The Hamptons in Flip-Flops

YES, Brian Alalu was dropping $950 on a fancy bicycle. And yes, his half-share in a house here is costing $4,500. And yes, he will probably go out to the Lobster Roll restaurant for the occasional plate of $21 fried oysters.
But do not characterize Mr. Alalu’s planned summer of 2009 as fabulous.
Because his idea, his thinking, is that this is going to be a low-key, no-frills season at the shore. “I figured I’d come enjoy the beach,” he said last week as the gussied-up, gray Quick 4, for which he had just swiped his credit card, was being assembled at Amagansett Beach and Bicycle. His plan is to use the bike to tool around town — to throw a towel in the basket and pedal to the shore in flip-flops. Chill.
Last year, Mr. Alalu, 33, a lawyer, came to the Hamptons a few times, but he also dropped about $4,500 on a two-week trip to Southeast Asia.
“I don’t know if I’m saving money,” he said, comparing this summer to last. “But in my head I am.”
Low-key and beachy is the theme in the Hamptons this year. That doesn’t mean that the scene in the restaurants, night spots or even on the sand is actually going to be low-key. But the important thing is that everything seem low-key.
The Hamptons wants you to perceive it as conforming to the spirit of these hard times and not to caricature it as the flashy, traffic-choked, over-the-top playground it has increasingly become.
During a visit to the East End a few weeks before high season begins, homeowners, real estate agents, shop owners and surfers alike mentioned flip-flops frequently, as in “this is the sort of house/shop/club where you can come in flip-flops.”
To be sure, there will still be white-tented charity events for the seersucker and dock-shoe set, but some tickets that were $1,500 last year have been dropped to $500 this summer. Boutiques are calling themselves “beach shacks” but still selling $200 slacks. Dinner for two at Della Femina will set you back $150 — but the restaurant is throwing in a free glass of wine.
The operator of what is shaping up to be one of the season’s hot new clubs envisions a sound system that pumps out the ambient vibe of breaking waves and squawking gulls.
Caw! Caw! Polly want a dollar!
Low-key is the Hamptons theme this year, no matter how much it costs.
“This is not about anything fancy or any pretense or any velvet ropes,” said Andrew Chapman, picking up the theme. He is reopening the Blue Parrot, a casual Mexican bar and restaurant that was a mainstay here before closing four years ago. His investors, by the way, include Renée Zellweger, Ron Perelman, Larry Gagosian and Jon Bon Jovi, but their names were offered by a former operator of the Blue Parrot, not by Mr. Chapman, who preferred to trumpet the local produce he will serve, not celebrity connections that might strike a snooty note.
“We want to keep it true to the spirit,” Mr. Chapman said. “It was always a very easygoing, simple place with casual fun — very welcoming, flip-flops, surfers, anyone was welcome to come.”
Well, at least a surfer with a thick wallet. The Atún a la Parrilla, a dish of grilled tuna with garlic and citrus marinade that was not on the old Blue Parrot menu, will be $26.
Across the road, construction crews were sawing shelving and slapping on paint inside a new J. Crew shop near the corner of Main Street and Newtown Lane, about a mile and a half from the ocean. The window was etched with the slogan: “The best beach house on the block.”
At a Ralph Lauren shop across the street, there were shelving units designed to look like rowboats sawed in half and stood on end.
Raw glitz is out, confirmed Valerie Smith, owner of the Monogram Shop on Newtown Lane here, where napkins imprinted with “Reduced Circumstances” are selling well. “I didn’t order the $2,500 Italian backgammon board this year, which I sold three of the summer before last,” she said.
Mellow, it should be noted, can sometimes spread. There is evidence that some visitors want nothing but beach with their beach.
Tina and Jason Coady, newlyweds who are sharing a rented house for the summer, were walking barefoot near the edge of the waves on Amagansett’s Atlantic Road Beach on Monday with their puggle, Zoe. The breaking surf whooshed in their ears, the sea breeze ruffled their hair.
“Aside from paying for our room and food, we’re not spending any money,” Ms. Coady said, “just enjoying being away this summer.”
The operators of the Hampton Jitney bus service are betting that some visitors will want to take this a step further. They are expanding a service they experimented with last summer, offering one-day $69 round trips that depart Manhattan on weekday mornings, go straight to the beach in Westhampton and return to the city the same day.
MEANWHILE, businesses in the Hamptons are working overtime to pry the low-key dollar from wallets.