44 Years of Burgers, Baseball, and Belonging

The building at 17 Cameron Street in Southampton Village has lived many lives. In the 1830s it served as a carriage house. Then came a meat market, a sandwich shop, and somewhere along the way, a law office. But for the past forty-four years, this worn structure tucked behind Main Street has housed something far more essential to the village’s working identity: a place where locals could gather without pretense, eat a good burger, watch a ball game, and feel genuinely at home.

Fellingham’s Restaurant Sports Bar doesn’t look like the Hamptons. That’s the point. While Jobs Lane boutiques sell three-hundred-dollar linen shirts and Main Street restaurants charge forty dollars for tuna tartare, Fellingham’s operates on a different frequency entirely. Dark wood walls. Exposed beams heavy with trophies and faded team photographs. Television screens cycling through whatever game matters that day. The smell of beef on the grill. In 2010, Esquire magazine named it one of America’s Top 25 Best Bars. The editor who discovered it said simply: “Bars like this aren’t supposed to exist anymore. Especially not here.”

The Softball Team That Built a Bar

First came softball. In 1980, Joe Fellingham started a team. They were good enough to reach nationals in 1981, finishing second in the country. But every team needs somewhere to gather after the game, and Southampton’s existing options didn’t feel right. So Joe built a bar for his teammates. Forty-four years later, the teammates may have aged out of competitive softball, but the bar remains.

Joe Fellingham arrived on Eastern Long Island in the early 1960s. His wife Millie, who co-owns and manages the restaurant, came out more than a decade later. They met here on the East End and have lived in the area ever since, now in Hampton Bays. Of their eight grandchildren, the two oldest work at the restaurant. Staff loyalty runs deep. One server started at eighteen and stayed until thirty-six. This kind of tenure is almost unheard of in the Hamptons restaurant industry, where seasonal churn and burnout claim most careers within a few years.

Joe’s role has shifted with time. He once held constant court behind the bar and supervised the kitchen. Now he manages the books. But he remains, according to Millie, the “king of sports” and all sports trivia. Before Google changed everything, locals would call Joe Fellingham at home to settle bar bets and answer obscure questions about batting averages and championship rosters. He reportedly got upset when smartphones made his encyclopedic knowledge less essential. But walk in today, ask him about the 1961 Yankees or the ’86 Mets, and he’ll talk for hours.

Where Legends Actually Drank

The walls at Fellingham’s tell stories. Photographs of famous athletes cover nearly every surface, some legendary figures now passed, some still living. Mark Messier has been here. Members of the New York Islanders. And yes, even Whitey Ford, the Yankees’ Hall of Fame pitcher and Cy Young winner who epitomized the Bronx Bombers’ dynasty years.

The celebrity connections run deeper than casual visits. Joe DiMaggio’s photograph hangs on the wall. According to Millie Fellingham, DiMaggio’s nephew once visited, saw the picture of his uncle, and mentioned casually that Marilyn Monroe used to babysit for him. These kinds of stories accumulate over four decades. They embed themselves in the restaurant’s fabric, becoming part of what regulars mean when they say Fellingham’s has “history.”

The true tavern atmosphere creates a space where professional athletes, local contractors, village shopkeepers, and summer visitors occupy adjacent barstools. Whitey, the bartender who helped with carpentry work before Fellingham’s opened in 1980, knows what regulars drink before they sit down. When Esquire photographed the place for their Best Bars issue, Whitey noted he’d “never had any ink before myself.” The understated response captures the establishment’s ethos perfectly.

The Sports Page Menu

The menu at Fellingham’s pays tribute to athletic greatness through its naming conventions. Every burger honors a sports figure, and the list runs fourteen varieties deep. The Bambino Burger, named for Babe Ruth, is a bacon cheeseburger. The Phelps Burger, topped with fresh flounder, honors Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. The McEnroe Burger, named for tennis legend and tantrum-thrower John McEnroe, lets kids enjoy the name while adults appreciate the joke. The Eli Manning burger has its own following among Giants fans.

Only one burger breaks the athlete pattern: the Jimmy Fallon, designed by the Tonight Show host and Sag Harbor resident who frequents Fellingham’s. The comedian’s burger has become a recommended favorite, regularly mentioned in reviews. When servers suggest trying “the Jimmy Fallon,” it carries the weight of insider knowledge, a local’s tip passed between regulars.

Beyond burgers, the kitchen serves what it calls “belt-expanding appetizers” alongside steaks, local fish, chicken, pasta, duck, veal, and ribs. The Manhattan clam chowder earns specific praise for its generous potato chunks. The French onion soup has devoted fans. The fish and chips arrive in portions large enough to take home. The flounder filet comes golden brown, not overcooked or burned. These aren’t revolutionary dishes. They’re staples executed with care and served at prices that don’t require a second mortgage.

