Where the Pirate Buried His Gold
In June 1699, the privateer William Kidd sailed into Gardiner’s Bay with a hold full of treasure and a warrant for his arrest waiting in Boston. He needed to lighten the load.
With permission from the island’s proprietor, Kidd buried a chest, a box of gold, and two boxes of silver in a ravine between Bostwick’s Point and the Manor House on Gardiner’s Island. The gold, he told Mrs. Gardiner, was intended for Lord Bellomont, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The treasure would be recovered after Kidd was hanged for piracy, but the name stuck. For three centuries, Bostwick’s Point has marked the spot where a desperate man hid what he couldn’t carry.
Nearly three hundred years later, a young East Hampton cook named Chris Eggert had a favorite fishing spot off that same stretch of coast. When he and his partner Kevin Boles opened their first restaurant together, they named it after the place where Eggert loved to cast his line.
Sometimes treasure isn’t gold. Sometimes it’s knowing where the fish are biting.
The Partnership
The story of Bostwick’s begins with two teenage friends washing dishes in Springs.
Chris Eggert started working in East Hampton restaurant kitchens as a kid, beginning his back-of-the-house career as a dishwasher at Michael’s. From that vantage point, he studied what made some restaurants thrive and others fail. Kevin Boles came from different waters entirely. His Irish family owned pubs in New York City, establishments where everyone knew your name, where you called customers by their first names and knew what they’d order before they sat down.
In 1990, the two worked side by side in the kitchen of the Little Rock Yacht Club in Springs. Eggert suggested Boles stay for a summer out east. Like so many before him, Boles never left.
When the Little Rock’s owner moved on, Eggert and Boles saw their opportunity. They opened their first restaurant on Three Mile Harbor and named it Bostwick’s, after Eggert’s favorite fishing spot near Gardiner’s Island.
That was over thirty years ago. The partnership has since become legendary among Hamptons restaurant folk.
The Philosophy
Bostwick’s was built on a simple idea: good food that isn’t fussy.
Eggert and Boles loved the old East Hampton restaurants, the ones locals frequented year-round and savvy summer visitors discovered but wished they could keep secret. These places served East End classics: steamers, lobsters, fresh local fish, raw bars, good burgers and great fries. They brought entrees with side dishes rather than charging à la carte. They never made you wonder which fork to use.
Trendy food came and went, but certain things remained constant. Good food at a fair price kept people coming back. Great drinks set down on the bar with a welcoming smile made strangers feel like regulars.
This wasn’t a revolutionary concept. It was a remembered one. Eggert and Boles recreated the atmosphere of those vanished establishments, the warmth and informality that had largely disappeared from most East End eating places as the Hamptons became a global luxury brand.
The Migrations
Bostwick’s has moved more times than most restaurants survive.
The original location on Three Mile Harbor offered water views and that casual harbor atmosphere. In 1994, Eggert and Boles opened Santa Fe Junction in East Hampton village, a Southwestern restaurant that would run for years. In 1997, they moved Bostwick’s down the road to the Harbor Marina on Gann Road, where it remained until 2007 as Bostwick’s Seafood Grill.
When the lease on Gann Road expired in 2010, Bostwick’s relocated to 277 Pantigo Road, a space previously occupied by Cherrystone’s, another Eggert-Boles venture. The new location became Bostwick’s Chowder House. No water views this time. Just a roadside spot on the Montauk Highway between East Hampton and Amagansett.
It didn’t matter. The lines formed anyway.
In 2019, Bostwick’s returned to Gann Road, opening Bostwick’s on the Harbor in the waterfront space it had occupied a decade earlier. The Chowder House on Pantigo Road stayed open too. Now there were two Bostwick’s, one with sunset views over Three Mile Harbor, one with paper plates and curly fries on the highway.
Both stay packed.
The Empire
The Eggert-Boles partnership has grown into what industry observers call a “restaurateur juggernaut.”
In 2007, they opened Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett, a casual American tavern with dark wood, exposed brick, antique lanterns, and a pressed tin ceiling. The thirty-foot bar runs along one side of the space. Local black-and-white photography adorns the walls. Five flat-screen TVs show the game.
Next door to the Chowder House, they operate Bostwick’s Clambakes & Catering, which handles full clambake productions with tiki torches, LED candles, fleece blankets, portable Bluetooth speakers, and bistro lighting. In 2023, they opened Bostwick’s Seafood Market in collaboration with Wesley Peterson, a fourth-generation Montauker and commercial fisherman who owns Montauk Seafood Company. The market offers fresh fish caught straight off Montauk Point, live lobsters, and prepared dinners to go.
Chris runs the kitchens. Kevin runs the bars. The division of labor has held for three decades.
The Chowder House
Bostwick’s Chowder House sits on Pantigo Road, also known as Route 27, also known as the Montauk Highway, also known as the only way in and out of the Hamptons.
