Hamptons
Hamptons (spelled with no apostrophe) was an upscale hamburger joint — perhaps the first one in Southern California. There were in fact two outlets of Hamptons. The original one was on Highland in Hollywood and in the spirit of full disclosure, it should be noted that the proprietor of this site was a part-owner of this one during its last few years of life. The other was out on Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake and it has now been transformed into Mo’s, with some but not all of the old Hamptons menu remaining.
Hamptons was famous as the restaurant that Paul Newman owned. That’s not exactly true but it’s also not utterly untrue. Here is how the story was told to me…
One day in the seventies, Paul Newman was having dinner with a friend of his, Ron Buck. Buck was a writer, artist and entrepreneur who had, among other ventures, built the 9000 Sunset building, as well as a trendy West Hollywood discotheque known as The Factory. He had worked without credit on several of Newman’s films, and he and the actor would later share credit for the screenplay of the 1984 Harry and Son. Buck was also great at cooking hamburgers on his backyard barbecue.
He had recently inherited an old house in which his mother had lived…on Highland Avenue in Hollywood, a few blocks south of Sunset. The other dwellings on the block were now housing real estate offices and Buck was trying to decide if he should sell the property or lease it to some business or what. Somehow, the suggestion arose that he open a gourmet burger restaurant there…a place where folks in the movie business who could afford better than Hamburger Hamlet could get one of Buck’s specialties, served with a glass of expensive wine.
The story then gets a bit murkier. Some say Newman put up the money and Buck put up the expertise and management. Since Buck was pretty wealthy, this may not be true, or it may be partially true. Some say Newman just agreed to be a frequent customer and to allow Buck to exploit that fact in publicity. Either way, the house was remodeled into a restaurant, mostly by enclosing the backyard. There was a wonderful, gnarled old tree in the middle of the yard and rather than remove it, the renovators bricked in the ground around it and allowed the tree to remain, reaching up through an opening in the newly-installed roof.
The place was named Hamptons because it was to reflect the fun and leisure of vacationing in the Long Island community known as The Hamptons. Various burgers were named for various friends and soon, it became a very “in” spot for folks who worked at nearby studios, such as Sunset-Gower or Paramount. The place didn’t do much of a dinner business but at lunchtime, it provided a welcome alternative to the fast food emporiums and taco stands of the neighborhood. At some point, it became so lucrative that Buck opened the branch on Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake. Some say that after Newman had recouped his initial investment thrice over, he withdrew whatever financial interest he had and gave full ownership to Buck. That is, if he even had any financial interest in it.
As you can see the story of Hamptons and Paul Newman’s involvement is a bit fuzzy. I vouch for none of the above, but for the fact that the two outlets of Hamptons became very popular. Once upon a time, it was impossible to get a table at lunch without a long wait. People loved the eighty varieties of burgers, including Stan’s Fantasy (with sour cream and black caviar), The Nelly Burger (creamed horseradish and bacon) and The Foggy Bottom Burger (peanut butter and sour plum jam). People also loved the little buffet that accompanied each burger, allowing you to further dress your sandwich and pile the plate with salads and side dishes. The menu did not include french fries — odd for a burger joint — but if the German Potato Salad available in the buffet wasn’t to your liking, you could order a platter of Potatoes Hamptons, which was basically hash-browns with sour cream.
I have dozens of memories of Hamptons, commencing when I worked at various studios up in Hollywood and we’d eat there once a week. It was a great place to spot celebrities and/or talk about that new screenplay. One friend of mine said it was the best place in Hollywood to meet out-of-work actresses who were waiting tables.
One time, I was lunching with the star of a TV special I was producing and we had a little trouble with a fellow at an adjoining table. He was a bit drunk and he kept banging his chair into our table and acting like it was our fault. Finally, my dining companion told him to knock it off, and the drunk stood up like he was ready to start brawling. My friend stood up to face him and the inebriated gent suddenly realized he was staring at famed dirty wrestler, Roddy “Rowdy” Piper. He immediately paid his check and left, and Roddy and I returned to our burgers.
This was in the mid-eighties. As that decade ended, so did the popularity of a lot of restaurants in Hollywood. An amazing percentage of them folded and Hamptons, while it managed to stay open, was rarely crowded. It also wasn’t very good. I believe — again, this is fourth-hand info, maybe more — Buck passed away, as did the fellow he had managing the two eateries for him. Whoever was running it tried a lot of different things, including the introduction of french fries but it didn’t help. Around 1990, I had a meal there that was so lousy, I scratched Hamptons from my list of places to go. I was not alone in this decision.
Then just a few years later, the two outlets of Hamptons were put up for sale, and were quickly purchased. One group of investors bought the one in Toluca Lake, completely renovated it and since they didn’t get custody of the name, reredubbed it “Mo’s.” The original Hamptons on Highland became Hamptons Hollywood Cafe and the group that purchased it also did a lot of remodeling, bringing in a new chef and adding new items to the menu. For some reason, they installed a “car phone” in the parking lot…a phone booth made out of an old Nash Metropolitan. And they rounded up a number of investors, one of whom was me.
