How does Westhampton Beach get through a winter without a full-service supermarket? The village has already done it once in the past six years, and it started doing it again on October 11.
That was the day Lidl closed its store at 70 Sunset Avenue. Newsday called it the village's largest grocery store. A lease has been signed for Holiday Farms, a Nassau County grocer, to take the 29,118-square-foot space. Its operator, David Mandell, told Newsday he expects to open in May. Until then the weekly shop moves to Montauk Highway, Mill Road, a church parish hall on Saturdays, and supermarkets one town over. This winter that lineup includes a market the village didn't have the last time the big store went dark.
One Building, Four Grocers, Two Empty Winters
The Sunset Avenue store has changed hands often enough to have a pattern. 27east laid out the sequence:
- Waldbaum's ran the store for many years and closed in 2015, when its parent company, A&P, went bankrupt.
- Best Market reopened the space in 2016.
- Lidl US bought 27 Best Market stores in New York and New Jersey in 2018, this one among them.
- Best Market closed the Westhampton Beach store in November 2020.
- Lidl reopened it in May 2021.
- Lidl closed it on October 11, 2026.
- Holiday Farms is aiming for May 2027.
The last two handoffs line up closely. The store closed in November 2020 and reopened in May 2021. It closed in October 2026, and its next tenant is aiming for May 2027. Both gaps run through the off-season, and both reopenings are scheduled ahead of summer.
Lidl didn't answer Newsday's questions about why its five-year-old store closed. Its statement said every Westhampton Beach employee would be offered a job at another Lidl US location. Before the closing date was confirmed, Mayor Ralph Urban told 27east that many residents liked Lidl's produce, bakery and prices. He also pointed out how hard it is to run a supermarket in a village with a busy summer and a quiet off-season. That seasonal swing is the problem every tenant at 70 Sunset Avenue has faced.
What Holiday Farms Says It Is Building
David Mandell already runs six grocery stores. Three are Holiday Farms locations and one is Locust Valley Market, all in Nassau County, and he also operates two Key Food stores in Queens. He told Newsday that Westhampton Beach is "the right clientele" and that the new store will be "similar to what we do in Holiday Farms in Roslyn and Glen Head."
The company isn't reopening the store as Lidl left it, and that explains the seven-month timeline. Josh Mandell, its director of sales and marketing, told Dan's Papers that the company regrets leaving the village without a full-service supermarket this long:
"We also have plans to reconfigure the store in a way that best suits your community with full-service deli, meat, and produce departments. Unfortunately, this will take some time as we need appropriate permits from the town and intend to fully stock the store with product and staff."
According to Dan's Papers, the company is hiring at least 60 people for the store, and the openings are posted on holidayfarms.com. Dave Mandell also told the paper the store will carry an extensive kosher grocery section, and catering will be offered there as it is at the other Holiday Farms stores. May 2027 is a target that depends on permits, staffing and stocking. It isn't a fixed date.
The Shops That Cover the Gap
During the last empty stretch, in the winter of 2020 to 2021, the village had no Citarella. Citarella's Westhampton market opened this spring at 141 Montauk Highway, joining its longer-running stores in East Hampton, Bridgehampton and Southampton. Its departments include seafood, prime and dry-aged meat, produce, cheese, pastry, sushi, prepared dishes and a full-service butcher and fishmonger. This will be its first winter in Westhampton Beach.
The other options are smaller and more specialized, and some have shorter weeks. Here are the posted hours for the main ones within a short drive of Main Street:
| Shop | Address | What it covers | Posted hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citarella | 141 Montauk Highway, Westhampton Beach | Produce, meat, seafood, bakery, prepared foods | Daily, 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. |
| Mill Road Seafood | 212 Mill Road, Westhampton Beach | Fresh fish, seafood, prepared foods | Wed–Fri 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Sat 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Sun 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Sonny's Prime Village Meat Shoppe | 495 Montauk Highway, East Quogue | Butcher, grocer, prepared foods | Tue–Sat 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sun 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Olish Farms | Eastport Manor Road, Eastport | Farm market | Daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
None of these four promises year-round hours on its site, so check with each one as the weather turns, especially Olish Farms. Mill Road Seafood is closed Monday and Tuesday. Sonny's Prime Village Meat Shoppe is closed Monday. Together they handle the fresh counters. What none of them replaces is the cart-sized trip for paper goods, cleaning supplies and pantry staples that 70 Sunset Avenue used to handle.
Saturdays Move Indoors on November 28
The Saturday market is the most dependable fixture this winter. The Greater Westhampton Chamber of Commerce runs its outdoor farmers market on the Village Green from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays through November. After that the market moves inside.
The Chamber's Holiday Market opens Saturday, November 28, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 40 Main Street. It runs every Saturday through December 26 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with handmade goods, clothing, jewelry, specialty foods and baked goods. The farmers' winter market that is part of it continues on Saturdays through April 24, 2027. The 2026 winter market at St. Mark's Parish Hall listed vendors selling produce, dairy, bread, mushrooms, ravioli, pastries, pickles and prepared food. The market's season ends on April 24, 2027, and Holiday Farms is aiming to open in May. If the store meets that target, the Saturday market covers almost the whole gap.
The Big-Cart Run Leaves the Village
For a full supermarket shop, the nearest options are now in neighboring towns, and they open early:
- Stop & Shop, Hampton Bays, at 194 West Montauk Highway, posts hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
- Stop & Shop, Riverhead, at 1615 Old Country Road, posts 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday. The chain also has a store at 167 Main Street in Southampton.
- Lidl, Riverhead, at 1151 Old Country Road, and Lidl, Center Moriches, at 812 Montauk Highway, both post 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Dan's Papers counts 20 Lidl stores still operating on Long Island.
Two of these stores sit in opposite directions from the village. Hampton Bays is to the east on Montauk Highway, and Center Moriches is to the west on the same road. Riverhead is to the north, which works best if you're already headed that way for errands.
Delivery covers some of the distance. Stop & Shop offers online delivery and pickup, and the company says availability varies by store. Citarella's Hamptons stores advertise local delivery on Tuesdays and Fridays and curbside pickup every day. Fees and delivery areas are worth confirming with the store. Holiday Farms' announcement says its stores offer home delivery and pickup, a description of the company's existing locations in Nassau County.
Why the Sunset Avenue Box Matters Beyond Groceries
Mayor Urban pointed to a busy summer and a quiet off-season as the challenge for a supermarket here, and the store's recent calendar follows that swing. Best Market closed in November 2020, and Lidl closed this October. Lidl reopened the space in May 2021, Citarella opened its village market this spring, and Holiday Farms is aiming for May. The openings land ahead of summer, and the year-round household lives through the stretch in between.
Holiday Farms has said it will reconfigure the store with full-service deli, meat and produce departments, and its plans for Westhampton Beach include a kosher grocery section and catering. All of it depends on town permits, staffing and stocking. The Saturday market at St. Mark's runs through April 24, and Holiday Farms is aiming for May.
For Westhampton homeowners and landlords, whether a full-service grocer is open on the village's own side of Montauk Highway in winter affects off-season rentals and year-round living. If you'd like a clear read on how the Sunset Avenue reopening could affect your property's winter appeal, Michael Petersohn can walk through it with you. Request a Personal Market Consultation.
