Sunset Beach

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Sunset Beach

Style: Modern Design

Atmosphere: Quiet

20 Rooms

Please note: Sunset Beach will be open May 18th - September 9th, 2012. Availability will be limited, so early booking is highly recommended.

The Hamptons are just the Hamptons, today's playground of wealthy New Yorkers, a more retail oriented version of what the North Fork used to be in the days of Gatsby and before, and aside from the occasional bit of Page Six-worthy celebrity gossip there’s nothing new under the sun. Shelter Island, though, between the forks of Long Island, is a different story, quaint, relatively uncharted territory, and a rehabilitated sixties motel called Sunset Beach is a cause for some genuine curiosity.

Shelter Island itself is a welcome break from the thoroughly suburbanized Hamptons, but Sunset Beach’s hipster credentials come courtesy of its owner, André Balazs, of Chateau Marmont and Standard Hotel fame. This hotel is not exactly cut from the same cloth — no red Astroturf to be found — but it’s stylish and minimal in a tasteful and restrained manner, blending a bit of Sixties kitsch with a bit of modern boutique style.

With only twenty rooms, Sunset Beach is a fairly intimate hotel, and most of the action is centered around the bar and the outdoor restaurant, especially on weekends—the distance from the Hamptons means only the more discerning visitors bother making the trip.

Those twenty rooms, though, are well worth the trip, each with hardwood floors, 400 thread count sheets, and a view of the sea from a private sundeck. It’s not exactly crashing waves—just the inlet between the North and South Forks—but that’s the price you pay for a little privacy and seclusion. All in all, it’s a stylish yet very casual retreat, with whimsical touches like orange beachballs and bright orange sinks to stop the all-white décor from verging on the pretentious.