The story of Drew Nieporent‘s 40-plus years running some of New York City’s most iconic restaurants is also a history of the city’s highest of highs and lowest of lows. Through it all, Drew has been a survivor who has landed on his feet thanks to street smarts and an intuitive skill for understanding what his customers want and delivering on it. Our paths with Drew have crossed numerous times through restaurant industry initiatives and events, from The James Beard Foundation Awards to openings and charity events. Drew has always been ready to step up to serve the industry as much as his customers.
He is the man behind many restaurants, notably in New York that we dined at: Nobu, Tribeca Grill, Layla, Centrico, Heartbeat, Montrachet, Corton, Bâtard. There was Rubicon in San Francisco, plus many more that fell under his Myriad Restaurant Group. An entire generation of leading chefs have worked in his restaurants and many awards and honors earned. We can only imagine what a Myriad reunion would look like!
Approaching 70-years-young, Drew has finally penned a memoir – written with Jamie Feldmar, a talented writer who captures his voice. The book is called “I’m Not Trying To Be Difficult.” It details his life growing up on the Peter Cooper Village apartment complex on New York’s East Side with his older brother, Tracey. His mother, Sybil, was a successful commercial actress and family breadwinner. His father, Andrew, worked for the State Liquor Authority. Naturally restaurateurs treated his father with kid gloves since he was responsible for helping them get liquor licenses. His family also dined out frequently. Drew liked to collect all the menus.
A congenial kid who made friends easily, Drew decided he wanted to work in restaurants at an early age. Initially he wanted to be a chef. An early job included flipping burgers at a local McDonald’s. He enrolled at Cornell University’s School of Hospitality and earned a diploma, but he writes that his hands-on experience working on Norwegian America’s Vistafjord proved even more valuable.
An early break was working at Warner’s Roy’s high-profile, high-volume restaurant, Maxwell’s Plum, and then later Tavern on the Green. He also writes an account of working at several of the “Le’s and La’s,” French restaurants in New York that that defined an era: La Cote Basque, La Grenouille, Le Régence at the Plaza Athenée, Le Périgord, La Reserve. The only ones not in his tour of were Lutéce and La Caravelle. Gosh, I miss those places!
And then in the 1985 Drew took a chance on Lower Manhattan, at the time still a “dicey” area to many New Yorks. Many residents were still cautious going below 14th Street, or even 23rd! But leases were still affordable, and that was big draw. He signed up space in Tribeca and opened Montrachet which became a massive hit thanks to The New York Times three-star review written by Bryan Miller.
The rest is restaurant history and more hits, including Tribeca Grill and Nobu in New York and London, Rubicon in San Francisco and later Corton and Bâtard in the former Montrachet space. In all, Myriad Restaurant Group ran around 40 restaurants and had numerous consulting contracts. Many professional careers were catapulted, stars awarded and accolades collected.
Drew is the consummate restaurateur who observes every detail. He remembers your name and looks you in the eye to greet you rather than giving you a glance-over before moving on to the next person. He is both genial and genius dealing with different types of people, from celebrity business partners like Robert De Niro, to genius but prickly chefs like David Bouley and Paul Liebrandt, and demanding customers. When Drew Nieporent tells an entitled Hamptonite who complains about his table location. The table doesn’t make you. You make the table.” The customer clocks him in the face.
Reading “I’m Not Trying To Be Difficult” it me back to the thirty-plus years I lived in New York during its “gold rush” era of restaurants before the 2020 pandemic (the year we moved away). I have fond memories that we hold close and many industry friends who remain. One of them is Drew Nieporent.
Listen to our conversation with Drew on The Connected Table Live.