Now Nick & Toni's--Once Ma Bergman's
Long before there was a Nick & Toni’s there was a Ma Bergman’s at their same location, before the building was renovated and expanded, on North Main Street in East Hampton. They used to make pizza and pastas in the kitchen and Ma would serve them in one of the other two rooms or on the porch of the first floor of her home. You could hear the family watching television upstairs, and sometimes the kids would come down in their pajamas to say goodnight to Pa, who was the chef. John Duck’s in Southampton was more of a real restaurant. Before driving back to New York Sunday nights folks used to stop in there for a family style meal with food served from big bowls. The pace was leisurely. No one worried about traffic on the Expressway. In Bridgehampton Bobby Van’s was a good local hangout where Truman Capote held court and Bobby Van played the piano and everyone stayed up late, even during the week. Thirty-five years ago that’s the way restaurants were in the Hamptons. You didn’t need a reservation and people still had this quaint notion of going out just to eat, oblivious of seeing and being seen. The food, however, was not as memorable as the places, nor as good as it is now.