Restauranteur Dishes About New Mexican Eatery, Union Cantina, In Southampton

SOUTHAMPTON, NY – Ian Duke, the owner of a new Mexican restaurant in Southampton, knows his way around a kitchen.

"I’ve worked in nearly every position in a restaurant,” Ian Duke of Union Cantina in Southampton said.
His first forays into the culinary world started at a young age.

‘I started working as a dishwasher in a restaurant when I was about 12 years old,” says Duke, whose father was also in the restaurant business.

“My mother thinks that me becoming involved in restaurants was a combination of my father and Monopoly,” said Duke, who is partners in four restaurants in Manhattan: Prohibition, a restaurant/live music lounge, and three Lucky’s Famous Burgers, located in Hell’s Kitchen, the East Village and in Chelsea.

He also runs Southampton’s Social Club and this season, he launched Union Cantina, a modern Mexican eatery, in town, because he said he recognized a food void.

“Southampton needed a good Mexican restaurant,” he said.

When what he considered the perfect location opened up, he knew Union Cantina's time had come.

Duke, who lives in East Quogue, said he not only knows the area, he understands what his customers, who are also his East End neighbors, want to eat. After all, he said, who doesn’t crave Mexican food sometimes?

With an abundance of upscale restaurants in Southampton, Union Cantina has proven to be a popular choice in recent weeks because diners say they like the relaxed vibe and cuisine.

“Our most popular item is our deconstructed enchiladas, and our Rose Sangria. Everyone loves them," Duke, who has already served some famous Hamptonites, including Chris Cuomo, Michael J. Fox, and Brooke Shields, said.

When Duke has the time, he likes to check out some of his own favorite Hamptons restaurants.

“I love a good steak and One North in Hampton Bays certainly offers that, in addition to great people who work there and run the place,” he says. “I also love Tutto il Giorno and Red Bar. Again, it’s great food and great people who work there. In my opinion, great people are the key to it all in this business.”