It has often been noted that the lifestyle under the patrons’ tents at the Hampton Classic is rich and sumptuous. Is this true? Or rhetorical overstatement? Casual observers tend to paint Grand Prix Day in broad strokes, to depict the most extravagant tables and let them represent all food and all style at the Classic.
The reality, however, is more nuanced. There are as many styles, as many menus and as many approaches as there are individuals putting in the effort. While a number of tables are indeed sumptuous, others are simple and straightforward. While some have more in common with an ambitious lunch in a grand dining room, others are more like a picnic with a view. And it is this variety, this liberal mix of personal and corporate styles that truly characterizes entertaining and social life in the Grand Prix and United States Equestrian Team tents.
Hunter and jumper events take place all week, in all four rings. Classes range from young local riders competing for a blue ribbon to big money cups and awards. In keeping with the casual equestrian tone on weekdays, lunch during week is always basic: a sandwich or salad from one of the stands at the show, or a brown bag from the deli. The pace quickens on Saturday, with more platters and table settings, and peaks on Sunday, bringing us the most exciting sporting event of summer—the $125,000 Crown Royal Grand Prix—along with the most important social event of the season.
This is the day of caterers and cooks, of place settings and tabletops, of picnic baskets and silver platters. This is the day you see it all—every host and hostess’ personal style on display for two thousand people to see and to judge. While horses and riders are definitely the stars of the Hampton Classic, for one day at least the food, the presentation, and the social energy of the show are strong runner-ups.
At some tables you will find formal arrangements with place settings of china, silver and crystal, with floral centerpieces and equestrian décor. One table traditionally evokes the hunt, with a stuffed fox staring longingly at an equally stuffed pheasant. Certain tables, especially big corporate sponsors, have professional help serving and bartending. It is high style, elegant, timeless, and of course, expensive.
Other tables are far more nonchalant. Food covers the table, guests mill about, visitors stop by. In some ways this style derives from the earlier, simpler days of the horse show, but this being the Hamptons, it is probably not so simple. Who knows what society caterer designed that picnic?
The gold standard for food at the Classic is set by the Long Island Food Experience. At a tasting for the show’s major sponsors, top chefs from restaurants on Long Island and in New York create some of the tastiest and most imaginative food of the summer. Using a wide variety of local ingredients—vegetables, fruits, fish and shellfish—the participating chefs present guests with delicious dishes to sample and savor.
Fine wines from Wolffer Sagpond Vineyards accompany the food, and there could hardly be a better setting in which to enjoy the product of a local vineyard than outdoors and close to the earth that produced it. Not as local, but just as much a tradition at the Classic, is Champagne Louis Roderer with the Hampton Classic label. Charles Ferrara and Brian Whitelock, the U.S. managers of Champagne Louis Roderer, get behind the bar en costume and generously pour their time-honored French champagne to accompany the seasonable Long Island food. For those who want to relax and enjoy the fine flavors of a rich whiskey, Crown Royal is the drink closely associated with the equestrian world and the Hampton Classic.
Spectators eat and drink and watch and talk. Hosts and guests sit in the shade under the tent, watching the best riders in the country compete in the most beautiful horse show in the country. They sense that the final Sunday of the show will in certain ways define how they remember summer, so they subtly create a beautiful experience that will become a beautiful memory. The excitement builds as the jump-off begins. The clock is ticking toward that moment of victory for one of the riders, but is also ticking toward the finish of the summer season. It’s a very happy day at the Classic because if you are there you are at the best party in the Hamptons. But it is also a sad day because summer as we know it in the Hamptons is nearly gone. It’s the kind of day that gives you a good appetite for life, and not incidentally, for lunch.