Where Fashion Royalty Built the Hamptons’ Most Elegant Italian Table

In 2006, Gianpaolo de Felice went for a bike ride in East Hampton and couldn’t find a bowl of authentic Italian pasta. For a Neapolitan who had grown up eating his mother’s handmade spaghetti, this was unacceptable. Consequently, that afternoon cycling trip sparked a conversation with his wife Gabby Karan De Felice—daughter of fashion icon Donna Karan—that would reshape Hamptons dining. Today, Tutto Il Giorno Southampton stands at 56 Nugent Street as proof that the simplest ideas, executed perfectly, become institutions. Indeed, seventeen years later, the restaurant remains packed even on Monday nights.

The Tutto Il Giorno Southampton Origin Story

A Neapolitan’s Hunger

Gianpaolo de Felice arrived in the Hamptons with a problem that money couldn’t solve. He had spent his youth in Naples, living on boats, sailing to Ischia and Capri, eating whatever his mother Carolina prepared from four simple ingredients. Then he married into American fashion royalty and moved to the East End. “He said, ‘There’s nothing authentic,'” Gabby recalls of those early days.

Meanwhile, their close friends David and Gally Mayer had been dreaming of opening a restaurant. The couples combined forces in 2008, choosing Sag Harbor for their first location. Their vision was straightforward yet radical: create a place that felt like an extension of their own home. Furthermore, they would serve Southern Italian food exactly as Gianpaolo’s mother made it—no Hamptons pretension, no unnecessary complexity.

Nonna Carolina’s Kitchen

The secret weapon wasn’t a celebrity chef or a Michelin-starred consultant. Instead, it was Nonna Carolina herself. Gianpaolo’s mother spent the restaurant’s entire first season in the kitchen, perfecting family recipes for an American audience. Her spaghetti with scarpariello sauce—featuring Corbara cherry tomatoes, pecorino, and Parmigiano—became the signature dish.

“My mother-in-law could take four ingredients and make four different dishes,” Gabby explains. Consequently, this philosophy of simplicity defined Tutto’s culinary identity. The menu avoided the elaborate preparations that dominated other Hamptons Italian restaurants. Rather than black truffle-dusted everything, guests received honest bowls of pasta made with tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and sea salt.

The Southampton Expansion

56 Nugent Street

After Sag Harbor’s immediate success, the partners opened Tutto Il Giorno Southampton in 2009. The location at 56 Nugent Street offered something the original couldn’t: a sprawling garden courtyard perfect for al fresco dining. Subsequently, Executive Chef Alex Aparu joined the team, bringing additional depth to the Southern Italian menu.

The Southampton restaurant quickly developed its own personality. While the Sag Harbor location felt intimate and village-cozy, Southampton embraced the grander scale of its surroundings. The garden patio, with hurricane vases filled with black stones and votive candles, became the most coveted outdoor dining space in the village. White floral arrangements adorned tables where fashion editors and hedge fund managers lingered over Barolo.

The Karan Design Touch

Gabby’s design sensibility—honed growing up with Donna Karan and her late father, sculptor Stephan Weiss—transformed the space. However, she rejected the expected approach. “We were told communal tables would never work,” she recalls. “People were throwing hissy fits. ‘We need tables for two, four, six,’ they insisted.” Nevertheless, the partners installed them anyway. Now communal tables appear in restaurants everywhere.

The interior reflects the same aesthetic that made Urban Zen famous: Balinese textiles, handcrafted furniture, jewelry from local artisans, and pareos sourced from around the world. Consequently, dining at Tutto feels less like visiting a restaurant and more like attending a very chic dinner party at a very well-traveled friend’s home.

What Makes Tutto Il Giorno Southampton Iconic

The Fashion Connection

When your mother-in-law is Donna Karan, your restaurant attracts a certain clientele. From opening day, Tutto became the unofficial canteen for the fashion and art worlds. Kelly Klein at one table. Lisa Perry at another. Sarah Jessica Parker and Keith Richards became regulars during the early seasons. Indeed, the scene was so consistently packed with boldface names that the Sag Harbor location inspired a feature in Dan’s Papers calling it “one of the hottest restaurants in the Hamptons.”

Yet the celebrity factor never overwhelmed the restaurant’s essential warmth. Gabby and Gianpaolo still greet guests at the door personally. “We want everyone, from our guests to our amazing team, to feel at home,” Gabby emphasizes. Furthermore, this family-first philosophy extends to staff: many employees have worked at Tutto since 2008, creating remarkable consistency in service.

The Urban Zen Integration

What truly distinguishes Tutto from other Hamptons establishments is its integration with Donna Karan’s Urban Zen. At the Sag Harbor location, guests can literally shop and dine in the same space. The Southampton restaurant maintains similar synergy, with Urban Zen’s artisanal home goods, fashion, and lifestyle products complementing the dining experience.

