Banner's

Banner's is a small steak-and-seafood restaurant located on the water in Sag Harbor, a town about fifteen to twenty minutes from Amity. It is known as a favorite nighttime destination for yachtsmen and summer people, which means it has little luncheon trade. Its expense makes it almost certain that no year-round residents or local tradesmen would go there for lunch, a fact that Ellen Brody relies on when she selects it as the meeting place for a clandestine lunch with Matt Hooper.

Setting and Atmosphere

The restaurant is dark, with a single room containing a bar on the right as one enters and about twenty tables in the center. The left-hand wall is lined with eight booths. The walls are dark wood, decorated with bullfight and movie posters. The parking lot is in the rear, a feature for which Ellen is grateful, as it means her car will not be in plain view of anyone who might drive down the street in Sag Harbor. When Ellen arrives at 12:20, the only other patrons are a couple in their late twenties having a drink at a table by the window. The bartender, a young man with a Vandyke beard and a button-down shirt, sits by the cash register reading the New York Daily News.

The Lunch Meeting

Ellen arrives early and asks for a table in the corner booth, where she sits with her back to the door. She orders a gin and tonic, her first daytime drink since her wedding, and drinks half of it immediately. Hooper arrives late, apologizing for the traffic and a stop for gas. They have three drinks each before ordering, and Hooper insists on paying for the meal, revealing that he inherited a large sum of money from his grandfather, a robber baron known as "the Bandit" who owned most of Denver. The conversation turns to sexual fantasies, and they discuss the logistics of a hypothetical tryst, including registering at a motel under the name "Mr. and Mrs. Al Kinsey." The lunch ends with Ellen excusing herself to "powder her nose," and Hooper smiling knowingly.

Narrative Significance

Banner's serves as the setting for the consummation of Ellen Brody's affair with Matt Hooper. Its isolation from the Amity community and its reputation for privacy make it the only place Ellen feels safe enough to initiate the encounter. The restaurant's dark, quiet atmosphere and the anonymity it provides are essential to the plot, allowing the affair to begin without immediate discovery. The location is a deliberate choice by Ellen, who has calculated the risks and decided they are worth taking to restore her sense of desirability and reconnect with her past.