Monday Night Tacos and Sunday Brunch

The restaurant operates 365 days a year, with the kitchen closing only for Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving. This year-round commitment distinguishes Fellingham’s from the seasonal operations that dominate Hamptons dining. When summer crowds depart and Main Street quiets, locals still need places to eat. Fellingham’s stays open.

Monday Night Taco Night has become an institution. The weekly special draws regulars who might otherwise cook at home on a slow evening. Sunday brunch runs from eleven to three, featuring options like salmon eggs Benedict with mimosas. The steady programming creates rhythm, giving regulars reasons to return on specific days and building the kind of habitual loyalty that sustains a neighborhood restaurant through off-season months.

Hours run from eleven in the morning until eleven at night, with the bar staying open significantly later. The kitchen maintains service until closing, an increasingly rare commitment as restaurants trim late-night operations to cut labor costs. For workers finishing late shifts at other establishments, for visitors arriving after evening events, for anyone who wants a real meal at ten o’clock, Fellingham’s kitchen remains open.

The Hidden Location Advantage

Finding Fellingham’s requires intention. The restaurant sits on Cameron Street behind Chase Bank, invisible from Main Street’s shopping parade. No passing foot traffic stumbles in by accident. You have to know it exists, and you have to want to find it. This geography creates a natural filter, separating casual tourists from those who’ve done their research or received local recommendations.

The location behind Main Street places Fellingham’s in a different Southampton entirely. While Jobs Lane and Main Street perform for summer visitors with curated storefronts and Instagram-ready aesthetics, Cameron Street operates for people who live here, work here, and need a burger and a beer without performance. A police officer once recommended Fellingham’s to a weary traveler who arrived in town exhausted. The traveler returned the next night. This is how the restaurant builds its clientele: one genuine recommendation at a time.

Inside the Old Carriage House

The interior embraces its age. Wood-paneled walls display decades of accumulated memorabilia. The beams overhead carry trophies from teams long disbanded. Tables and chairs show their years. Some reviewers complain about wobbly furniture and dated decor. They’re missing the point. The fifty-year-old tables are fifty years old because Fellingham’s has been serving burgers at the same tables for fifty years. The authenticity isn’t a design choice. It’s a consequence of continuous operation.

Indoor seating fills a compact dining room separate from the bar area, allowing families to dine away from the drinking crowd. An outdoor patio provides warm-weather seating with more natural light. Multiple televisions ensure sightlines to whatever game matters from any seat. The setup prioritizes function over aesthetics, comfort over style. In a region where restaurants hire designers to manufacture “authenticity,” Fellingham’s earned its character through decades of actual use.

The Friday Night Regulars

Every Friday night, the same group gathers. Nine of them, according to one longtime member, taking their usual seats in the front dining area. This kind of ritual attendance defines Fellingham’s regular base. The bartender knows what everyone drinks. The servers know dietary preferences and allergy restrictions. Conversations continue from previous weeks without need for catch-up.

This regular culture creates the “Cheers” atmosphere that multiple reviewers reference. One Southampton native who grew up in the village has been coming for twenty-five of his forty-four years. The chef notes that you can almost tell time by who’s in the restaurant. The constant stream of familiar faces creates density without chaos, bustle without chaos. Walk in as a stranger and you’ll feel the room’s existing relationships. Stay long enough and you’ll become part of them.

The U.S. Open tennis tournament brings annual surges, filling the village with international visitors seeking casual meals after days at the matches. These periodic influxes balance with steady local patronage. Unlike restaurants dependent entirely on summer crowds, Fellingham’s operates on a base of year-round regulars supplemented by seasonal waves. The business model proves more sustainable than the pure tourist trap, which explains how a sports bar behind a bank has survived forty-four years in America’s most expensive resort community.

Millie’s Management

Millie Fellingham’s presence permeates the operation. She responds personally to online reviews, thanking positive comments and apologizing for service lapses. When a reviewer mentioned that a new runner forgot to bring small plates for shared appetizers, Millie identified the exact Super Bowl Sunday when the incident occurred, explained the circumstances, and offered a complimentary appetizer on the customer’s next visit. This level of personal attention reflects an owner who still works the floor, still knows what happens during each shift, still cares about individual customer experiences.

The family operation extends across generations. Two of the Fellinghams’ eight grandchildren work at the restaurant, learning the business from the inside. Staff longevity suggests a workplace culture that retains employees far longer than industry norms. In an era when restaurant ownership increasingly means distant investors and management companies, Fellingham’s remains genuinely family-run, with family members physically present and operationally involved.