I never expected to make any money off my investment and, indeed, I didn’t. The whole point of it was to be able to say to friends, “Hey, let’s have lunch at my restaurant.” Taken on that basis, it was a lot of fun. The folks who actually operated the place had a lot of good ideas, some of which were quite amusing. Since Hamptons had catered largely to an industry (show biz) crowd, they instituted an unusual pricing policy. Members of the Screen Actors Guild, Writers Guild and Directors Guild paid 10% less, while agents had to pay 10% more. The latter was meant as a joke but amazingly, there were actually diners who said, “I’m an agent. Do I really have to pay 10% more?” A few of those who asked were told yes, and they did. Wouldn’t you love to have one of those folks negotiating your deals for you?
The quality of the new Hamptons varied a lot. Sometimes, it was a great place to eat; sometimes, not. I didn’t have much to do with it except to (a) rewrite the menu to make it sillier, (b) make occasional suggestions and (c) add one menu item: The Groo Burger, based on the way my partner Sergio Aragonés likes his served…Grilled onions on top, then Mozzarella and Cheddar melted over the onions. I also had the supreme honor of having the barbecued chicken sandwich named for me and so consumed many.
But business was never too good and finally, the place was sold to a developer. For several months, it was “closed for remodeling” but no remodeling occurred. Instead, they finally tore down the house where Ron Buck’s mother had once lived, and even uprooted and removed that grand, majestic tree. The land now has on it a mixed-use structure (offices and residences) called Hampton Place. I already miss Hamptons and it’s not my investment I miss. I made a few bucks. I just always found it to be a friendly place to lunch with real good burgers and a great crowd. What more could you want?
16 Responses to Hamptons
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My dad, from a small town in Oregon he rarely left, was very snobbish about beef, since most of what he had came from the “ranch” (an island with cattle running free) he co-owned with his aunt. (I was a cowboy several times, helping rounding up the cattle annually for sale to a guy from the Willamette Valley; I did not ride a horse) He was usually critical to very critical of restaurant beef, but that at Hampton’s he just loved.
I enjoyed your article. I worked at Hamptons in the mid 80′s while pursuing an acting career (short lived) and remember the Buck family, several other waiters that worked there for the few years I was there and the host named Rick that was there from the beginning. Did you work there as well?
Stephen Smith
Always sorry I never got around to eating at Hamptons. Wanted to get in there & make my very own burger from the buffet.
Would any of you have pictures of the inside of the place?
Long before anyone doing fusion burgers on the foodnetwork there was Hamptons pointing the way and setting the trend. My fave was the Manage A Trois. Like Newman, gone but never forgotten.
Wow! I was just going through some old files a few days ago and found an old Hamptons menu — from the early days when it was still called “Hamptons Kitchen.” (In those days, the caviar & sour cream burger was “Frank’s Fantasy,” named for its creator, a waiter/actor named Frank Coppola [no relation to the director]).
I found your website while looking for information about Ron and Anne Buck. I was the general manager for them for several years in the mid-to-late 1970′s, when the evening shifts Wednesday through Sunday were as popular as the lunch shifts, and when we opened the second restaurant in Toluca Lake (now Mo’s) in response to numerous requests for a Hamptons closer to the Warner Brothers Studios. (Jack Warner was Ron Buck’s nextdoor neighbor.)
I am impressed with how accurate your article is, though I’m surprised that it did not note that the main connection that Ron and Paul had (besides the weekend cookouts on the Bucks’ deck in The Colony overlooking the Pacific Ocean) was their mutual love of racing cars, playing pool, and Budweiser beer.
You also might be interested to know that a number of the recipes that we used at the restaurants were, in fact, Paul Newman’s. In particular, the potato salad, the marinara sauce, the barbeque sauce, and last but not least, “Paul Newman’s Fabulous French Dressing,” which I gather became the first product in the Newman’s Own profits-to-charity food corporation. Paul also was the creator of the “Slam Dunk” burger, which featured Dijon mustard and sour plum jam.
It is true that people popularly believed that Paul Newman was a co-owner or silent partner with Ron and Anne — owing mostly, I think, to the label over the homemade dressing at the salad bar — and the Bucks were not inclined to disabuse customers of the notion, because it provided a substantial boost to the popularity of the place. Paul occasionally came by in the late afternoon and would sit alone in the back and have a mug of Bud or a glass of white wine. Joanne and their son Scott had dinner there one night. However, the Newmans never participated directly in the business, and to the best of my knowledge, they never had an ownership interest in it.
In fact, for a short time before it became Hamptons, the little orange house on Highland Avenue was an unsuccessful recording studio. I can’t recall the name at the moment, but the corporate name for the recording studio was the same as the corporate name for Hamptons. Ron couldn’t bear to sell the house when the recording studio went belly up, and he decided to convert it into a burger restaurant inspired by the cookouts with the Newmans.
