I tried a $97 salad at an iconic Montauk spot. The food may be overpriced, but the views are worth every penny.

Montauk evolved from a sleepy surfing town into a hotspot for influencers and finance professionals. Duryea's began as a bay-side fish market in the 1920s and became the current eatery by 1948. Local regulations prevented official restaurant status, so the Duryeas operated a "picnic shack." In 2014, Perry Duryea III sold the business to billionaire Mark Rowan for a reported $6.3 million. Renovations and rebranding introduced upscale booths, a refurbished dock, $300 seafood towers, and higher menu prices including viral items like a $97 lobster Cobb salad. The property now includes an additional restaurant, rentable cottages, and two beach clubs. A visit on a Monday in August totaled $230.

Picture this: You're driving down a Long Island highway on a summer day, you hit the Hamptons, but then you just ... keep going. Eventually, you hit what locals call The End: Montauk. Over the years, Montauk has transformed from a sleepy little surfing town to a full-blown haven for influencers and Wall Street bankers. But for every new bar or club (we see you, Bounce and Surf Lodge), there are places that have been around for decades.

Over the years, it became an institution, but not, technically, a restaurant, as local regulations prohibited it. Instead, the Duryeas called it a "picnic shack," per The Financial Times. In 2014, Perry Duryea III sold the business to billionaire Mark Rowan for a reported $6.3 million. Over a decade later, gone are the picnic tables and relatively low prices, and in their place are more upscale booths, a refurbished dock, and $300 seafood towers.

Duryea's began as a fish market in the '20s. It became some version of the restaurant that is known and loved today in 1948, when Perry Duryea Jr. (the former owner Chip Duryea's father) returned home from World War II, per an interview with Whalebone Magazine. Now, it's expanded from a plain fish market to two restaurants (one in Montauk, another in Orient Point), rentable cottages, and two beach clubs (Orient Point and the Riviera Maya in Mexico).

Read at Business Insider