There are no water views. The parking lot fills by noon on summer weekends. The wait can stretch past an hour during peak season. Paper plates and plastic cutlery handle the volume. Market umbrellas shade the outdoor patio. The interior features seaside-inspired decor and wainscoting that suggests a casual beach house rather than a fine dining establishment.
None of this discourages anyone.
TripAdvisor ranks Bostwick’s number one of forty-eight restaurants in East Hampton. Reviewers who’ve been eating there for thirty-plus years return season after season, bringing their children and grandchildren to the same tables. Some customers know the staff by name. The staff knows them back.
This is what the Chowder House sells: consistency. The lobster roll tastes the same as it did a decade ago. The baked stuffed clams arrive the same way every time. The curly fries maintain their crunch. In a dining scene defined by chef turnover and concept refreshes, Bostwick’s offers the radical proposition that good food doesn’t need to change.
What You Eat
The menu runs broad and stays true.
Start with the baked stuffed clams, listed as “a Bostwick’s specialty” because they are. Three large clams packed with chunks of clam meat, garlic, parsley, and breadcrumbs. Reviewers compare them to the baked clams at the old Spring Close Restaurant, which is the highest compliment an East Hampton local can pay.
The chowders define the place. New England clam chowder, Manhattan clam chowder, corn chowder, and lobster bisque rotate through the menu depending on season. The bisque runs thick with lobster chunks. The corn chowder hits in late summer when local corn peaks.
Steamers come in generous bowlfuls with broth for dunking and melted butter for finishing. Mussels arrive in white wine, garlic, and butter or fra diavolo. Fried oysters get remoulade sauce and roasted corn salsa. Lobster fritters come with sweet chili sauce.
The lobster roll sits at the center of everything.
The Lobster Roll
Bostwick’s offers two versions: the Famous Lobster Salad Roll and the Famous Hot Buttered Lobster Roll.
The cold version delivers mildly seasoned lobster salad packed into a toasted bun. “So much lobster,” reviewers write. “Not cheap at all with the portion.” The warm version poaches tail, claw, and knuckle meat in a house-made beurre blanc, giving it what executive chef Damien O’Donnell calls “a little more complexity and flavor from the reduction of the shallots, white wine, and white vinegar.” A heaping six-ounce portion lands on a butter-toasted Martin’s potato hot dog bun.
At thirty-four dollars, Bostwick’s lobster roll sits at the lower end of Hamptons pricing. Duryea’s charges forty-four. Sant Ambroeus charges fifty-nine. The Bostwick’s version consistently ranks among the best on the East End, according to people who make it their summer mission to eat lobster rolls at every establishment in the Hamptons.
Served with your choice of coleslaw, fries, potato salad, or potato chips. The fries are curly, skin-on, and perfect.
The Rest of the Menu
Beyond the lobster, the kitchen keeps working.
The Fisherman’s Platter brings flounder, shrimp, oysters, and clam strips together with tartar sauce. Local fluke comes broiled with breadcrumbs and lemon beurre blanc. Shrimp scampi arrives broiled with seasoned breadcrumbs, garlic, butter, and wine over linguine or rice. Seafood pasta combines lobster, shrimp, and scallops with penne in a sun-dried tomato cream sauce.
The fish tacos have developed their own following. Grilled or fried mahi-mahi fills large flour tortillas with shredded cabbage, cilantro, guacamole, roasted corn salsa, and chipotle lime sauce. “Burrito-sized,” according to The Infatuation. The tuna poke bowl brings soy and sesame marinated raw tuna with mango salsa, edamame, cucumbers, pickled ginger, wasabi cucumber sauce, and sesame seeds.
For landlubbers, the cheeseburger delivers. Juicy, well-proportioned, served with the same curly fries that accompany everything else. Kids get their own menu with chicken tenders, grilled cheese, hot dogs, and pasta with butter or marinara.
Prices run reasonable by Hamptons standards. Most entrees land between twenty and thirty-five dollars. The Chowder House Seafood Tower tops out at ninety-nine dollars for ten clams, eight oysters, eight shrimp cocktail, a chilled one-pound lobster, seared tuna, and jumbo lump crab.
The Wait
Summer means lines.
On July weekends, expect to wait thirty to sixty minutes for a table. The Chowder House doesn’t take reservations for parties under six. Walk-ins crowd the door starting at 11:30 when the kitchen opens. Smart locals arrive early. Everyone else accepts the delay.
The wait functions as a sorting mechanism. People unwilling to stand in line for seafood find other restaurants. People willing to wait join a community of fellow waiters, all of whom understand what they’re waiting for. By the time you sit down, you’ve already committed to the experience.
“If you plan a weekend, be prepared to wait or get there soon after opening,” reviewers advise. This is not a complaint. It’s a ritual.
