Keith McNally's Martha's Vineyard Farm Is the Ideal Escape

Thursday, July 09, 2026

British-born restaurant owner Keith McNally has long been a fixture of the downtown New York scene, having started iconic restaurants like The Odeon and Balthazar. But at his Chilmark retreat, McNally can be totally anti-social. "We don't ever need to go out,” he says. “It's completely self-contained.” His four-acre Martha’s Vineyard farmhouse alter-ego, featured in ELLE Decor in 2011, has all the trademarks of his cozy Manhattan restaurants—flea market furnishings and tea-stained walls—with none of the demands of city life to disrupt the calm. 

—Elisa Lipsky-Karasz, head of editorial content

From the Archive: Tour Keith McNally’s Charming Martha’s Vineyard Farm

“I didn’t want the place to look too designed or polished,” the star restaurateur says.

For decades, summer vacationers with names like Kennedy, Clinton, and, more recently, Obama, have flocked to Martha’s Vineyard to enjoy maritime life on the mid-Atlantic island. Sailing, fishing, surfing, or just watching the waves roll in on Menemsha Beach are typical draws of the 100-square-mile summer colony, located six miles off the southern coast of Cape Cod.

But when New York City–based restaurateur Keith McNally sets up house for the summer on his four-acre farm in Chilmark, he works the land instead of plying the sea. In addition to his wife, Alina, and five children, McNally shares the property with several Berkshire, Tamworth, and Gloucester Old Spot pigs, as well as goats, sheep, lambs, and free-range chickens and ducks. Although they have all the fixings for some pretty great dinner parties (and the famous neighbors to round out the guest list), McNally and his wife like to lead a low-key life on their mini farm. “I have the need to produce my own food when I’m always around people consuming food,” says McNally, who has even taken to making his own goat cheese. “I cook a lot too, sometimes for dinner parties but mostly for the family.”

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