Happy Hour
The King of Main
Zach Erdem
If there’s one person we can thank for keeping Main Street in Southampton vibrant and exciting, it’s 75 Main owner Zach Erdem. Never failing to generate buzz, the restaurateur is now letting the world know what he’s all about on his new discovery+ show, Serving the Hamptons. Hit it! BY SYDNEY SADICK
Zach, you’ve owned 75 Main for over a decade. Why did you decide to now let cameras in on what takes place at your restaurant? The restaurant was already like a movie, just without cameras. You walk in and there are so many beautiful and famous characters in one room. A woman who’s a customer [Teresa Sorkin] approached me. She loved how the restaurant is run and asked me to do a reality show. I told her all we need is the cameras. We had a 28-person crew following us all over, and that’s how we started. Most people don’t realize, you were homeless at one point and began as an employee for another Hamptons restaurateur. How are you processing this next chapter in your life? When I opened my restaurant, everyone assumed I was this rich kid or had money behind it. I didn’t even know what an investor was back then. This is the story of a guy who came to America at 11 from Turkey and saw a picture of New York City and had no idea what that was, let alone what a piece of chocolate was. Turkey is beautiful, but I was in areas of the mountains most people didn’t even know existed. I was 20 when I made it. I was the kid who’d never seen anything like New York, so it was a big 30 \ Memorial Day 2022 \ Spotlight
cultural shock initially. What was your first job? I worked for one day at Dunkin’ Donuts in Yonkers. Then I ended up at 75 Main. The manager liked me, and I was a bartender. I didn’t like it, though, because I couldn’t speak English; he put me back in the kitchen and I started washing Cast of Serving the Hamptons
dishes. I worked seven days a week. Then I went to Nello as a busboy and bartender, and then general manager. I worked for [Nello] for nine years, and then I got fired, which was the best thing that happened to me. He
lost his business, and the guy who took over didn’t like me. He told me to get the f**k out, and I did. I called the woman who owned 75 Main, who I worked for nine years earlier as a dishwasher, and I ended up
buying the restaurant from her. For the Hamptonites who have been coming to your restaurant for years, what will they learn that’s different on your show? People will learn my true story.
