Memory Motel

By far one of the worse bars I’ve ever been too and I have been too quite alot of bars. If I could give this place negative stars I would. The bouncers were the nastiest, rudest, most dumb ass idiots I have ever come across at a bar. Then $ 10 cover to literally stand in one spot because the place is so small. Service was shit, the music is shit, stupid rules that have no significance and just a plain bad time. Again the bouncers were by far the worst people I’ve come across in awhile, just plain assholes for no apparent reason. I guess that’s what happens when you give scumbags a tad bit of authority. I certainly would NEVER return to this place. I would advise people to do the same.

Extremely rude security and terrible policies. Expensive cover that doesn’t apply to outdoor area re-​entry. Will not be visiting again. This bar is the epitome of why Montauk is getting a bad reputation.

Full disclosure, it’s definitely a fun spot but that’s about all that it’s good for — don’t expect any frills. Poor rating because the bartender gave herself a 150% tip after telling me there was no card on file when I tried to close out. I’ve heard they do this a decent amount and charge an automatic 20% but 150% is outrageous. There’s also no way of contacting this place as the phone number listed is seemingly connected to a fax line.

The bottom line is you go to The Memory to rage. I have a blast every time. I’m not sure where the sense of entitlement is coming from in the other reviewers. Maybe you shouldn’t black out and leave your credit card here if you don’t want to deal with the staff the next day. In fact, the owners are kind and generous and I can’t wait to go back next summer.

Cautionary tale on this dive bar… Don’t ever use a credit card at this shady place with an even shadier owner. I’ve been here a few times previously, each time as a part of a large group. Memory couldn’t be further from my type of scene, but sometimes you just have to take one for the team. However, after my experience this past weekend, I will never return.
A few friends and I went out to dinner and then out for some drinks. We ended up at the Memory to meet up with some people who we knew were there. After a couple drinks we walked across the street to the Point. By the time we headed home, it was late and I completely forgot that my card was sitting behind the bar at the Memory.
Went back the following night, and the bartender waved me over to the owner who I was told would help me. When I asked him to help, he argued with me that I probably didn’t even know where I left my card. He finally relented (but not before calling me some unsavory names), slowly waddled to the bar and picked up a clear plastic cup filled with at least 100 credit cards left behind from other patrons. He then handed me the cup with all of the credit cards, told me to find my card, and waved me over to the side (out of his view). It would have been so easy for me to pocket a handful of other people’s cards and no one would have been the wiser.
Moral of the story– sometimes you really can judge a book by its cover, as is the case with this grimy bar and its truly foul proprietor.

Bates motel? Crowded and crazy bar, great music. The place is a dump however, they should use the cover money and spend it on an upgrade for the bathrooms, the inside, well everything.
Great for dancing, and going a little cra cra.

$ 10 Admission? It’s not very often I give negative star… The doorman asked 30 of us ladies to pay him $ 10 admission and he let guys go in without paying so it made us wonder why is there admission when there isn’t any at other places. He was very rude so we decided not to go in and he rudely said, you girls a dime a dozen. It just left a sour taste in my mouth not to go back to the Memory Motel.
Go to Sloppy Tuna!

Bartenders are awesome. Door guy has serious issues. Maybe s.d. Syndrome, or roid rage. It all makes sense now.

One of the best places anywhere… how anyone could give this place anything less than 5 stars is beyond me. Its rock & roll legacy is unsurpassed in its badass-​ness. Not only did the Stones name the song after it but they wrote F-​ing Wild Horses here for gods sake! It was the only place in Montauk with (at the time) a piano and a pool table while they were crashing at Warhol’s compound out here. Pure Awesomeness.
While its legacy is unsurpassed, the place is firmly ensconced in the present and is constantly reinventing itself into all different forms of cool, even in the course of a single day. Take our recent experiences here on a perfect June Saturday. We got word early afternoon that the great Winston Irie was playing a afternoon show here, as he apparently does on a regular basis thru out the summer. When we arrived we were most pleasantly surprised by out total pro bartender (there all amazing but much respect in particular to John), that we hd stumbled into an hour of free open bar (well liquor and beer) for the next hour out of nowhere! The free beer made the incredible reggae Winston and the boys were serving out even more incredible! Later at night we returned to catch the tail end of a live cover band (super cheesy but in a good way), which was followed by a wild set from a DJ that by nights end had devolved into a fantastically decadent rave type atmosphere. I can’t even begin to imagine actually staying in one of the gloriously disgusting rooms at this place but god bless anyone who does!