The Esquire Moment

In 2010, Tyler Cabot, a features editor from Esquire magazine, stumbled into Fellingham’s during a winter visit to Southampton. He became so enamored with the seventeenth-century carriage house turned sports bar that he included it in the magazine’s annual list of America’s Best Bars, published in the June/July issue.

“Bars like this aren’t supposed to exist anymore,” the magazine wrote. “Especially not here.”

When reached by local press, Cabot was still raving. “It was just fantastic. Everyone was very friendly. There was no pretense at all. If you go to enough bars, you can tell the good from the bad.”

The recognition came weeks after Coopers Beach, also in Southampton Village, received top honors on Dr. Beach’s annual listing. For a moment, Southampton claimed both America’s best beach and one of America’s best bars. Millie Fellingham called it “just so perfect” and “a great honor.” The designation validated what locals already knew while introducing Fellingham’s to a national audience that had never considered Southampton might contain anything authentic.

Not Fine Dining, and Proud of It

The reviews that understand Fellingham’s describe exactly what it is: a locals’ hangout serving solid pub food at reasonable prices in a comfortable atmosphere. The reviews that complain tend to expect something the restaurant never promised to be. Yes, the decor is dated. Yes, the service can be uneven depending on who’s working. Yes, the menu won’t win James Beard nominations. None of this matters to the regulars who’ve been eating here for decades.

“Great food, great prices, great beer! Not your typical overpriced Southampton restaurant filled with phony wannabes!” one reviewer wrote. The implicit contrast with Main Street’s designer restaurants captures Fellingham’s positioning. It exists specifically as an alternative to the Hamptons’ dominant dining culture. Finding it requires rejecting, at least temporarily, the village’s carefully maintained surface.

The prices reinforce the accessibility. While nearby restaurants charge twenty-five dollars for appetizers, Fellingham’s keeps burger prices anchored to what working people can afford regularly. The value proposition has only grown more striking as Hamptons restaurant prices have escalated. “Fantastic value,” one recent review noted. “While prices for meat have escalated in all supermarkets, Fellingham’s still delivers top quality choices, perfectly cooked, served with graciousness and at the most reasonable prices in the area.”

How to Actually Find It

From Main Street in Southampton Village, look for Chase Bank. Cameron Street runs behind it. Turn down the small side street and Fellingham’s appears on your left, marked by modest signage that doesn’t compete with Main Street’s visual noise. The entrance faces away from the village’s commercial center, oriented toward the parking lot behind the bank.

Walk in and let your eyes adjust to the darker interior. If there’s a game on, you’ll hear it before you see it. Find a seat at the bar if you want conversation with strangers, or take a table in the dining room if you prefer privacy. Order a burger named after your favorite athlete. Don’t ask for fancy beer. Watch the game. Listen to the stories accumulating around you.

The restaurant doesn’t take reservations for most parties. Show up, especially on Friday or Saturday nights, and expect a wait if you’re coming at peak hours. The casual policy matches the casual atmosphere. This isn’t the kind of place where you plan weeks ahead. It’s the kind of place where you decide at six o’clock that you want a burger and a beer, and you go.

Forty-Four Years and Counting

In 2018, Millie Fellingham told Dan’s Papers she hoped for “another 20 years.” The restaurant has already survived longer than most Hamptons establishments ever will. It has outlasted trends, recessions, pandemics, and the constant churn of the resort economy. It has done so by serving a constituency that most Hamptons businesses ignore: the people who actually live here.

Joe Fellingham built this bar for his softball teammates. They needed somewhere to gather after games, somewhere comfortable and unpretentious, somewhere that felt like an extension of the dugout rather than an obstacle to overcome. Forty-four years later, the softball team has long since retired, but the bar remains exactly what it always was: a place where good sports meet.

The exposed beams still carry their trophies. The photographs of legends still cover the walls. Whitey still knows what the regulars drink. The Friday night crowd still claims their usual seats. And somewhere in the kitchen, a cook is preparing another Bambino Burger, another Phelps Burger, another Jimmy Fallon, continuing a tradition that began when a softball team needed somewhere to go after the game.

Fellingham’s Restaurant Sports Bar is located at 17 Cameron Street in Southampton Village, New York 11968 (behind Chase Bank, off Main Street). For information, call (631) 283-9417 or visit FellinghamsRestaurant.com. Hours: Daily 11am to 11pm, bar open until 2am. Sunday Brunch 11am to 3pm. Kitchen open until 11pm except Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving. Casual attire. Major credit cards accepted. No reservations for small parties.

Discover more hidden gems in “The Other Hamptons: Where the Real East End Eats, Drinks, and Belongs.”

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