“We want guests to feel that the restaurants are an extension of our home,” Gabby explains. “It helps that my mom’s store is an integral part of the restaurant, so you can shop and dine all in one place.” Consequently, an evening at Tutto might begin with Negronis at the bar, proceed through rigatoni with spicy sausage, and conclude with the purchase of a hand-carved wooden bowl from Haiti.

What Locals Know

Regulars understand that the pasta—slow-dried, artisanal, organic, imported from Gragnano near Sorrento—elevates every dish. Additionally, all pastas are available with gluten-free alternatives, a concession to modern dietary preferences that doesn’t compromise authenticity. The kitchen uses fresh, local ingredients in a farm-to-table approach that predated the buzzword’s ubiquity.

The cioppino—a classic Neapolitan shellfish stew with lobster tail, squid, mussels, and clams—arrives with two bowls: one for eating, one for shells. Similarly, the branzino acqua pazza (fish poached in “crazy water” with tomatoes, celery, and olive oil) represents a De Felice family recipe that has earned devoted followers. Meanwhile, the Cartoccio, catch of the day baked in parchment paper with black olives and cherry tomatoes, delivers theatrical presentation alongside perfect technique.

Experience Tutto Il Giorno Southampton Today

What to Order

Begin with the burrata—served with 30-month aged prosciutto di Parma and heirloom tomatoes. The creamy mozzarella yields to your fork like a suggestion rather than a demand. Then proceed to the parmigiana: eggplant layered with San Marzano tomatoes and smoked mozzarella, a dish that earned specific praise from Donna Karan herself.

For pasta, the spaghetti with scarpariello sauce remains essential—it’s the dish Nonna Carolina perfected during that first season. However, the rigatoni with tomato, veal, beef, spicy sausage, peas, and a touch of cream satisfies those seeking something heartier. Additionally, the pansotti (house-made ravioli with mushroom and shaved truffle) represents the kitchen at its most elegant.

The Insider’s Move: Request the branzino acqua pazza, the dish Gabby specifically recommends to first-time visitors. Pair it with a glass of the house white. Finish with tiramisu or panna cotta—both prepared daily.

When to Go

Tutto Southampton serves dinner Wednesday through Sunday from 5 PM, with lunch available Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3 PM. The shoulder seasons offer easier reservations and the same exceptional food. Critically, the restaurant operates year-round—unlike many seasonal competitors—because the De Felices live in the Hamptons full-time.

“Having doors always open is the secret to having a successful business year-round on the East End,” Gabby notes. Consequently, locals have made Tutto their default neighborhood restaurant rather than just a summer destination. The courtyard remains open when weather permits; the intimate dining room welcomes guests during colder months.

The Empire Expands

The Tutto family has grown significantly since that 2006 bike ride. Current locations include Southampton, Sag Harbor (now operating as Urban Zen x Tutto Il Giorno), and Tribeca in Manhattan. In 2023, the partners opened Tutto CaffĂ© in East Hampton, specializing in their acclaimed coffee program. Furthermore, fall 2025 brings Tutto Mare to Palm Beach’s Royal Poinciana Plaza—Gianpaolo’s longtime dream of a waterfront Mediterranean restaurant.

“Gianpaolo always had a vision of expanding to Palm Beach,” Gabby reveals. The new concept will seat 200 guests as Palm Beach’s first and only intra-coastal waterfront restaurant. Nevertheless, the Southampton location remains the flagship—the garden courtyard where it all began to grow.

The Legacy of Tutto Il Giorno Southampton

Influence on Hamptons Dining

Before Tutto arrived, Hamptons Italian restaurants tended toward two extremes: red-sauce joints serving oversized portions or pretentious establishments charging Manhattan prices for mediocre food. The De Felices introduced a third way. Their approach—authentic recipes, quality ingredients, sophisticated design, genuine hospitality—established a template that subsequent restaurants have followed.

The communal table concept, which critics initially dismissed, now appears throughout the Hamptons dining scene. Similarly, the farm-to-table philosophy and the integration of retail with restaurants have become industry standards. Perhaps most significantly, Tutto proved that year-round operation could succeed in a market obsessed with seasonality.

Why It Endures

The name “Tutto Il Giorno” translates roughly to “all day long”—a philosophy that extends beyond operating hours to encompass the restaurant’s entire ethos. This is a place designed for lingering, for conversations that stretch through multiple courses, for the kind of evening that begins at sunset and ends when the last guest finally rises from the table.

Seventeen years after that frustrated bike ride, Gianpaolo de Felice finally has his authentic Italian pasta in the Hamptons. More importantly, he and Gabby have created something that transcends cuisine: a gathering place where fashion and food, family and friends, style and substance converge. At 56 Nugent Street, the De Felice vision—simple food, beautiful spaces, genuine warmth—continues to define what Hamptons hospitality can be.

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