SHIPPY’S RESTAURANT (Southampton)

The Smell of Another Era

Walk into Shippy’s on a cold January night and the first thing that hits you isn’t the food. It’s time travel.

The wood paneling has absorbed seventy years of cigarette smoke, whispered deals, and belly laughs. The booths carry the scent of something you can’t buy anymore. Dark leather, old beer, the accumulated presence of thousands of people who came here to disappear from wherever they’d been.

Your grandfather ate here after a round of golf in 1962. Your grandmother ordered the schnitzel in 1978 and thought it was too much food. Their booth might be the one you’re sitting in now.

The menu arrives. You’re not ordering dinner. You’re ordering a decision about who you want to be tonight.

From Toots Shor’s to the South Fork

The story begins in Manhattan, at the most famous saloon America ever knew.

Toots Shor’s Restaurant occupied 51 West 51st Street from 1940 to 1959. The circular bar was legend. Joe DiMaggio had his regular table. Jackie Gleason practically lived there between tapings. Frank Sinatra dropped in after midnight. Marilyn Monroe turned heads. Ernest Hemingway allegedly met Yogi Berra at the bar.

Toots Shor himself called his patrons “crum-bums.” He never advertised because gossip columnists gave him all the publicity he needed. When Charlie Chaplin complained about waiting for a table, Toots told him to entertain the line.

William Casgrain worked behind that famous bar. He earned his nickname during service in the Merchant Marines. When his friends at Toots Shor’s started buying summer places on the East End, Shippy saw an opportunity. He left Manhattan in 1954 to open his own place in Southampton.

His famous friends followed. Jackie Gleason showed up. Gary Cooper dropped by. Jack Dempsey came for steaks. The sizzling porterhouse became Shippy’s signature. The jukebox played Beatles tunes and Chubby Checker. A bartender named Ed DeGramby became a local legend.

Southampton now had its own version of the Manhattan saloon. Celebrities mixed with locals. Nobody was too important and nobody was too ordinary.

The German Transformation

Everything changed in 1978 when Ed Nielsen bought the restaurant.

Nielsen was German-born, raised in Queens, and he ran a successful place in Northport called Pumpernickel’s. His wife Elfie had a restaurant around the corner. Ed saw no reason to abandon what Shippy built. He simply added another layer.

The menu transformed overnight. Wiener schnitzel joined the steaks. Sauerbraten appeared beside the burgers. Bratwurst, knockwurst, weisswurst lined up in the appetizer section. The Black Forest cake became essential. Apple strudel demanded second helpings. Nielsen didn’t replace Shippy’s American identity. He married it to something warmer and stranger.

The result shouldn’t have worked. An Irish-American bartender’s saloon serving German grandmother food? In the Hamptons?

It worked precisely because it made no sense. The combination proved that Shippy’s wasn’t chasing trends. It was just being whatever its owners happened to be. Ed Nielsen was German. Therefore Shippy’s served German food. No focus groups required.

Fifty Years in One Kitchen

For more than five decades, one family cooked the food at Shippy’s.

Janis Kruszyna, a Polish immigrant, worked the kitchen for twenty-one years under both owners. Her son Mitch started as a teenager and eventually became head chef. Together, mother and son represented continuity that most restaurants can’t imagine.

Mitch Kruszyna made the same sauerbraten the same way for decades. He took pride in consistency above innovation. The goulash became locally famous. The schnitzels earned devoted followings. Regulars could track the calendar by seasonal specials.

This kind of stability produces something restaurants rarely achieve. The food stops being “the chef’s interpretation” and becomes simply “how it tastes here.” No reinvention. No seasonal pivots. Just the thing itself, repeated until perfection becomes invisible.

What Patina Actually Means

Designer Steven Stolman captured something essential about Shippy’s when he talked about patina.

Patina is the accumulated evidence of use over time.

Shippy’s has the real thing because nobody tried to create it. The wood panels darkened naturally. The carpet wore thin where feet actually walked. The smell developed because thousands of meals were actually served.

Bunny Mellon, the legendary tastemaker, famously said nothing should be noticed. She meant that true elegance disappears into itself. Shippy’s embodies this principle through pure accident. Nothing was designed to impress. Everything was designed to function. Decades of function created something that can’t be bought.

The McDonald’s Guy Takes Over

In 2022, John Betts bought Shippy’s from Nick Nielsen, Ed’s son.

The headlines wrote themselves. Former McDonald’s executive purchases beloved local institution. Fears spread that the golden arches would somehow colonize the wood-paneled dining room.

The truth was more complicated and more interesting.

Betts grew up in North Sea, just down the road. His first job was prepping buns at Southampton’s McDonald’s in 1970 for $1.85 an hour. He rose through fifty years at the company to become President and CEO of McDonald’s Canada. He managed thousands of restaurants across multiple countries.

Then he retired, came home, and bought the place where his parents used to take him for special occasions.