The Vibe
Bostwick’s calls itself “casual local seafood in a laid-back setting.”
The phrase undersells what happens inside. Families with sandy feet and kids in beach coverups share the room with couples who dressed up for date night. Locals who’ve been coming since the Three Mile Harbor days occupy their usual tables. First-timers study the menu. Regulars don’t need to.
The service matches the atmosphere. Quick without rushing. Friendly without performing. Staff members who clearly work hard during the summer crush but maintain composure. Reviews occasionally mention slow service during peak hours, but most acknowledge that the restaurant runs on volume and the kitchen keeps up.
Paper plates and plastic cutlery might seem like cost-cutting measures. They’re also practical solutions for a restaurant serving hundreds of covers a day during July and August. The food arrives fast and hot. Nobody waits for silverware to be reset.
The Seasonal Reality
Bostwick’s Chowder House operates seasonally.
The restaurant typically opens in April and closes sometime in October or November. Hours during the season run 11:30am to 9pm Sunday through Monday, closed Tuesday and Wednesday, and 11:30am to 9:30pm Thursday through Saturday. The schedule varies. Check before driving.
This seasonal model reflects the reality of East Hampton dining. The population surges from about a thousand year-round residents in the village to tens of thousands during summer weekends. Restaurants that depend on tourist traffic can’t sustain winter operations. Even beloved institutions close their doors when the crowds leave.
Bostwick’s has found the sweet spot: open long enough to capture the beach season, closed during the months when heating bills would eat profits. The model has worked for thirty years.
The Competition
East Hampton has no shortage of seafood restaurants.
The Lobster Roll in Amagansett, universally known as “Lunch,” has operated since 1965 and claims the original lobster roll on the East End. Duryea’s in Montauk offers waterfront views and higher prices. Gosman’s in Montauk trades on history and volume. Clam Bar in Amagansett delivers roadside ambiance.
Bostwick’s doesn’t compete on views. It competes on consistency, value, and the feeling that you’re eating at a place that wants you there.
“We’ve eaten at many, many restaurants in the Hamptons,” one longtime visitor wrote. “Many have come and gone. Bostwick’s Chowder House is one place my family and I love to go to and have been doing so since their inception. The food is consistently good. The staff works very hard to make each meal a worthwhile experience.”
Thirty years in the restaurant business. Multiple locations. A catering company, a seafood market, a tavern. The Eggert-Boles partnership has outlasted trends, recessions, and pandemics.
The Point
Three centuries ago, a pirate buried treasure near a point of land on Gardiner’s Island.
The treasure was recovered. The pirate was hanged. The point kept its name.
A generation ago, a young cook fell in love with the fishing near that same point. When he opened a restaurant, he named it after the place where he caught striped bass and blues, where the water met the land, where patience was rewarded with something fresh.
Bostwick’s Chowder House doesn’t have water views anymore. It has something better. It has the accumulated memory of three decades of summer meals, of children growing up on steamers and fries, of regulars who became friends with the staff, of visitors who planned their East Hampton trips around the lobster roll.
The treasure isn’t gold. It’s knowing where to find the good stuff and being willing to wait in line for it.
Paper plates. Plastic forks. Lobster bisque that tastes like the ocean.
Some things you can’t buy. You can only earn them by showing up, season after season, and trusting that the clams will be stuffed the same way they were stuffed last year.
Bostwick’s Chowder House is where East Hampton eats when East Hampton wants to eat well without pretending. No water views, but plenty of good food. Named for a pirate’s hiding spot and a fisherman’s favorite waters.
The treasure is still there. You just have to know where to look.
Facts Box
Address: 277 Pantigo Road, East Hampton, NY 11937
Phone: (631) 324-1111
Website: bostwickschowderhouse.com
Hours:
- Sunday-Monday: 11:30am-9pm
- Tuesday-Wednesday: Closed
- Thursday: 11:30am-9pm
- Friday-Saturday: 11:30am-9:30pm
- (Seasonal – typically April through October/November)
Year Established: 1990 (original location); current Pantigo Road location since 2010
Founded By: Chris Eggert and Kevin Boles
Also Operates: Bostwick’s on the Harbor (Gann Road), Indian Wells Tavern (Amagansett), Bostwick’s Seafood Market, Bostwick’s Clambakes & Catering
TripAdvisor Ranking: #1 of 48 restaurants in East Hampton
Average Check: $25-45 per person
Reservations: Accepted for parties of 6 or more; walk-ins encouraged
Known For: Lobster roll (hot buttered or cold salad), baked stuffed clams, lobster bisque, fish tacos, steamers, Fisherman’s Platter
Atmosphere: Casual, family-friendly, beach casual attire appropriate
Outdoor Seating: Yes, patio with market umbrellas
Credit Cards: Yes
Parking: On-site lot (fills quickly on summer weekends)
Note: Paper plates and plastic cutlery; takeout available
