45 Years of Hamptons Gourmet Excellence

The price is printed on a small card: Lobster Salad, $100 per pound. No apologies, no explanation. You either understand why, or you don’t belong here. At the corner where Sagg Main Street meets Montauk Highway, a modest white building has been quietly separating those who know from those who merely spend since 1980. This is Loaves & Fishes Sagaponack—the gourmet food store that taught the Hamptons how to entertain.

Walk inside on any July morning, and you’ll find hedge fund managers standing behind fashion designers, both waiting patiently for curried chicken salad. Meanwhile, Aerin Lauder might be selecting apricot galettes while Jimmy Fallon debates the merits of grilled citrus salmon. Consequently, the counter displays reveal everything: chunky halibut fish salad, perfect deviled eggs, 36 different house-made sauces, glistening plum tarts. Furthermore, there are mousses, jams, marmalades, and—yes—specialty veal baby food that has nourished three generations of Hamptons heirs.

The Origin Story of Loaves & Fishes Sagaponack

A Filmmaker’s Wife and a Summer Experiment

Before Anna Pump transformed this corner into culinary hallowed ground, it was merely a small shop opened by a filmmaker’s wife. Devon Fredericks and Susan Costner founded Loaves & Fishes in the late 1970s as something for their daughters to do during summer. They had no idea they were creating a prototype for high-end Hamptons takeout.

In 1980, Fredericks and Costner published the original Loaves and Fishes Cookbook and sold the shop. Original copies, once priced at $7.95, now fetch four figures online. However, the true transformation came with the buyer—a German immigrant with farm-girl practicality and James Beard credentials.

Anna Pump’s Journey from Tarp to the Hamptons

Anna Heitweg Tutjer was born on April 11, 1934, on a 70-acre farm in Tarp, Germany. Her parents grew potatoes, rye, and rutabagas. They raised cattle, pigs, chickens, ducks, and geese. Additionally, they smoked their own meats and made their own sausages. This wasn’t culinary training—it was survival. Nevertheless, it instilled something no cooking school could teach: an understanding that real food comes from real work.

The region of Schleswig-Holstein, near the Danish border, had water on both sides—the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Subsequently, when Anna first visited the East End in the 1970s, she recognized something familiar. “The potato fields, the seagulls, the smell,” she later recalled. “It seemed so familiar here.”

She and her husband Detlef had immigrated to the United States in 1960 with their two children, Harm and Sybille. They settled initially in Frenchtown, New Jersey. When the children left for college, Anna trained with culinary legends James Beard and Maurice Moore Betty. Furthermore, she honed her craft at a specialty food shop in Westhampton Beach called the Barefoot Contessa—working alongside a young entrepreneur named Ina Garten.

The Transformation of Hamptons Dining Culture

Teaching Ina Garten About Ingredients

In 1979, shortly after Ina Garten purchased Barefoot Contessa, she hired Anna Pump as chef. Garten later acknowledged that Pump possessed something extraordinary from the start: a European sensibility and an exceptional ability for quality. Notably, Pump taught Garten about using good ingredients—lessons that would shape the Food Network star’s entire career.

“Anna and her store were the essence of simple elegance,” Garten wrote. “She taught me so much.” After Pump left to purchase Loaves & Fishes in 1980, the mentor-student relationship endured. Eventually, Garten would write the foreword to Pump’s final cookbook, Summer on a Plate.

The Noyac House and a New Beginning

The Pumps bought a house in Noyac in 1978. Anna described it as “an absolute wreck with a caved-in roof.” Meanwhile, Detlef set to making it right—a pattern that would repeat with every property the family touched. In 1980, with the Noyac restoration underway, Anna purchased Loaves & Fishes from Devon Fredericks and Susan Costner.

The work schedule was punishing. “I work from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m.,” Pump explained. “I wouldn’t be able to keep up that pace all the time, so it’s a relief when September comes.” The store would close on December 31 each year, giving her three and a half months off to travel with Detlef. This rhythm—intense summer seasons followed by rest—became the template for countless Hamptons food businesses.

