How a teetotaler’s seaside inn became the only year-round resort at the end of the world
The Accidental Empire
Here is a story about how history bends toward destiny. In 1956, a Brooklyn restaurateur named Nick Monte drove out to Montauk for linguini and clams. However, he never found them. Instead, he stopped at a modest seaside inn for lunch and discovered something far better: the view that would define East End luxury for the next seven decades.
Gurney’s Montauk sits on what the hospitality industry calls the most pristine stretch of oceanfront real estate on the East Coast. Yet in 1926, when a Christian Scientist named Maude Gurney built her small country inn on these Atlantic bluffs, she had simpler ambitions. Specifically, she wanted no alcohol and no nightlife. Just sea air and salvation. As a result, the property remained a dry refuge for thirty years.
Monte changed everything almost immediately after his arrival. When he learned there was no liquor service, he made Mrs. Gurney an offer on the spot. Surprisingly, she called back weeks later and accepted two hundred thousand dollars. Monte then brought his brother Angelo, packed up their Brooklyn families, and got to work transforming the place.
Building the Gurney’s Montauk Legacy
First, Monte built what he called the Skipper’s Dining Room. Then he started pouring drinks. Subsequently, he added rooms, then cottages, and finally the crown jewel that would separate Gurney’s from every other property on the Eastern Seaboard.
In 1979, Monte opened a seawater spa unlike anything else in North America. This was not merely a spa with seawater treatments. Rather, it was an actual ocean-fed pool pumping the Atlantic directly into the building. Remarkably, it remains the only facility of its kind on the continent today. For over fifty years, the Monte family operated Gurney’s Montauk, serving everyone from presidents to wise guys, from Manhattan socialites to Montauk fishermen.
Then came George Filopoulos, who would transform the property once again. In 2013, the New Jersey developer and his company Metrovest Equities purchased Gurney’s Montauk for twenty-five million dollars. Moreover, they poured another fifty-four million into renovations. Within two years, the property evolved from a beloved if dated landmark into Gurney’s Montauk Resort & Seawater Spa. Consequently, room rates that once started at modest weekend prices now command upward of one thousand dollars per night.
“He was such a driving force in the attention that Montauk has gotten over the last 10 years. I would put him in the category of previous Montauk visionaries like Carl Fisher and my uncle, Nick Monte.” — Paul Monte
The Only Everything at Gurney’s Montauk
Gurney’s Montauk deals in monopolies, and the list is impressive. First and foremost, it is the only year-round resort in Montauk. Additionally, it holds the only East End license permitting on-ocean beach restaurant service. Furthermore, its thirty-thousand-square-foot Seawater Spa houses the only ocean-fed indoor pool in North America. Finally, the Beach Club provides the only beachfront food and beverage experience in the Hamptons. Simply put, if you want something that exists nowhere else, Gurney’s is where you find it.
The property sprawls across eleven oceanfront acres with extraordinary scope. Specifically, one hundred fifty-eight rooms, suites, and beachfront cottages face the Atlantic. Each delivers the kind of unobstructed ocean views that Manhattan real estate brokers use to justify eight-figure listings. Below the bluffs, two thousand feet of private beach stretch along the shoreline. That is nearly half a mile of sand that belongs exclusively to guests wearing the resort wristband.
The Seawater Spa Experience
The Seawater Spa underwent a complete reimagining in 2022, guided by Alonso Balaguer Designs, the creator of AIRE Ancient Baths. As a result, the space now offers a thalassotherapy experience that would feel at home on the Côte d’Azur. Guests enjoy ocean-fed swimming pools, caldarium and thermae baths, cold plunge pools, eucalyptus steam rooms, and heated stone benches.
The BathHouse operates on a circuit philosophy that emphasizes contrast therapy. Essentially, guests move between heating and cooling environments in sequence. This approach stimulates circulation while stabilizing the nervous system. Meanwhile, it activates the body’s self-healing capacity. When your fifty minutes are complete, a gong signals that your session has ended.
