The Four Seasons Restaurant

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For the hotel chain, see Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

The Four Seasons
Four-seasons-ny.jpg
Original 52nd Street entrance to the Four Seasons Restaurant
Restaurant information
Established1959
Closed2019
Owner(s)The Bronfman family, Alex von Bidder, and Julian Niccolini
Food typeNew American cuisine
Street address42 East 49th Street, Midtown Manhattan
CityNew York City
StateNew York
Coordinates40°45′29″N 73°58′19.5″W / 40.75806°N 73.972083°W / 40.75806; -73.972083Coordinates: 40°45′29″N 73°58′19.5″W / 40.75806°N 73.972083°W / 40.75806; -73.972083
Websitewww.fourseasonsrestaurant.com

The Four Seasons was a New American cuisine restaurant in New York City. Established in 1959, it was located at 99 East 52nd Street, in the Seagram Building in Midtown Manhattan, until 2016. From 2018 to its closure in 2019, it was located at 42 East 49th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The restaurant was owned by the Bronfman family, Alex von Bidder, and Julian Niccolini at the time of its closure.

The Four Seasons is associated with a number of milestone firsts in the hospitality industry. The Four Seasons is credited with introducing the idea of seasonally-changing menus to America, and was the first destination restaurant to print its menus in English. The restaurant was widely praised, winning the James Beard Award many times.

The restaurant's interior, which was designed by the building's architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, remained almost unchanged since construction in 1959. Art inside the restaurant included paintings by Mark Rothko; a permanent mural by James Rosenquist; a major Richard Lippold sculpture; a curtain designed by Pablo Picasso; and temporary exhibitions that included works by Joan Miró, Frank Stella, Ronnie Landfield, Robert Indiana, and Richard Anuszkiewicz. The restaurant's interior was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as an interior landmark in 1989.

History[]

Opening[]

The Seagram Building in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, had been completed in 1958 to designs by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, and Kahn & Jacobs. From the building's planning, the space behind the Seagram Building's ground-story lobby had been intended as a major public space; plans for the space included a crafts museum, an automotive showroom, and an upscale restaurant.[1] The building's leasing agent Cushman & Wakefield selected Joseph Baum, of Restaurant Associates, in 1957 to operate the Four Seasons on the ground floor of the building.[2]

The restaurant's managers had carte blanche to create what was then, at the cost of $4.5 million (about $40 million in 2019), the most expensive restaurant ever built in New York City.[3][4] Philip Johnson was hired to design the Four Seasons as well. William Pahlmann was also hired for general design; Richard Kelly for lighting design; Karl Linn for landscaping; Everett Lawson Conklin for horticultural detail; Marie Nichols for weavings; and Richard Lippold for the Grill Room's brass sculptures.[5][6]

The restaurant opened in 1959.[7] The opening of the restaurant prompted other New York restaurant owners to boycott Seagram liquor, as the company had helped finance a competitor within its own building.[8]

1960s to 2000s[]

By 1973 the restaurant was considered to be past its prime.[9] Restaurant Associates was overextended and unloaded the lease.[9] Tom Margittai and Paul Kovi acquired The Four Seasons.[10]

In 1977, the book publisher Michael Korda proclaimed the Grill Room “the most powerful place to eat lunch in town”.[9][11] A 1979 article in Esquire declared its Grill Room the setting for “America’s Most Powerful Lunch”.[10][3] According to CNN, the term "power lunch" may have come from this article.[12]

In 1994 Margittai and Kovi passed operation of the restaurant to their junior partners, Alex von Bidder and Julian Niccolini, who continued to run the restaurant in the Seagram Building until 2016.[9] Seagram bought a majority stake in the restaurant from Margittai and Kovi in 1995.[13]

Demise[]