Is this a straight or gay bar??? I was confused since we had 20+ GIRLS with us for a bachelorette party & the door guy was RUDE to us. We went on 6÷8÷13 at 11:45pm & the door guy in the red t-​shirt was a jerk to us. He tried to charge us EACH $ 10, but we saw him let guys go in without paying. They normally don’t charge an entry fee, but I guess they wanted to «pocket» some money for themselves so they could get some chili dogs & nachos at 7 Eleven?
Not only was the door guy rude to all of us, but once we decided we did not want to pay his so called entry «fee», he started talking crap to us by saying «you’ll be back, you’re a dime a dozen…». WOW, now that’s what I call customer service! No wonder Memory Motel was a ghost town and only guys are there. They made a huge mistake because we are the ones who will be spending $$$$$ at the bar & buying the most drinks. We ended up going to Sloppy Tuna instead since they deserved our business & it’s the best spot to go to.
NEGATIVE ZERO.
Don’t waste your time here.

There will be memories made, and memories made go away.
You can check in, stay the night. In fact, I saw a gentleman sleeping on a picnic bench the last time I was here. I’m guessing his memories were lost as well.
During the summer months it’s absolutely packed… with a queue time of an hour plus. Hamptons twentysomethings fill the place and dance their butts off every weekend. It’s the nice kind of divey with a lot of rock and roll memorabilia and strong drinks.
The insane crowds during peak season keep me from recommending this wholeheartedly but it’s most certainly one of the super fun spots in Montauk.

This place is awesome! There’s a decent chance of witnessing puking, fighting or crying, but the outdoor space is great.

This is the best place for nightlife and music way out here. It is the only happening place off season — but wait until at least 10 pm. We walked in once at 8 and it was dead quiet –by 10:30 we tried back and it was crowded with a live band ant this was end of Nov/​First day of Dec.

I can’t tell you how much the drinks are because a good friend’s fiancé decided to treat our crew after our friend finished her first marathon in the Hamptons. I can tell you however that there was a quasi-​decent cover band that played a sick cover of Radiohead’s «Creep» that had a very drunk friend of mine and myself lyrically dancing around the old wood floors. The drinks must have been strong enough because we all got pretty f’d up, the next day was hell, and the memory motel left us with a lot of forgotton wonderful memories that we can only try to rehash through photos.

I can appreciate that this place is connected to a Stone’s song… but a bar is a bar. This is a bar folks. You won’t walk in here and witness Mick Jaggar banging Carly Simon on a pool table. It was cool for a Thursday night when you could walk around, but forget it on the weekends when the place is like the 4−5−6 during rush hour. The band was decent but not incredible. Not worth the cover or sweat.

The best dive bar in Montauk, hands down. The crowd is always mixed, often times there is a live band (saw a Led Zeppelin cover band once with a lead singer who looked astonishingly like Robert Plant, down to the hair and his current age) and the drinks are usually poured decent.
The crowd is mixed and diverse, everything from typical WASPy East Coast college students to people older than your parents. On a busy Friday or Saturday night this place is usually good to witness a fight as well, watch your girls and plan accordingly. Always a good time!

There is a song on the Rolling Stones’ Black and Blue album called «Memory Motel». As a friend of mine and I were rolling around the eastern tip of Long Island, we came across a «worn in» looking place called the Memory Motel. Of course my eyes locked on to the small word on the sign above the words «Memory Motel»: BAR.
Naturally we got out to take a look. It was a Tuesday, and the place is only open Thurs-​Sun. They open later in the evening, and they love to have live bands. As luck would have it the band playing on Thursday is called «2U». Who do you suppose they are a tribute band for?
We pull up on Thursday with our lady friends and park it at the bar. We’re maybe the 4^th-​7^th customers for the evening. The band is set up, but not in the room. Right after we get settled in, the Memory Motel Softball Team starts rolling in. How did we know? All of their shirts had «Memory Motel» on them, and all of them had the sleeves cut off. Much of the populace of eastern Long Island drives Range Rovers, Jaguars, etc., but the kind people of Montauk trend toward pickups.
Since the band du jour was a U2 cover band, we started speculating on which of the patrons was Bono. It started with a couple of the softballers:
«THAT’s yer man.»
«No THERE he is.»
«My bet is on that guy over there.»
It eventually degenerated into speculation about every soul that walked in the door. Man woman, it didn’t matter. It was fun. The actual singer ended up being some guy with a Yankees hat on backward and a large cocktail in a plastic cup. He did the sound check dressed like that, and came back for the show with a straw cowboy hat and the expected wrap around rose tinted shades. To be fair, his singing was pretty good and a decent facsimile of Yer Man’s.
Let’s just say this was a fun night. The crowd was pretty mixed. By mixed I mean people who looked like they were 21, and people who were bragging about being at Woodstock. The bartender was friendly and efficient, and it was good clean fun for the whole family.
The bartender did tell us about the «Memory Motel» slash Rolling Stones connection: The place was always a motel, and the bar we were in was originally a little restaurant. There was a grand piano in the corner that Mick Jagger played a few times while he was in town visiting Andy Warhol in the late 60’s early 70’s. Evidently Andy had a compound out near Montauk at the time. The title of the song was probably inspired by the place. There might have been more of a connection, but as the story goes, the owner of the place didn’t like Jagger because he was British, so the story ends there.