Patio Furniture Store Fills Void, Owners Say

During their first week in business, the owners of Hamptons Home & Patio had their share of flooding to contend with during the torrential downpours.

"I guess we're lucky all this stuff is made to handle that," Bennett Mayrock, an owner, said, standing amongst dining sets and lounge chairs.

Mayrock and Jack Tirone, both 23-year-old graduated of the University of Pennsylvania, decided to go into the patio furniture business after finding the location at 368 Montauk Hwy. in Wainscott, at the former Plitt Ford garage, next to La Capannina.

The location was home to the Whole Foods Market FARM Stand last summer, a pop-up venue for the gourmet food and grocery chain. There are plans for the building to be razed and replaced with a 17,000-square-foot building, but the project slowed when the property owner, Gregg Saunders was killed in a car accident in East Hampton Village in August 2012.

The building has been vacant since Whole Foods left Sept. 3.

Mayrock said he and Tirone, who hail from Nassau County and New Jersey respectively, were familiar with the property, and even checked it out when Whole Foods set up shop. The college friends, who ran a fraternity together, dreamt of going into business for themselves, but were not quite sure what business exactly.

"It all started with the location," he said, adding they considered opening a flea market and place for food trucks to set up, an idea the quickly abandoned when they realized the hurdles they'd have to cross with the Town of East Hampton.

"We saw a void around here of furniture you can get at the right price," Mayrock said. A good connection to patio furniture manufacturers allows them to sell at competitive prices, he said. Hildreth's Home Store in East Hampton and Southampton and Thayer's Hardware in Bridgehampton are he only other places to buy outdoor furniture without traveling to Riverhead, he said.

Merchandise includes dining sets, lounge chairs, 3-sweater swings, umbrellas, fire pits, patio heaters, and beach chairs. The material ranges from wicker to cast iron to sling. The store also sells torches, lawn games, and a few coolers.

Prices range from $125 for a table to $7,000 for a fire pit. "The best deal we have is a 55-pound umbrella weight for $35. Usually it's sold by the pound, so we are beating that by $20," Mayrock said.

So far, business has been good, he said. "The visibility is unbelievable here," he said.

They contract with local companies for a delivery service.

They are enjoying their new venture. Mayrock, who worked in tech sales since graduation two years ago, and Tirone, an engineer major who worked on an oil rig in Louisiana, like seeing customers' response to what they chose for the store.

"It's an amazing feeling to actually get to interact with people," said Mayrock, who mainly did sales over email an phone before.

Hamptons Home & Patio is open 7 days a week. The phone number is 631-537-1811.