A buyer has finally emerged for the century-old restaurant Casa Basso, located in Westhampton, a hamlet of Southampton.
The Town of Southampton is seeking to purchase the waterfront property for $4 million, 27East reported. The Town Board is set to convene this month to decide upon approval for the acquisition.
The potential sale is a long time coming for the restaurant, which had been around for nearly a century before concluding dinner service last month. The owners, Bejto and Zyli Bracovic, listed the property at 59 Montauk Highway for $6.5 million in 2021.
The couple became only the third owners of the property when they purchased it in 1986, proceeding to dish out Italian food for the next several decades. Beyond the restaurant, the property also has a faux castle built by sculptor Theophilus Brouwer in 1906 and giant sculpted swordsmen to protect the estate.
The castle’s ground floor houses a pastry business, while there are a pair of studio apartments on the second level.
When the owners put the property up for sale, Betjo expressed hope a buyer would maintain it as a restaurant. That’s not the direction the town is going in, however, as suggested by its use of the Community Preservation Fund to finance the potential purchase; the fund is geared towards historic preservation, open space preservation and expanding recreational resources.
If the deal goes through, the town would knock down the restaurant and create public access on Beaverdam Creek, dedicating the land as a park. It would also restore tidal marshlands at the shoreline. While the fate of the pastry business is unclear, the town would preserve the castle.
“The castle is a historical, iconic and inspirational site in the Town of Southampton for over 120 years, and continues to contribute to the local and cultural landscape and is an important opportunity for historic preservation,” the town said in its pitch for the acquisition.
A public hearing before the Town Board is scheduled for Tuesday.