The first featured burger was “The Golden Kazoo,” which was a half-pound of chuck with sauteed mushrooms and a half of a steamed brocolli stalk smothered with a big slab of melted cheddar cheese. The beef for all of the burgers was pure chuck ground fresh twice per day in our food prep room, and the fat content of each batch was carefully calibrated using a device that Ron specially commissioned from the inventor. He also had to find a plastics fabricator to design and make the salad bar containers and sneeze shields, because in those days, as you noted, virtually no one had salad bars! I’m not sure where the addition of Korintje cinnamon to the coffee originated, but that too was uncommon in the pre-barista world of the 1970′s.
The idea for the addition of wines came directly from the cookouts, but Ron’s real pride and joy was the serving counter and salad bar in the Highland Avenue restaurant. It was cut from a single slab of wood that Ron rescued from the deck of a decommissioned sailing ship. He also designed the patio, which had a plexiglass ceiling built around the ancient avocado tree that you mentioned. And he personally selected the classical music that played at all times during business hours. Anne’s major contribution was the dozens of hanging plants, which she personally selected and accented with colored flood lights.
I don’t think that Ron and Anne ever expected the restaurant actually to turn a profit, but they were, of course, delighted when we busted through the break-even line my first year there and made a hefty 17-19% net profit for each of the remaining years that I was there, owing largely to a steady stream of actors, directors, musicians, and other notable personalities as regular customers. (Ask John Travolta about his “addiction” to the wickedly delicious carrot cake!) One of the main attractions for the notables was that they knew that they could eat in peace, guaranteed that no one would interupt their meals by asking for autographs, taking photographs, or offering unsolicited manuscripts. (Jeremy Iacone, who has since written numerous screenplays, including, for example, “The Bone Collector,” was actually fired from his job as a waiter for violating that rule; but I’m guessing that he believes that it was worth it!)
The restaurant also occasionally served as a place for private celebrations such as a birthday party for one of the Bridges family (Jeff, I think) and an after-party for Lillian Gish following an event involving the preservation of celluloid films.
Yes, Hamptons was a small piece of Hollywood history — one that I thought had been long forgotten. It’s awesome to know that a few people still remember it. Thank you for the stroll through fond memories!
Robin
We used to go to Hamptons on Highland Ave regularly back in the mid-late 80s, Robert wrote below about the Menage A Trois, that was my favorite as well. I can’t remember the toppings but I think it was bacon and avocado. Robert: Can you remember the toppings?
Hamptons was a great place! After you ordered your burger, you could enjoy a glass of wine, or your favorite beverage, and then the waiter/waitress would summon you up from the dining room into the kitchen area where you would dress your burger with all the other great toppings they had. I remember the German potato salad also, it was awesome! Thank you for this website and for bringing back some great memories of one of my favorite restaurants in L.A., back in the day. William
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Robert Delgado Jr says:
Long before anyone doing fusion burgers on the foodnetwork there was Hamptons pointing the way and setting the trend. My fave was the Manage A Trois. Like Newman, gone but never forgotten.
William, I checked my old menu — the Menage A Trois was, indeed, bacon and avocado, and the third item was the customer’s choice of swiss or cheddar cheese. :)
OH I’m so happy I found this especially Robin Jones comment!!! I lived in LA in the 80′s and what I loved was the coffee! lol I’m so glad Robin mentioned the cinnamon in the coffee…it was the best. I was always under the impression that it was Paul Newman’s restaurant as well. Even took my dad there for the coffee and explaining that Paul Newman owned it etc. lol oh well I still love(d) it :-)
Always enjoyed Hamptons’ gazpacho, very refreshing. Nothing like drinking a salad.
Anyone, besides me, ever try the Foggy Bottom burger? It was great. I’m convinced peanuts go well with any food: sweet, sour, whatever.
I’m not sure they were first, but Hamptons is the first restaurant I remember serving premium wines by the glass.
Loved that great patio with the tree, while munching on the slam-dunk burger (plum jam & dijon mustard)!
I had one of the best birthday’s of my life at the Hamptons in the valley. I was doing pretty well in showbiz so I rented out the back room for a party of about 30 of my closest friends. Every guest received a “confidential” treat when they arrived which sent most into the bathroom. The party was truly fun, great vibes, warm feelings and remembered by all who are still alive.
Thank you Hamptons for a life-long memory.
I missed out on the original Hamptons, but I sometimes do takeout from Mo’s in Toluca Lake. Although I wasn’t there for the original, the quality of beef is akin to an old-style steakhouse burger…really deep flavor. Some of the Hamptons menu items mentioned in previous comments are still there. I order the Slam Dunk burger fairly regularly, and yes, the Foggy Bottom, Menage a Trois, and Nelly Burger are all great, too. (Frank’s Fantasy Burger went bye-bye a few years ago.) For takeout orders, the potato salad is served on the side…nice to know that’s one of the Hamptons items as well!
Oh, that cinnamon coffee! The burgers were all wonderful, but it’s that beautiful coffee in those 50′s style brown mugs that is forever stuck in my mind.
Ohhh… I do miss Hamptons. Piling up a salad to feed from for days … I would love to have an old menu or a copy of one – let me know if that’s possible.