Little Gull Cafe taking over Eckart's in Westhampton Beach

When Eckart’s Luncheonette announced in January that it was closing, customers mourned the passing of the 115-year-old Westhampton Beach institution. But here’s some news to soften that blow: The building has been purchased by local investors and they have engaged chef Will Pendergast as a partner.

Pendergast and his wife, Johanna, are the brains and palate behind Little Gull Cafe, a Newsday Top 50 restaurant, which opened in the decommissioned Speonk LIRR depot in 2021, became a local favorite and then an Islandwide breakfast-lunch destination for sourdough pancakes, buttermilk biscuits, local salads, lobster rolls and homemade cakes and pies.

"I’ve been wanting to do something bigger," Pendergast said. "Little Gull is wonderful but frustrating. It was never built to be a restaurant and the kitchen is so small, we just can’t serve our clientele the way we want to. When we get deliveries in the morning, we often have nowhere to put them!"

Eckart's closed on March 22. Pendergast just signed the lease for 162 Mill Rd. last week and, while he hasn’t come up with a name, a plan or a design for the new place, he knows what it is not going to be:

"It’s not going to be Little Gull 2," he said. "In Speonk, we focus on breakfast and lunch and also do some dinners; in Westhampton Beach we will focus on dinner and drinks and also do breakfast and lunch. We don’t want to draw business away from Little Gull."

And, he noted, "It's not going to be Eckart’s because I’m not an Eckart." The luncheonette’s idiosyncratic decor devotes a lot of space to displaying memorabilia — space that could be used more sensibly for tables or storage — though Pendergast promised that there would still be a counter. "We will figure out a way to do some kind of homage, but this will be a different restaurant."

Right now he is toying with a casual seafood concept, but that could change in the two to five months between now and opening day. Pendergast has also taken over the food truck at Silly Lily Fishing Station in East Moriches, so he is looking forward to a very busy summer.