Above the spa, twenty-five thousand square feet of meeting and event space accommodate everything from corporate retreats to destination weddings. Indeed, these venues have made Gurney’s Montauk one of the most coveted event destinations on the East End. During summer weekends, the Sound Waves Music Series brings world-class DJs to the Firepit. Consequently, the oceanfront transforms into something between a European beach club and a Manhattan rooftop.
Where History Checked In
In the summer of 1968, Richard Nixon holed up in the Skipper’s Cottage on these very bluffs to write one of the most important speeches of his career. Working on yellow legal pads as was his custom, the soon-to-be president drafted his acceptance speech for the Republican National Convention. Meanwhile, Secret Service agents patrolled the property while a press corps set up Teletype machines in trailers.
Interestingly, the speech Nixon wrote at Gurney’s Montauk would include something unprecedented for major political addresses: a personal story. He spoke of the boy who heard trains at night and dreamed of faraway places. After his election, Nixon returned to Gurney’s, stopping at a local ice cream stand for a pineapple sundae. Subsequently, he made the town paper and remained friends with Nick Monte for years.
The Monte family served three generations of power at Gurney’s Montauk. For instance, politicians like Perry Duryea, the Speaker of the Assembly who nearly became governor, were regulars at the adjacent Montauk Lake Club. Similarly, Donald Trump came on his yacht and attended polo games in Bridgehampton. Although the Clintons visited Montauk in 1998, they stayed elsewhere.
Fashion Discovers Gurney’s Montauk
Today’s scene at Gurney’s Montauk plays differently than in decades past. In 2024, Dolce & Gabbana transformed the Beach Club and East Deck with their signature Blu Mediterraneo aesthetic. Specifically, the takeover featured azure-printed loungers, Sicilian-styled cabanas, and a pop-up boutique stocking resort wear and beach towels. Notably, it marked the Italian house’s first American hotel partnership of this kind.
Because the collaboration proved so successful, D&G returned for 2025 with an expanded presence. Before them, Dior had already debuted their own deck activation and spa treatment menu. Therefore, the message is unmistakable: Gurney’s is where fashion comes to vacation.
The Centennial Approaches
Summer 2025 brought the most significant culinary change in a decade at Gurney’s Montauk. After Scarpetta Beach closed in December 2024, the resort unveiled its first-ever flagship restaurant: Gigi’s Montauk. Executive Chef Jason Lee, who trained under Michael Mina, now leads a kitchen focused on New American Coastal Cuisine. Essentially, the menu celebrates what has always surrounded this place: fish from Montauk boats, produce from East End farms like Stone’s Throw in Sagaponack, and prime beef honoring Montauk’s history as cattle country.
Gigi’s commands ninety-two seats inside plus another one hundred twenty-five on a patio with panoramic ocean views. In fact, it is the second-largest restaurant in the Hamptons. Among the signature dishes, angry lobster smothered in sriracha butter demands attention. Additionally, the phyllo-crusted halibut and bone-in tuna chop have both earned critical acclaim. Dan’s Papers, for example, called Gigi’s one of the top ten dining experiences on eastern Long Island.
Summer 2026 marks the resort’s centennial, which promises to be a landmark occasion. One hundred years will have passed since Maude Gurney built her teetotaler’s retreat on these bluffs. Undoubtedly, the anniversary will bring expanded programming, special packages, and renewed attention. Expect the Dolce & Gabbana partnership to continue. Likewise, expect the Beach Club cabanas to book faster than any other reservation on the East End.
George Filopoulos died in August 2023 at fifty-four, taken by pancreatic cancer at the height of his vision for Gurney’s Montauk. Nevertheless, he left behind a thriving company and a community that mourned him as a true Montauk visionary. Today, the resort continues under the leadership of President and COO Michael Nenner. The beach still stretches half a mile, and the seawater still pumps from the Atlantic. Above all, the only year-round resort in Montauk remains open for whatever comes next.
