The Drift Inn: Part III

Known for its overflowing DJ-driven super-bashes, the Neptune Beach Club famously closed its doors last year following the 2013 summer season after 24 years of providing a raucous and controversial place to party annually between Memorial Day and Labor Day while the sun was out.

On the other hand, the wild nights held at Neptune’s East Quogue address (70 Dune Rd.) appear to be continuing on into 2014, albeit on the other side of Shinnecock Bay along Foster Avenue.

In actual fact, the nocturnal gatherings held at Neptune’s were a separate entity, known as The Drift Inn. Once a complete venue of its own (formerly at 63 Dune Rd.), the Drift held unbridled celebrations featuring large turnouts, carousing crowds, sing-along party tunes, dancing on the bar and many uninhibited moments – traits it shared with the other notoriously wild spots once found frequently during the warmer months within the Hampton Bays area during the 1990s and early 2000s (such as Turtle Bay, Summers, Foggy Goggle, CPI and Boardy Barn, with all but the Barn now defunct) – but its home structure was destroyed by fire in February 2002.

However, those in control of the Drift responded to that incident by transitioning the formerly full-time club into more of an ongoing movable party than a venue – sharing the Neptune space as previously mentioned – and once the sale of Neptune Beach Club was completed last December, the Drift Inn organizers immediately took to social media to announce that while it was losing its space at Neptune’s, it had every intention of finding a new home.

That search came to a close on Wednesday, March 26 as The Drift Inn announced a 2014 partnership with the Foster Avenue nightspot Beach Bar (another survivor of the once-sizable Hampton Bays summer club scene) and that it would be hosting Saturdays there, with the kickoff set for May 24.

A statement on its Facebook page says the new digs will still include the “same Drift staff, our bartenders, our bouncers, our barbacks and always friendly front door crew. And most importantly our Drift Inn music which has been one of our signatures” – which seems to indicate that the plan for the third edition of The Drift Inn is to keep it as much like its predecessors as possible.

The Drift Inn at Beach Bar: 58 Foster Ave., Hampton Bays, 631-988-6674