Twenty years ago, Pierre Weber, a fifth-generation baker from Paris coming off two decades in the cutthroat New York City restaurant industry, walked into an empty space along Bridgehampton’s Main Street and decided to gamble on himself.
“I came here and heard about this restaurant for sale and I thought, ‘Yeah, why not?’” Pierre recalled as we sat down with him during a rare moment of calm at his namesake restaurant. Nothing was a given, there were no guarantees of success. When he opened Pierre’s over the July 4th weekend in 2002 and not a single customer showed up, he learned a quick lesson about the fine dining business and life in general: “I discovered at that time that nothing is for granted. It was a very humbling experience.”
From such inauspicious beginnings, legends often grow. Undeterred by the initial struggles of the restaurant, Pierre’s unwavering dedication to service and authentic French fare started to make inroads with the Hamptons crowd, even as he dealt with the ebb and flow of the tourist season.
“It took me about three years to be known,” he told us. “The Hamptons, 20 years ago, was empty after Labor Day. Then, after Memorial Day, you're busy again. It's very, very brutal. You can go from a busy restaurant to almost nothing the next day because everybody's gone.”
Pierre’s breakthrough happened when he began to view his restaurant through a New York City lens, rather than as a weekend destination for out-of-town vacationers. “In New York, restaurants are open most of the time, seven days. You don't expect them to be closed on a Tuesday or Wednesday.” Pierre’s would now serve diners 365 days a year, and be a place that the community could count on being open, no matter what, even when the area’s population dipped in the offseason.
“The day I decided to be open seven days, it changed the momentum because it removed uncertainty in the customer. It disappeared. They know Pierre's is open.” he said. “Even if it snows, they know it's clean in the front of the restaurant because I shovel.”
Now a Hampton’s institution, the French bistro proudly serves breakfast, lunch and dinner to an eclectic mix of tourists and locals, seven days a week. In addition to being well known for its delicious food, Pierre’s is also famous within the community for its omnipresent owner. Pierre takes his responsibilities very seriously; stop in and you’ll see him answering phones, seating guests, shaking hands, and being the very antithesis of laissez-faire, all to give diners a welcoming experience.
“This is my house,” he told us. “Once you enter my house, I want you to feel welcomed. I pay attention to the decorations. I pay attention to the flowers. I pay attention to all the details that make your time in my house a good time. And then I want you to come back for all these reasons.”
Still going strong at 68, Pierre cuts a casual, elegant figure across his dining room. His down-to-earth meets debonair style fits in among the high-profile celebrities and everyday Long Islanders that frequent his restaurant. It’s refreshing to see that he still retains his innate Parisian fashion sense after 40-plus years stateside.
Some subtle changes have crept in over his career, though. Once an avid marathoner, Pierre now enjoys his limited time off reading, rediscovering his love of music and surrounding himself with family and friends, things that he’s kept on the back burner for too long.
“I love what I do, but you pay a high price,” he admitted. “I would like to know what a weekend off is. I would like to know a night when I don't have to work. Of course, I enjoy seeing my customers and I embrace them. It's very genuine, but in the meantime, I'm not home.”
Instead, when tomorrow comes, and the breakfast crowd begins to arrive, he’ll be at Pierre’s, as always, ready to welcome guests to his house with an open table, a handshake and the best Eggs Benedict and French onion soup around.