In mid-2015, Aby Rosen, owner of the Seagram Building, announced that the restaurant's lease would not be extended upon its expiry the following year.[14][15] At that time, RFR proposed changes to the Four Seasons' interior,[16] which were largely rejected by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, except for a replacement of the carpet.[17] The Four Seasons’ rent went from $20 to $105 per square foot ($220 to $1,130/m2).[18] The Seagram Building location closed after dinner service on July 16, 2016.[19] In July 2016, the furnishings of the restaurant ("virtually all its contents") were sold at auction in New York.[20] The sale carried a high estimate of $1.33 million but at the end of the day it had brought in $4.1 million.[21] Four ashtrays were sold for $12,500.[22]

In August 2018, The Four Seasons opened at a new, smaller midtown location at 42 East 49th Street.[23] The new space was designed by Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld and it cost $30 million to build.[24][23] Many of the design elements evoked the iconic décor at the former location.[24] The Four Seasons was closed permanently on June 11, 2019.[25][26] Two new restaurants are now located in the Seagram Building. In what was the Four Seasons' Pool Room is a restaurant called the Pool which is closed and reformed to the Grill. The former Grill Room is the home of another restaurant, called The Grill.[27]

Food[]

The Four Seasons is associated with a number of milestone firsts in the hospitality industry. The Four Seasons is credited with introducing the idea of seasonally-changing menus to America. James Beard is considered founding father of The Four Seasons restaurant and a principal contributor to the development of its seasonal-food concept. He paired appropriate wines for each season, including offering American wines for the first time. It was the first destination restaurant to print its menus in English.[28] The Four Seasons was also the first restaurant in the United States to cook using fresh, wild mushrooms.[29] The restaurant pioneered what later came to be called “New American Cuisine.”[3] Cotton candy was a house specialty.[30]

Clientele[]

The restaurant was known as much for its clientele as its food, with its Midtown location making it convenient for power lunches. Most reviewers came to think the menu was never really the point of the restaurant which became a stage for the high and the mighty.[31] Anna Wintour, Henry Kissinger, Martha Stewart, Bill Clinton, George Lois, Bill Bernbach and Jackie Kennedy were regular customers.[32] Philip Johnson had lunch there daily at a special table in the Grill Room.[33]

Design[]

The restaurant's interior, which was designed by the building's architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, remained almost unchanged since construction in 1959. When the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) was considering the Seagram Building for landmark designation in 1989, the Four Seasons' operators at the time, Margittai and Kovi separately also endorsed landmark designation for the restaurant.[34][35] On October 3, 1989, the Four Seasons was designated as the city's second restaurant-interior landmark, after Gage and Tollner in Brooklyn.[36][37] The building's owner at the time, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, sued the LPC in 1990 to get the designation for the Four Seasons removed, on the basis the restaurant was personal property.[38] The designation was held up by the state's Court of Appeals in 1993.[39]

Interior[]

For subsequent changes in design to the Four Seasons Restaurant's interior, see Seagram Building § Features.
The Four Seasons' pool room

The Pool and Grill Rooms are within the first and second floors of the Seagram Building, east of the lobby.[40] Now housing restaurants named the Pool and the Grill, named after the rooms of the same name in the former Four Seasons, contains similar design features to the lobby, with travertine walls and floors; cement ceilings with gray-glass mosaic tiles; and bronze engaged piers.[41] The original Four Seasons had five dining rooms, preserved in the modern-day Pool and Grill restaurants.[42][4][a] The Pool is on the north side of the first floor and the Grill is on the south side. The three additional dining rooms are two dining areas on a balcony above the Grill, as well as a balcony above the Pool.[44] Below the Grill is a separate entrance lobby and foyer on 52nd Street, with travertine floors, a gridded white ceiling, coat-check area, offices, and restrooms. The 52nd Street entrance is connected to the Grill Room via staircase.[45]

The Pool and the Grill are discrete 60-by-90-foot (18 by 27 m) rooms.[43] Both major rooms and their auxiliary spaces have 20-foot-high (6.1 m) ceilings with gridded off-white aluminum panels and recessed lighting. The outer walls were glass curtain walls with bronze mullions and a bronze railing, as in the lobby. The windows had metal curtains that rippled from air released by hidden ventilating ducts.[46] Running north-south between them is a corridor, which is at the top of the stairs leading from the eastern lobby. A glass wall and bronze double door separate the corridor from the main lobby.[44] The north and south walls of the corridor contain doors leading to vestibules outside either room.[47]

