Memorial Day Weekend 2021 Kicks Off a Summer for the Books

Out East

While many New Yorkers decamped for Miami this past winter, the Hamptons are shaping up to be the place to be this summer — even more so than in past years.

In Montauk, popular Flatiron sports bar Bounce has landed in the former Sloppy Tuna space. “The phones have been literally ringing off the hook for the past two weeks,” says chef Sean Olnowich, who is helming the kitchen at Bounce Beach Montauk. This summer the prime oceanside location is getting an upgrade through craft cocktails, elevated food menu and a slate of buzzy programming. Dishes on the menu at Bounce Montauk include Korean-style mussels with kimchi, local catch fish tacos, and lobster rolls with “beach spice.” The restaurant will also run a dedicated lobster roll take-out bar on the water for easy snacking.

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Bounce is kicking off its opening weekend with a slate of special guests. Opening night on Friday will be hosted by “The Bachelor” stars Tyler Cameron and Matt James, followed by a celebrity guest bartender duo on Saturday for brunch. (Hint: the event is promoting Dos Hombres Mezcal.) Solid and Striped, which designed all of the staff uniforms, will host a VIP brunch on Sunday to celebrate its swimsuit take-out window.

In East Hampton, new restaurant Rita Cantina is filtering local purveyors through the lens of modern coastal Mexican cuisine. Chef Eric Miller’s menu includes dishes like littleneck clams with chorizo and Tecate, seafood ceviche with pomegranate and habanero, and duck carnitas. The bar program is centered around tequila and mezcal cocktails. The dining room is decked in Oaxacan design elements, and a back outdoor patio outfitted with white picnic tables. Rita’s Cantina will also offer beach picnic bundles for takeaway excursions.

As usual, boutique fitness is following its clientele out east. Forward Dance Space is kicking off Memorial Day Weekend with dance cardio classes at Reform Club, Hero Beach Club, and Southampton Arts Center. For summer, The Ness is bringing its bounce and sculpt classes to a residency at Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton, and Dancebody is headed to The Clubhouse in East Hampton followed by a residency at Hero Beach Club for Saturdays in July. Tracy Anderson will debut her new “Anderson Moto Air Pro Reformer” machine at her East Hampton studio in July; unlike most pilates reformers, the machines use air tension in place of springs or weights.

Last summer, several New York art galleries opened new outposts in the Hamptons, including Pace and Skarstedt in East Hampton, and Hauser & Wirth in Southampton. Rashid Johnson is organizing a group exhibition exploring form and gesture opening Saturday at Hauser & Wirth, and Pace will display a solo exhibition of David Hockney‘s illustrations of his home in Normandy.

At Skarstedt, Enoc Perez will debut a suite of new drawings, reflective of his experience over the past year living through the continuous streams of images on social media. Perez collects images from sources like Instagram and Twitter, and filters them through his drawings, often collaging disparate imagery together. Viewers will recognize familiar personalities in the drawings — Lindsay Lohan, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus – and Perez includes contextual clues to the imagery source through the inclusion of hashtags and “like” counts. (In one, he makes reference to New York Times art critic Roberta Smith.)

“I throw drawings together in an effort to understand what I’m living through or what I’m looking at,” says Perez. “It’s a path to think about things, and as a visual artist to try to put down what I cannot describe with words,” he adds. “To find poetry in everyday life and to also look at what’s scary about the world we’re in.”

Memorial Day Weekend is also the last chance to check out his solo exhibition “Paradise” at Guild Hall in East Hampton. The show, which closes on Monday, reflects the devastation of recent natural disasters in Puerto Rico.

Catskills/Hudson Valley

Foster Supply Company — the hospitality group behind Catskills boutique hotels like The Arnold House and The DeBruce — are opening their latest property, The Darby, along the Delaware River in June. The 1960s building features 27 guest rooms and mid-century design, but the real draw is outside. The Darby is located on 17 acres with private trails and a hammock grove, and for the less outdoorsy, is a short walk away from Main Street in Narrowsburg.

The Urban Cowboy Lodge, located in the Big Indian wellness preserve, recently debuted Public House, its food and beverage program led by executive chef Matt Maienshein. The vegetable-forward menu is driven by woodfire cooking, and the bar is stocked with regional beers, natural wines, and house-made elixirs.

If you’re looking to get even further upstate, Camp Rockaway — a glamping set-up at Fort Tilden Park — has opened a second location, Camp Rockaway at Schuylerville. The accommodations include safari-style platform tents with queens-sized beds, set up along the Champlain Canal.

The Rockaways

The Rockaway Hotel in Rockaway Beach recently debuted its new restaurant, Margie’s. The menu, led by chef Barry Tonks, is seafood-driven and rooted in familiar dishes like roasted eggplant, grilled halibut, and a selection of house-made pastas. The airy dining room is decorated with vintage photographs from the personal family collection of Margie Murphy, the restaurant’s namesake and a pillar of the Rockaway community.

Summer Concerts Make a Comeback

After the cancellation of music tours last summer, outdoor concerts are back on for summer 2021. At Jones Beach, the schedule includes performances by Rod Stewart, Lady A, Jimmy Buffett, Hall & Oates, Korn, James Taylor and Alanis Morissette. At the Forest Hills Stadium, a more truncated schedule includes Brandi Carlisle, who will kick things off on July 23, followed by Bright Eyes, Wilco and Sleater-Kinney. Citi Field has several concerts scheduled for the end of the summer season, with appearances by Green Day, Fall Out Boy, and Dead & Company slated for August.

Prospect Park’s free concert series, held at the park’s bandshell, will return in July with Ari Lennox kicking off opening night on July 31. In June, Bryant Park will begin hosting free outdoor performances in partnership New York’s leading cultural institutions — many which have yet to reopen — including Jazz at Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, and Harlem Stage.

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