What Makes Loaves & Fishes Sagaponack Iconic

The $100 Lobster Salad Philosophy

Radio personality Joan Hamburg once joked to The New York Times: “Some people call this place Loaves and Riches.” Indeed, the prices reflect an unwavering commitment to quality. Chef Robert Durkin explained the economics: lobster yields only 25 percent usable meat at best. Therefore, if wholesale runs $10 per pound, actual lobster meat costs $40 per pound before labor, accompaniments, or profit.

But Pump never apologized for her prices. “Our food is the real thing,” she stated simply. “Real butter, real cream, real eggs. We buy the best quality available of any products that we use.” Consequently, this philosophy attracted a clientele that understood value over bargains.

Famous Guests and the Art of Discretion

The upscale Sagaponack food store became the caterer and takeout spot of choice for boldfacers including Aerin Lauder, Jimmy Fallon, and—naturally—Ina Garten herself. When Jimmy Fallon devoted nearly two minutes on The Tonight Show to discussing the Bridgehampton Inn cookbook, it confirmed what locals already knew: this family had achieved cultural influence through sheer excellence.

At Sybille van Kempen’s cookbook launch party, the guest list read like a society page: David and Sybil Yurman, Cynthia Frank, Eleanora Kennedy, Lauren Remington Platt. Aerin Lauder and Sasha Cutter hosted the elegant affair at Cutter’s private Gramercy home. However, discretion remains the house rule. The food speaks; the customers don’t have to.

What Regulars Know About Loaves & Fishes

Ask anyone who shops weekly at Loaves & Fishes, and they’ll share secrets unavailable to tourists. First, the curried chicken salad rivals the lobster for devotion—and costs considerably less. Second, the sesame dipping sauce is legendary; chef Miguel has been packaging it for decades. Third, arrive early on weekends or face lines that snake past the emerald awning.

Most importantly, the baby food tells you everything about this family’s values. Sybille van Kempen started the shop’s line of homemade baby food over 30 years ago with the birth of her first child, Stefan. “My mom formulated the recipes to give us the best of her cooking, and then share that amazing cooking with the community,” explains Karina Forrest, Sybille’s daughter. Today, Karina manages Loaves & Fishes and has introduced fully organic baby food—feeding her own daughter, Willow Anna, whose middle name honors the family matriarch.

The Loaves & Fishes Foodstore Experience Today

Three Generations in the Kitchen

The operation now spans three generations. Sybille van Kempen trained in the French tradition at chef school. Her daughter Karina attended Cordon Bleu, specializing in butchering; she now makes sausage for the shop. Son Kyle serves as bar manager and mixologist at the Bridgehampton Inn Restaurant. Stefan recently returned to help manage the expanding enterprise. Additionally, son Harm and his wife Nancy create the Loaves & Fishes line of jams, apple butter, and pickles.

“I just love running my own four businesses, and having ideas, and being inspired by everybody else, and always moving forward,” van Kempen explains. The four businesses—Foodstore, Bridgehampton Inn, Restaurant, and Cookshop—represent an unlikely empire built from a modest corner building.

What to Order at Loaves & Fishes Sagaponack

The menu rotates with ruthless seasonality. Nevertheless, certain items have achieved permanent status. The grilled citrus salmon, chicken schnitzel, and chunky fresh lobster salad anchor every summer. For desserts, try the house-made Sicilian pistachio ice cream, salted-caramel spice cake, or apricot galettes from pastry chef Licia Householder’s team. Furthermore, the cappuccino crunch cold brew with homemade salted toffee has developed its own following.

The Insider’s Take: The halibut salad offers exceptional value compared to the famous lobster. Arrive before 10 a.m. on weekdays to shop without crowds. Additionally, bring your own dish from home or purchase one from the Cookshop—they’ll fill it with any classic dish.

When to Visit

The store operates Wednesday through Monday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Tuesdays. Peak chaos occurs between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on summer weekends. Consequently, strategic visitors arrive at opening or after 3 p.m. The quieter months offer different pleasures: autumn harvest items, winter holiday catering, spring’s first local asparagus.