The Pool is centered around a 20-by-20-foot (6.1 by 6.1 m) white marble pool.[48] Four large planters at the corners of the Pool's marble pool held trees that were changed concurrently with the seasons, the restaurant's namesake.[47][49] The northern and western walls are glass curtain walls, while the southern wall is faced walnut with rawhide panels, containing openings to the kitchen and restaurant corridor.[47] On the eastern side of the Pool, a staircase connects to a mezzanine on a podium slightly above the main floor.[4][50] Above the gray-rawhide base of the podium, a bronze railing and movable walnut partition separates the mezzanine and main Pool Room. The northern wall is a glass curtain wall while the eastern and southern walls had carpet panels.[50] The floor in both spaces had a carpet designed like a grid.[46]

The Grill had a lounge in its northwest corner and a bar at its southwest corner. It has a similar glass curtain wall on its western and southern walls, as well as French walnut walls on the north and east. The bar area had an ebonized walnut floor, separated from the dining area by a laminated-glass partition.[51] Additionally, the lounge area was separated from the main Grill by a walnut desk.[52] The two private dining rooms are on a balcony raised above the main Grill, accessed by separate staircases and separated from the main Grill via walnut paneled doors. The smaller private room on the south and the larger room on the north are separated by a doorway with walnut sliding doors. The ceiling is similar to the main restaurant ceiling, with a black finish and irregularly scattered "punched holes" for lighting fixtures.[52]

Tableware and furniture[]

Over a hundred items of serviceware were designed by L. Garth Huxtable and Ada Louise Huxtable, ranging from champagne glasses to bread trays.[6][53] The serviceware took over nine months to design.[54]

All of the Four Seasons Restaurant's tableware and furniture are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. In addition, the designs of staff uniforms were changed depending on the season.[4]

Art[]

The artist Mark Rothko was engaged to paint a series of works for the restaurant in 1958, the Seagram murals. Accepting the commission, he secretly resolved to create "something that will ruin the appetite of every son-of-a-bitch who ever eats in that room." Observing the restaurant's pretentious atmosphere upon his return from a trip to Europe, Rothko abandoned the project altogether, returned his advance and kept the paintings for himself. The final series was dispersed and now hangs in three locations: London's Tate Gallery, Japan's Kawamura Memorial Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.[55] During the period in which Rothko worked on his murals, the Four Seasons rented Jackson Pollock's masterpiece Blue Poles from its then-owner, art collector Ben Heller.[56][57]

From 1975 until 1985 four paintings by Ronnie Landfield from the collection of Philip Johnson[58] were installed on the wall that had been initially planned for the Rothko commission.[59] In 1985 the artist James Rosenquist was commissioned to install a permanent mural on the wall;[60][61] the Landfield paintings were returned to Philip Johnson. A major Richard Lippold sculpture was installed in the Front Bar, which hung from the ceiling.

The large, 20 by 20 ft curtain designed by Pablo Picasso for the Ballets Russes ballet Le Tricorne (1919) was hung between the Grill Room and the Pool Room in the foyer between the two rooms.[62][63] The curtain is a portion of a Picasso tapestry used as a prop for the ballet that was purchased in 1957 by Phyllis Lambert, the daughter of the Seagram founder Samuel Bronfman, and installed in the entryway to the restaurant for its opening in 1959. The curtain was owned by the New York Landmarks Conservancy and was removed in 2014, being reinstalled at the New-York Historical Society.[64][65]

In addition to the works on permanent public display there were other works and continuously revolving exhibitions in the dining rooms and the 52nd Street entrance walls, including works by Joan Miró, paintings by Landfield, Frank Stella, Robert Indiana, and Richard Anuszkiewicz, among others.[66]

Awards and honors[]

The restaurant itself was widely praised, winning the James Beard Award many times – for Outstanding Wine Service in 1997[67] and for Outstanding Service in 1998.[67] It was called an "Outstanding Restaurant" in 1999[68] and a "Design Icon" in 2016.[69]

