My name is Robin Mueller. I’m a Hamptons restaurateur and a director of photography in the TV industry.
I was born in New York to a German mother and a Swiss father, I spent my early childhood in the States before moving to Switzerland – first to a tiny village called Gstaad, then later to Munich, where I absorbed the Bavarian culture. Then there was boarding school in England, mandatory military service in the German alpine mountaineering division, and Parsons – two years in Paris, two in New York. I graduated with a degree in Design Management.
That led to a career in TV – from an editor on CBS Monday Night Football and Inside the Actors Studio to shooting video for American Chopper, Jersey Shore, Beat Bobby Flay, Chopped, Housewives, you name it.
With my passion for photography, which I had always had, I actually taught myself how to shoot video with a lot of YouTube lessons and a couple of really great senior camera guys who took me under their wing. I became very well established in the unscripted television world, and over 20 years I've done everything, every genre in reality TV.
I still do video on the side. I was filming Gordon Ramsay recently. It's hard to give up an industry you’ve been involved with for so long and have such strong ties to.
While I grew up in Europe, I’d spend six weeks every summer in Sagaponack visiting my dad. It was my home away from home, my American summers. I never stopped visiting the Hamptons and developed a love for Long Island. Now the East End is my home.
About seven years ago, my father, Christoph, fresh out of the tech world, got into Long Island real estate and acquired a bunch of restaurant buildings. And he thought it would be a fun idea to try our luck with a restaurant.
One turned into several. Now we’ve got Green Hill Kitchen (barbecue and live music), Alpina (a restaurant and wine bar), and Anker (a seafooder and oyster bar) on the North Fork and Alpina Swiss Bakery and Hampton Kitchen Delicatessen in Water Mill.
They’re all delicious. And all a labor of love.
Every day, I walk into one of the buildings and try to make one small improvement. It could be as simple as arranging the chairs – but it’s a ritual. It’s a commitment to excellence and keeps everything moving forward. 🛠️
The card was written by Hamptons resident Robin Mueller, a television director of photography and the co-owner of five Long Island restaurants: Alpina, Green Hill Kitchen, and Anker in Greenport and Alpina Swiss Bakery and Hampton Kitchen in the Hamptons.
670 Montauk Hwy C1, Water Mill, NY 11976, USA
Alpina Swiss Bakery / Official Site