Here’s what the skeptics missed: running ten thousand McDonald’s locations teaches you exactly what makes one restaurant work better than another. Betts knew that efficiency and systems matter, but he also knew that Shippy’s wasn’t McDonald’s. Its value came from what couldn’t be systematized.

The renovation took a year. Betts uncovered original architectural renderings and restored the 1930s A&P storefront. He brought back brick facades that had been covered for decades. He upgraded infrastructure while preserving atmosphere.

The menu expanded but the classics stayed. Wiener schnitzel remains. Sauerbraten persists. The Black Forest cake hasn’t changed. Giovanni Wilson now leads the kitchen, but the German soul survives.

Why This Place Still Matters

In the Hamptons, authenticity has become performance.

New restaurants open with “rustic farm tables” manufactured in Brooklyn. “Local” means an expensive marketing strategy. “Unpretentious” describes places where dinner for two costs three hundred dollars and everyone pretends it doesn’t.

Shippy’s represents something that existed before the performance began. It’s a place that became what it is through pure accident and persistence. Nobody designed it to appeal to anyone. Nobody optimized it for Instagram.

The wood paneling is dark because it was installed in 1954 and nobody replaced it. The booths are worn because generations of posteriors have polished them. The German food is German because Ed Nielsen was German.

The Code

Understanding Shippy’s requires learning its unwritten rules.

First: come when it’s cold. Summer tourists crowd the place and miss its essence. Winter regulars know something visitors don’t. The room transforms when the fireplace matters.

Second: order German. The expanded menu offers modern options, but you came here for schnitzel. Get the schnitzel. The weisswurst. The sauerbraten. Trust what the place does best.

Third: talk to the bartender. The round bar at Toots Shor’s was famous because conversation happened there. Shippy’s inherited that tradition. The bartenders know things. Ask them.

Fourth: bring your grandmother. This is the kind of place that grandmothers understand. Large portions. Familiar flavors. Reasonable prices. Comfortable seating. She’ll recognize what you might miss.

Fifth: accept the pace. This isn’t fast-casual. Meals take time. Drinks arrive when they arrive. The rhythm is 1954, not 2025.

What to Order

Start with the German pretzel. The beer cheese justifies the trip alone.

For main courses, the Bavarian house platter gives you the full survey. Kassler rippchen plus your choice of bratwurst, weisswurst, or knockwurst. The chicken schnitzel brings regulars back weekly. The sauerbraten requires surrender to its rich, sweet-sour intensity.

The smash burger is newer but already earns devotion. It proved that the kitchen can adapt without abandoning history.

Save room for Black Forest cake. Not because you need dessert, but because you’ll regret skipping it. The apple strudel runs a close second. The Bavarian cream pie deserves consideration if you’re feeling reckless.

Drink local if you’re drinking beer. Greenport Otherside IPA. Montauk Wave Chaser IPA. Or go German with Warsteiner or Paulaner. The biergarten opens when weather permits.

What It Costs

Dinner with drinks will run you fifty to seventy dollars per person. This is not cheap in absolute terms, but in the Hamptons, it’s practically charitable.

The happy hour from three to six offers seven-dollar wines, drafts, and house cocktails. The appetizer menu at happy hour suggests management actually wants locals to come regularly rather than once a summer.

Lunch prices run lower still. The same quality at reduced rates attracts the contractors and landscapers who built your rental house. They know value when they see it.

The Point

Shippy’s exists because three consecutive owners refused to optimize.

William Casgrain brought Manhattan saloon culture to Southampton. Ed Nielsen layered German tradition on top. John Betts restored rather than replaced. Each owner understood that they were caretakers, not creators.

The result is seventy years of accumulated presence. The building was an A&P grocery store in 1930.A bar in 1954. A German restaurant in 1978. Whatever it is now in 2022.

What it is now is rare. It’s a place where you can eat schnitzel in a booth that Jackie Gleason might have occupied, served by people whose families have worked there for generations, at prices that suggest someone still believes restaurants should be for everyone.

Manhattan lost Toots Shor’s in 1971. The magic never returned despite multiple attempts.

Southampton kept Shippy’s. The magic stayed.

That’s the difference between places that get destroyed by success and places that survive it.

Facts Box

Address: 36 Windmill Lane, Southampton, NY 11968

Phone: (631) 283-0007

Hours:

• Breakfast: Daily 8am-11:30am
• Lunch: Daily 11:30am-3pm
• Dinner: Mon-Thu/Sun 4:30pm-10pm; Fri-Sat 4:30pm-11pm
• Happy Hour: Daily 3pm-6pm

Price Range: $$

Reservations: Recommended via OpenTable; Local VIP Card available for year-round residents

Cards: All major cards accepted

Parking: Street parking on Windmill Lane; rarely an issue

Year Established: 1954

Building Age: 1930 (former A&P grocery store)

Owners: William “Shippy” Casgrain (1954-1978), Ed Nielsen (1978-1997), Nick Nielsen (1997-2022), John Betts (2022-present)