50 Years Later, Still No Froufrou
As Montauk has witnessed profound change in recent years, characterized by the sale of family-owned businesses to individuals and corporations from out of town, a notable sign of consistency stands firm at the corner of Main Street and South Emery Street.
Fifty years after its opening, John’s Drive-In continues to serve the burgers, fries, milkshakes, and ice cream for which it is known and loved by residents and visitors alike. For the former, stepping inside the restaurant is akin to time travel: The menu is virtually unchanged from those of 10, 20, or 40 years ago, as are the seating and décor.
Another familiar fixture is David Rutkowski, who bought the drive-in in 1985, sold it in 2002, and reacquired it last year. A lifelong local, Mr. Rutkowski and his wife, Maureen, who started working at the restaurant in 1984, looked very happy to be back last week, despite the 100-hour workweeks that summer demands of many of the hamlet’s business owners.
Longtime customers reacted favorably to the sign, posted last year, stating that the restaurant was “under old management.”
“It cuts against what Montauk is,” Mr. Rutkowski said, “because Montauk is ‘new in this, new in that.’ Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just the way Montauk is trending. You see less and less mom-and-pop places.”
“It’s still pretty much the same,” he said of the restaurant and its menu, “because it’s what people want. You always worry when a place changes hands — you don’t know if it’s going to turn into a froufrou or corporate thing. We’ve added things like wraps, and we have sorbet now, but the bread and butter of the business is still burgers, fries, ice cream. The menu has got a timelessness to it.”
The restaurant was opened in 1967 by John Torr, who had previously owned the hamlet’s I.G.A. and, later, the Crow’s Nest restaurant and hotel. That year, the Rutkowski family moved from East Hampton to Montauk. Mr. Rutkowski’s father, John, worked at another Main Street restaurant, which he bought and renamed Mr. John’s Pancake and Steak House, later shortened to Mr. John’s Pancake House. The family later owned the Montauk Movie, the hamlet’s cinema, which operated for 30 years.
Long before he owned John’s Drive-In, Mr. Rutkowski was a customer, sometimes arriving with teammates from the hamlet’s Little League team after a victory on the nearby field. “Some of my best memories as a kid are coming here after a Little League game,” he said, noting that the tradition continues today.
He closed on the purchase of John’s just before Memorial Day weekend in 1985. “We went to the closing UpIsland, came back, took out the cash register drawers, put in new drawers, and it was mine,” he said.
He and Ms. Rutkowski married in 1998, and the subsequent arrival of their children, Alexandra and John, brought about a reassessment. “I loved doing the work, but I wanted to spend time with my kids when they were young, when the mommy-and-daddy time is key,” he said. “So I sold it to an employee.”
Tom Pontecorvo, who had worked at the drive-in for many years, owned and operated the business until 2016. “It all happened very bang-bang,” Mr. Rutkowski said. “He sent me a text saying he wanted to get out, and I said that’s perfect, I want to get back in. My daughter is a senior in high school; she doesn’t hang out with Dad like she used to. My son was going into eighth grade, so he was hanging out more with his friends.” By March of last year, he was behind the counter once again.
After 17 years’ worth of those 100-hour workweeks, “it felt like retirement,” Mr. Rutkowski said of the span between the 2002 sale and last year’s re-acquisition, “but I was working: I helped my dad run the movie theater. But compared to the hours it takes to run this place, if it wasn’t retirement, it was certainly slowing down.”
There will be scant opportunity to slow down before Labor Day. Downtown Montauk’s very active nightlife, which includes the Memory Motel across Main Street, prompted Mr. Rutkowski to extend weekend hours. Window service is now in effect until 2 a.m., similar to another Main Street mainstay, Pizza Village, which serves revelers even later into the night.
Postmidnight service at John’s is a manifestation of one quite conspicuous sign of change in Montauk, but the Big John burger, chickenwich, hot dogs, and homemade milkshakes demonstrate the adage that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
“People really do look for that nostalgia,” Ms. Rutkowski said. “It’s mom-and-pop-owned; our kids are back here working. They’re the next generation.”