Target has touched down in the Hamptons this summer with a cheeky temporary store, the Bullseye Inn. The store, a ye-old-style inn packed with garden- and summer-themed merchandise, resides in the very permanent Bull's Head Inn in Bridgehampton. Target vice president of events marketing and communications John Remington and Avi Adler produced the store's opening event.
The Bullseye Inn may have a month's worth of shelf life, but Adler—who produced the store's interiors as well—began planning back in January. Held on the foggy eve of the season, the party attempted to extend the store's personality into the lawn tents provided by Stamford Tent. "We wanted the party tents to be another room of the house," said Adler's partner, David Stark. "We were very inspired by the store space, which was this colonial Williamsburg-meets-Target surreal mix."
Guests circulated freely between the store and the tent, and each had its own amusements. In the store, a bikini-clad model read on a hammock while another tried to sleep, princess-and-the-pea style, on a stack of mattresses. Upstairs, a male model sat in a bathtub full of ping-pong balls listening to his iPod. Out in the tents, Deney Terrio and Motion performed, while DJ Todd Mallis picked up the sonic slack.
Caterer Creative Edge Parties offered a high-low mix: a raw bar and gazpacho bar on one hand, and summer comfort food—mini-burgers, lobster rolls and warm cookies—on the other. "It was one-part Hamptons—the raw bar—and one part a kickoff for the summer, sort of like a slumber party," said Stark. "The warm chocolate chip cookies right from the baking tray with the spatula was straight from a slumber party. We didn't want to be too serious in the food department, but wanted to be substantial enough to make it a dinner."
The guests ate it up. Everyone in the Hamptons that night seemed to be there, ranging from Target royalty like Isaac Mizrahi and Swell designers Cynthia Rowley and Ilene Rosenzweig, to football great Boomer Esiason and Queer Eye interiors expert Thom Filicia.
—Greg Lindsay