During COVID, the shop thrived. “Many of our customers’ homes were used primarily in summer and weren’t set up for year-round living,” van Kempen notes. Subsequently, they discovered what locals always knew: Loaves & Fishes operates as the Hamptons’ unofficial commissary, regardless of season.

The Legacy of Loaves & Fishes

The Farm-to-Table Revolution, Before It Had a Name

Long before “farm-to-table” became a marketing phrase, Anna Pump was zipping down the road to Pike Farms for perfect blueberries and corn. “We live in farm country here, so we buy vegetables and meats from local farmers and seafood from area fishermen,” van Kempen explains. “We use honey from beehives behind the shop.”

This commitment inspired the Loaves and Fishes Farm Series—twelve cookbooks created monthly from summer 2020 to spring 2021, each featuring a local craft farmer. The Green Thumb in Water Mill, Pike Farms in Sagaponack, Foster Farm and Distillery—each book celebrates these families’ products and includes original recipes. “It’s very important to us to support our local farmers as much as we can,” van Kempen states. “The cookbooks bring them more recognition in the community.”

Building the Bridgehampton Inn Empire

In 1994, the Pumps purchased a decrepit 1790s building in Bridgehampton and transformed it into a six-room bed and breakfast. Detlef tackled the renovation while Anna and Sybille handled hospitality. The original tavern room retained three wood-burning fireplaces dating to 1795. Subsequently, the inn expanded to twelve rooms, and in 2019, a critically acclaimed restaurant opened within its walls.

The Loaves & Fishes Cookshop followed in 2003, initially renting space in downtown Bridgehampton. When the landlord refused to sell, the family purchased the Bridgehampton Inn building and relocated the cookshop next door. Now guests can browse linens, knives, and every tool needed for entertaining—then walk next door for the actual food.

Tragedy and Continuity

On October 5, 2015, Anna Pump was struck by a pickup truck while crossing Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton. She was 81 years old. The driver, charged with driving without a license and disabling a court-ordered interlock device, fled any meaningful accountability. Anna died at Southampton Hospital.

“Style and simplicity, that was the way she thought,” Ina Garten said in remembrance. Indeed, Anna Pump built something remarkable by refusing to complicate excellence. She bought the best ingredients, prepared them simply, and trusted her customers to understand the difference.

Yet the family endures. Sybille carries forward her mother’s standards while embracing innovation. The Farm Series cookbooks. The restaurant’s daily-changing menu. Kyle’s seasonal cocktails. Karina’s artisanal sausages. Even the baby food now feeds a fourth generation. “If you meet somebody and you ask them about Anna Pump and Loaves & Fishes,” van Kempen observes, “they will have a story to share with you, for sure.”

Why Loaves & Fishes Endures

Forty-five years after Anna Pump first unlocked that door, the lines still form. Generational loyalty runs deep—children who once ate that baby food now bring their own infants. The regulars don’t merely buy food; they participate in a tradition that predates them and will outlast them.

In an era of algorithmic dining recommendations and viral restaurant moments, Loaves & Fishes Sagaponack represents something increasingly rare: institutional excellence maintained through family stewardship. The lobster salad still costs $100 per pound. The curried chicken salad still inspires devotion. Furthermore, the modest white building at the corner of Sagg Main Street and Montauk Highway still separates those who know from those who merely spend.

Devon Fredericks, who sold the shop in 1980, later married Eli Zabar and watched from Manhattan as her creation evolved into a Hamptons institution. Susan Costner became Susan Kenward and helped launch TOR Wines in Napa Valley. Both original founders went on to culinary success elsewhere—but the shop they started became something larger under the Pump family’s care.

Anna Pump once explained her philosophy with characteristic simplicity: “You have to love what you are doing to be successful.” At Loaves & Fishes, that love translated into 45 years of excellence, three generations of family commitment, and the enduring loyalty of a community that recognizes—and is willing to pay for—the real thing.

Continue Your Hamptons Journey

Related Articles