References[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ The rooms had a maximum capacity of 400[42] or 485.[43]

Citations[]

  1. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, p. 2.
  2. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, pp. 2–3.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c Mariani, John. "New York's Legendary Four Seasons Restaurant Serves Its Last Meal Today". Forbes. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Claiborne, Craig (July 16, 1959). "$4.5 Million Restaurant to Open Here; Four Seasons, Nearing Completion, Said to Be World's Costliest Seagram Building Unit Is Lavishly Decorated and Landscaped" (PDF). The New York Times. p. 33. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  5. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, pp. 3–4.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b National Park Service 2006, p. 15.
  7. ^ Claiborne, Craig (July 16, 1959). "$4.5 Million Restaurant to Open Here; Four Seasons, Nearing Completion, Said to Be World's Costliest Seagram Building Unit Is Lavishly Decorated and Landscaped" (PDF). The New York Times. p. 33. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  8. ^ Sullivan, Ed (October 9, 1959). "Little Old New York". New York Daily News. p. 108. Retrieved March 18, 2021 – via newspapers.com open access.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Roberts, Sam (November 27, 2018). "Tom Margittai, Who Revitalized the Four Seasons, Dies at 90". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b Eisenberg, Lee. "America's Most Powerful Lunch | Esquire | OCTOBER 1979". Esquire | The Complete Archive. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  11. ^ Korda, Michael (January 26, 1977). "Le Plat Du Jour Is Power". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  12. ^ Richard Quest. "New York: The perfect place to power lunch". CNN. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  13. ^ "Seagram Buying The Four Seasons". The Record. August 4, 1995. p. 83. Retrieved March 18, 2021 – via newspapers.com open access.
  14. ^ McKinley, James C. Jr.; Goodman, J. David (June 4, 2015). "Co-Owner of Four Seasons Restaurant Is Charged With Sexual Abuse". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  15. ^ "Brasserie is out at Aby Rosen's Seagram building". The Real Deal New York. June 23, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  16. ^ Pogrebin, Robin (May 6, 2015). "Proposed Design Changes to the Four Seasons Prompt an Outcry". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
  17. ^ Pogrebin, Robin (May 20, 2015). "Landmarks Commission Rejects Plan to Change Interior of Four Seasons". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
  18. ^ Allen, Emma (June 22, 2015). "Beaux Arts on the Bowery". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  19. ^ Fabricant, Florence (May 28, 2016). "Four Seasons Restaurant Is Headed for New Space on Park Ave". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  20. ^ "Four Seasons décor under the hammer". Howtospendit.ft.com. Retrieved July 18, 2016.
  21. ^ "The Four Seasons Restaurant Auction Totaled $4.1 Million". June 18, 2019. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  22. ^ "Auctions". www.wright20.com. July 2016. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  23. ^ Jump up to: a b Dai, Serena (August 15, 2018). "Inside the New Four Seasons, Open Again With Glitz, Glam, and Controversial Players". Eater New York. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b Solomon, Michael. "A Photographic Tour Of The New Four Seasons Restaurant In New York". Forbes. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  25. ^ Dangremond, Sam (June 10, 2019). "The Four Seasons Restaurant Is Closing, Less Than a Year After Moving to a New Location". Town & Country. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
  26. ^ "The Four Seasons Restaurant". The Four Seasons Restaurant. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  27. ^ Wells, Pete (August 22, 2017). "The Grill Is Confident, Theatrical, Sharp and New Yorky". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  28. ^ "Exploring the Four Seasons". Four Seasons Restaurant. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  29. ^ "Restaurant Row: The Four Seasons". nytimes.com. March 17, 1995. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  30. ^ Cotton Candy at the Four Seasons Restaurant, retrieved June 23, 2019
  31. ^ Pengelly, Martin (June 8, 2019). "New York's Four Seasons Restaurant to close less than a year after reopening". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  32. ^ "Four Seasons Restaurant: When Anna Wintour Was Served Raccoon and Other Amazing Tales". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  33. ^ Pogrebin, Robin (May 6, 2015). "Proposed Design Changes to the Four Seasons Prompt an Outcry". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  34. ^ Shepard, Joan (May 13, 1988). "Modern Masterpiece". New York Daily News. p. 68. Retrieved March 17, 2021 – via newspapers.com open access.
