mill Inn has had many lives since its grist mill days. It was a popular speakeasy and jazz bar during the prohibition era. “Back in the day, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard used to be regulars at the inn,” Martignetti said.
“I love old buildings,” Martignetti continued. “My brother and I have restaurants in three landmark buildings—in an Upper East Side brownstone, a gorgeous Beaux-Arts building in Tribeca, and another landmark in SoHo on Broome Street.” And the brothers have a new restoration project underway, transforming an 1867 carriage house on East 57th (the former home of Neary’s pub) into a new restaurant in their portfolio.
With the Old Mill project, Martignetti served as both designer and project manager, on site throughout the two-year process. He didn’t anticipate the quagmire he’d face navigating state and local boards. The pandemic closed all agencies for about nine months and when they reopened, he found himself ricocheting between town and state authorities and a host of historical landmark boards.
“The size of the inn’s windows became an issue,” he said. “The state historical people said the windowpanes and openings must be a certain size, but the town said that the size was not egress-worthy from the inside.” A wonderful lawyer helped him navigate.
From the start Martignetti knew that the mill had to be lifted out of the water, which was done by a lifting crew from Dawn House Movers, who put the mill on dry land and then after the foundation was built, moved it back nine months later.
“The most fascinating part was working with the best marine contractors, Chesterfield Associates, who did the new timber pilings and built a seawall,” Martignetti said. Once the building was back on its foundation, he started the actual renovation. Everything, from the shingles to the interior beams, date back to the 1870s and all the interior woodwork was done by master carpenters.
“For the floors we salvaged all the old pilings that were underwater for 200 years,” he explained. A lumber mill in Pennsylvania milled them down and turned them into floorboards to be used throughout the inn, including the upstairs three-bedroom loft, impeccably decorated by his wife, and now available to rent. Martignetti added wooden booths and a wood-burning stove to the tavern, making it cozy for year-round use. He painted the exterior the original shade of red.
Before the opening in May, Martignetti worked with his chef, Kyle Bloomer, on developing a menu of updated seafood classics, including fried oyster sliders and striped bass curry. The bar menu includes classic cocktails (housemade Martinis and Negronis on draft) and seasonal cocktails (Spicy Paloma, Classic Painkiller, Watermelon Margarita). The wine list is half from New York and half from Europe.
Along with Jura and Beaujolais reds, and Loire Valley whites, the list includes Martignetti’s own Old Sound Vineyard wines—including a pet-nat rosé, a skin contact orange chardonnay, a rosé, and a varietal cabernet franc. His wines are made by Byron Elmendorf, the winemaker from nearby Macari Vineyard (the region’s leading organic winery, celebrating its 30th anniversary). Martignetti bought eight acres near Macari’s 500-acre wine estate in Mattituck.
“Was your six-year restoration effort worth it?” I wondered. His response was enthusiastic. “There’ve been so many upsides,” he said. “Without the Old Mill I wouldn’t have known of a vineyard for sale, which I bought in 2021. And I got so close to the local community that Angela and I decided to live in Mattituck year-round.” They’ve been residents of the area for a year and a half, living with their newborn son Max on the Old Sound Vineyard property, just two miles up the road from their new tavern.