The Hampton Grocer came to fruition in the midst of COVID-19 when Samantha, our founder lost her job.  After 10 years in New York City she relocated to Montauk, New York, and started to brainstorm what she could do for the summer to fill her spare time while she waited for the restaurants where she worked to re-open. Unfortunately, she soon found out that all of the restaurants where she once worked would not be reopening. 

After enrolling in the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in mid-March she came up with the idea of shopping for families in The Hamptons at local farms to help families who relocated due to the pandemic. Immediately, she saw a need for not only grocery delivery, but also gift delivery and realized that she needed to make something of her own to sell to her clients. 

After brainstorming what this *something* could be she thought about her mother in laws granola recipe. She remembered how much everybody loved Janet's granola and friends always told her that she should sell it instead of giving it away for free! Samantha and Janet started making granola in their home kitchen and selling it as a part of the offerings of The Hampton Grocer just 9 jars at a time! 

In June, Samantha developed a second recipe (the Savory Granola) and began selling both items at the East Hampton Farmers Market. Quickly, she outgrew her home kitchen and began cooking in a commercial kitchen in Montauk to keep up with the demand. 

In August of 2020, Samantha decided to suspend all grocery shopping services and spend more time baking granola and expanding The Hampton Grocer! 

Sam brings over 15 years of food, beverage, and event planning experience from Boston and New York City to the Hamptons. She began her career at the age of 13 as a pastry intern at a local restaurant in New Jersey. While attending Boston University School of Hospitality Administration she began working at James Beard Award-Winning Chef Tim Cushman's o ya. Both during and after college, she worked with esteemed event planner Marcy Blum traveling throughout the country executing high profile events. 

After college, Sam went on to work for New York City catering company, Great Performances where she planned events for as small as ten guests up to 2,500. After two years, she returned to work for Chef Tim and Nancy Cushman as their first employee in New York City. As the Director of Sales and Marketing for the restaurant group, she opened o ya NYC, Covina, Roof at Park South, and Hojoko in Boston. During her six years with the Cushmans, Sam executed over 600 events annually and opened a total of 7 restaurants. For the past 10 years, Sam traveled each summer to Montauk with friends and later met her husband at Ruschmeyers. Since then, she has spent her summers in Montauk with her husband at their home enjoying everything that the Hamptons has to offer. 

When Sam is not cooking or shopping at local markets, you can find her fishing or at Ditch Plains with her two dogs and husband Andrew.