  35. ^ Dunlap, David W. (May 9, 1988). "Weighing Four Seasons as Landmark". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  36. ^ Dunlap, David W. (October 4, 1989). "Four Seasons Is Designated A Landmark". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  37. ^ Selvin, Barbara W. (October 4, 1989). "Lofty Landmark Status Seagram Building And Four Seasons make historic docket". Newsday. p. 47. Retrieved March 16, 2021 – via ProQuest.
  38. ^ Dunlap, David W. (February 4, 1990). "Building Owner Fights Landmark at 4 Seasons". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  39. ^ "Posting: The Four Seasons; A Landmark Upheld". The New York Times. October 24, 1993. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  40. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, p. 6; National Park Service 2006, p. 5.
  41. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, p. 6.
  42. ^ Jump up to: a b National Park Service 2006, pp. 5–6.
  43. ^ Jump up to: a b Stephens, Suzanne (June 24, 2016). "Goodbye to All That: The Four Seasons Restaurant Leaves the Seagram Building". Architectural Record. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  44. ^ Jump up to: a b Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, p. 6; National Park Service 2006, p. 6.
  45. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, p. 9; National Park Service 2006, p. 8.
  46. ^ Jump up to: a b Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, pp. 7–8; National Park Service 2006, p. 7.
  47. ^ Jump up to: a b c Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, p. 7; National Park Service 2006, p. 6.
  48. ^ Eisenberg, Lee (October 1, 1979). "America's Most Powerful Lunch". Esquire. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  49. ^ Wells, Pete (October 17, 2017). "The Pool Strives to Deal With Its Famous Dining Room". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  50. ^ Jump up to: a b Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, p. 7; National Park Service 2006, p. 7.
  51. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, p. 8; National Park Service 2006, p. 7.
  52. ^ Jump up to: a b Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, p. 8; National Park Service 2006, p. 8.
  53. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission Four Seasons 1989, pp. 4–5.
  54. ^ Lange, Alexandra (July 5, 2016). "Farewell to the Four Seasons". Curbed NY. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  55. ^ How Rothko's Seagram murals found their way to London, the Guardian retrieved online September 10, 2009
  56. ^ "The Most Expensive Restaurant Ever Built, Reprinted from Evergreen No. 10, 1959". Evergreenreview.com. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  57. ^ art on air Retrieved June 29, 2010
  58. ^ "Of Abstracts and William Blake". Antiquesandthearts.com. February 5, 2002. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  59. ^ "Tate Modern, Rothko Murals". Tate.org.uk. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  60. ^ Goldberger, Paul (June 20, 1984). "Celebration for a Classic Restaurant". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  61. ^ Hellman, Peter (November 3, 1986). Power House: How the Four Seasons Does It. New York Magazine. p. 50. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  62. ^ Andrews, Suzanna (September 8, 2014). "The Battle over the Four Seasons Restaurant's Picasso Curtain". Vanity Fair. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  63. ^ Bagli, Charles V. (June 12, 2014). "After Much Debate, Picasso Curtain Will Be Moved From the Four Seasons". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  64. ^ Regatao, Gisele (May 29, 2015). "Picasso's Ballet Curtain Now On Display". WNYC. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  65. ^ Ng, David (September 8, 2014). "Picasso's 'Le Tricorne' bids farewell to Four Seasons in New York". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  66. ^ "Huffington Post, James Welling, Glass House Photographs exhibition". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  67. ^ Jump up to: a b "Awards Search | James Beard Foundation". www.jamesbeard.org. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  68. ^ "StarChefs presents the 1999 James Beard Foundation Awards". www.starchefs.com. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  69. ^ "The 2016 Beard Award Winners! | James Beard Foundation". www.jamesbeard.org. Retrieved June 18, 2019.

Sources[]

External links[]

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