On a recent rainy morning, two young men with pale pink umbrellas met a visitor to the Hedges Inn in its parking lot, while barn swallows picked insects from the air over East Hampton’s Town Pond, across James Lane.
Walking through the front door, it was hard not to notice more pink, this time in the form of flowers spilling over the tops of the inn’s window boxes. The color is a wink to the inn’s sister property, the Colony Hotel, called “Palm Beach’s pinkest hotel,” and also owned by Andrew and Sarah Wetenhall.
The couple, who have a house in Sag Harbor, announced their purchase of the 13-room Hedges Inn, built in 1873, this winter.
For village officials, it was a welcome shift. Only months ago, the inn was enmeshed in controversy over rumors that then-owner John Cumming was considering selling it to Scott Sartiano, the owner of Zero Bond, the private New York City social club who had rented a residence adjacent to the inn at 5 Hook Pond Lane. The village, worried more about idling black S.U.V.s than pink flowers, passed a series of laws to discourage the conversion of inns to private clubs.
In the case of the Hedges, it worked.
Along with the inn, the Wetenhalls purchased the house Mr. Sartiano was renting. It will now be used by the inn for those looking for a more private and longer-term stay.
“We call ourselves East Hampton’s front porch because we’re the first thing you see when you pull into the village,” Ms. Wetenhall said last Thursday as she sipped peppermint tea in the inn’s small library. “Pink is our color. We would never want to turn the Hedges into the Colony. The intention here is to bring some of the best and most successful aspects of the Colony to the community here in East Hampton.”
That includes Swifty’s, the 100-seat restaurant that will be serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Helmed by the chef Tom Whitaker, it’s currently open seven days a week. Come September, it will close for a planned restoration of the inn’s guestrooms, gardens, and ground floor.
“One of our big missions here is to make the Hedges and Swifty’s open and available for the community,” said Ms. Wetenhall. “When we re-open in May 2026, the intention is to run a very extended season, if not year-round. We’re learning this market, to be completely honest with you. We’re going to listen to the community and to our neighbors. We are adamant about following all rules and guidelines, and so we are not going to be any bigger than we are allowed to be.”
Listening to the neighbors and trying to fit in seems to be a theme. Ms. Wetenhall has engaged the landscape designer Ed Hollander to renovate the gardens (Mr. Hollander also did the gardens for nearby Guild Hall and has presented plans to East Hampton Village for Town Pond) and deferred to the village about strategies to prevent errant flying cars from using the inn as a landing strip. Since 2010, 12 vehicles have failed to navigate the turn from Woods Lane onto Main Street and either ended up submerged in Town Pond, or worse, visiting the inn without a reservation.
“We don’t like flying cars, but we’re excited to work with the village to come up with a solution that works for everyone, inclusive of the drivers who are driving the flying cars,” said Ms. Wetenhall, displaying a dry sense of humor.
(According to East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, the village is waiting for a permit from the New York State Department of Transportation on a net, as it would be placed in a state right of way.)
In keeping with the theme of community engagement, Ms. Wetenhall expects to run a series of Wednesday evening events, called Conversations at the Hedges, from 5 to 7.
“Maybe it’s a book signing. Maybe it’s a product launch. It will be sponsored by Wolffer Estate and will be for both our in-house guests and our community members.”
Ms. Wetenhall said that she would eventually like to add a pool to the property, even if it’s not a top priority. She and her husband are also open to hosting private events, but said they will be selective about their bookings to ensure that the hotel and restaurant remain accessible to both guests and the community.
(Down the road, the 19-room Huntting Inn, built in 1699, has been locked in a years-long battle with neighbors and the village’s zoning board of appeals over its attempts to add a pool. Like the Huntting Inn, if the Hedges wants a pool, it would have to make an application before the Z.B.A.)
“We would love a pool. I mean, who wouldn’t love a pool? But while we would love a pool, right now, we’re focused on our Beach Butler program and getting our guests all wonderfully situated at the beach and around town to either shop, or visit Guild Hall, or the library, with rides,” she said. (The inn has a fleet of Volvo X90 electric vehicles and a pink beach buggy. “We have a text-with-guest program here. You text us and we’ll come grab you.”)
The inn has 80 less rooms than the Colony, so it’s relatively intimate. “We know why they’re here, what their goal is, what they’re wanting to do in town, and we help them. We can put together an itinerary.”
“I have 375 employees in Florida. So, we’re able to scale in the very best way. We can cherry-pick team members to come up here on a summer stint and bring our Forbes five-star trained hospitality employees to come and work here. The hospitality that we’re bringing to the village is something that is truly new and different in this market. We offer a full-scale luxury hospitality experience, but in this tiny little footprint. And that’s our strength, honestly.”