


Rowdy Hall is back in black.
The beloved East Hampton pub battled the town’s architectural review board for months over the color of its facade at its new digs on Main Street in Amagansett.
Rowdy, which previously resided in East Hampton Village for 26 years, wanted black to stay on brand.
Mark Smith, an owner of Rowdy Hall, told The Post. Instagram @rowdyhallamg
Amagansett contended it didn’t “harmonize” with the colors of the historic district.
“It wasn’t like we wanted to do fuchsia and orange, something that was totally incongruent,” Mark Smith, an owner of Rowdy Hall, told The Post.
Rowdy Hall first submitted its request for a black facade at the end of the summer.
After being turned down, Rowdy lived up to its name and painted it black without permission.
The town slapped the business with a violation for not having a building permit and issued a stop-work order.
Smith told The Post the black was merely primer, but the town didn’t buy it.
In October, the review board gave a thumb’s down to the bistro’s application to paint it black.
A month later, Smith, who belongs to the Honest Man restaurant group that owns Rowdy Hall, filed an Article 78 petition to overturn the decision.

On March 22, East Hampton Town attorney Robert Connelly settled with the pub. Rowdy Hall can paint it black, but any further changes to the facade must get town approval.
“The code is a little vague. They’re just guidelines … not hard and fast rules,” Connelly told the East Hampton Star, which first reported the story.
Smith learned you can fight City Hall.
“From my vantage point, we won,” the bistro owner said, adding, “When you feel like you’ve done the right thing and checked all the appropriate boxes, and you have a conviction about it … you fight for it.”
Connelly did not return messages.