Joshua Sharkey (16:14.542)He's not a fan of
Drew Nieporent (16:22.748)Michelin stars out of the gate, out of the gate.
And Eleven Madison credits us because in the review of Cortone, Frank Bruni says, but just like eleven Madison Park, we fall below, you know, the stellar four star Danielle or John George or whoever it was back then. So anyway, so Will Gadera and Daniel Holm, they realize they're online, they could maybe get four stars. And they do. And then they go to a said menu and Libra comes to me and goes, Like, I want to do that. I'm gonna save you money on payroll.
I'll save you money on food cost. So when you own a business, it's like you save money, of course, you know. And I don't want to fight with the guy. And the second we went to that format, we went from doing like, you know, great covers to mediocre covers. And also, give Paul Librand a lot of credit. Instagram is happening. No cameras. Cannot set up a camera, you know, or even take a photo of my food. And real quick, one day at the meeting, no, well, before the meeting, I go
Hey Paul, did you read the New York Times today? He said, What? He said it was an article on lobster. Lobster is at an all-time low. I'm so happy you told me. so we we're at the meeting, and it might have been a day later, and it says, Tonight we're serving lobster. Blue lobster from Nova Scotia, and I'm like,
Joshua Sharkey (17:54.892)Ha ha ha.
Drew Nieporent (17:55.98)You know, at the at the end of the meeting I called like try back. I said, How much blue lobsters? twenty dollars a pound. I mean You know, let's say it like salmon swims this way, he was swimming that way. So eventually it was like, you know, you know, you have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. So like I've never, ever, ever, and I mean this you by the book, there's twenty r forty restaurants in the back with the chef's name and pastry chef's name. Those are the people that make it happen.
I'm just producing and directing. But somebody's gotta have a vision because most of these guys are gonna jump off the boat or ha or you're gonna you're gonna have to retool it anyway. actually I think I had a dream about Paul Libran yesterday, but it couldn't be true. I had never ate it atlas. I never ate his food. No, I mean, listen brilliant guy, but you know, from that Marco Pierre White school.
Joshua Sharkey (18:42.862)Did you ever read an Atlas, by the
Drew Nieporent (18:57.366)And look, there are no rights and no wrongs. There's they're they're they're successful people. I mean, and now with social media, which I love by the way, I I I mean, Instagram is the greatest thing on God's green earth for restaurants. Mm-hmm. Except for the idiots who like the ten best tacos or the ten best pizzas, or where's your worst place in London? Or I mean, those people, they're just screamers. But they catch your attention and then you figure out where you're gonna go and not go.
But i if if somebody puts gorgeous looking piece of pizza online, it's like, my God, that looks good. Or then and probably the most famous pizzeria in New York, one of two, let's just say, where the crust is like I've never seen that much crust on a pizza, and the circumference is like four inches. One you're gonna gravitate to and say, That looks that one's for me, and the other's like, that's too much crust for me. I want I want the filling.
And then idiots like the guy from Boston, undercarriage, no flop, and everybody repeats this garbage. And you know, I grew up pizza was a nickel. I'd never met a pizza I didn't like. A nickel.
Joshua Sharkey (20:13.742)think you were talking about una pizza, is that right? Were you talking about Okay, he won't name it. He's a good guy. Well I know you would I I might be I know it's Port Noire
Drew Nieporent (20:15.79)I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I like him.
porno I was talking about. There's no question.
Joshua Sharkey (20:24.962)Well, I mean, let me ask you, like, so is there a way in which the chef doesn't leave, or do you just or you just sort of assume that's just what will happen?
Drew Nieporent (20:36.163)Think about it. Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees, greatest player, gonna sign a multi million dollar contract. Is he an owner? Do they make him a partner?
Drew Nieporent (20:50.818)With Boulet, Boulet before we named the restaurant Montrachet, Boulet said, let's call the restaurant Boulet. Go, no, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. If it doesn't work, if it fails, you can never use your name again. And I and I believe that. Because there was no there was nothing that was going to tell us we would be successful.
Drew Nieporent (21:16.172)Look, I mean, if we knew how to do this thing correctly every time.
Drew Nieporent (21:24.718)It'd be out there. Everybody would be following the same script. They follow similar similar scripts. Because like when David Rockwell gets hot, Simon Kim, everybody's got to work with David Rockwell. There was a time when David Rockwell would call me up, call me up, call me up, and to get him off my back.
Through the dog a bone. That I swear to God. Nobu in the original location 105 Hudson, $500,000. This place, $16 million. Which is outright, which is obscene. But anyway, the the point is, like, so you know, some restaurants exist on, get this. You walk in and you see the place and you're like, wow.
You gotta come here. You haven't tasted a morsel of food. You don't know who the chef is, you don't know what the prices are, but it's wow, you gotta go there. That's a a certain group of people go to those restaurants. Then the other group of restaurants is the food, the food, the food. The guy worked in Spain, the guy worked at Oberley or whatever. And gotta go there. And then maybe you get three stars, which in my era and I I talk about in the book, like Mimi, Sheridan, Brian, all these Ruth Reichel, they were the most powerful people.
Now it's like it's a total different ball game. But I lived an unbelievable life in the restaurant business. That's why I wrote the book. I opened 40 restaurants, none of which were ever. I never pulled anything out of my butt, and I painstakingly would try to find a chef who I thought could represent the food to the best of their abilities.
When I opened a Vietnamese restaurant, Michael Hun. He was he he was writing a high Michael, this is delicious, but that shrimp carpaccio, it's not real okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Like you listen to me. Yeah. We wouldn't put it on the menu. And then one day he comes and he says, I w I'm opening another restaurant. I said, Why? You know, my house had gotten two stars and blah blah blah. Duran Duran.
Drew Nieporent (23:40.28)The the members of Duran Duran. So he opens this place, I think in West Village, 37 seats. Eater, very powerful at the time, has a photograph. This is the headline. Look, no shitter. Because if you had less than a certain number of seats, you didn't have to put a toilet in. You could just have urinals. Something ridiculous. I mean, it it was like a death knell. Yeah. And that and that re that comes back to haunt you as well.
So and also understand one thing. We opened all the restaurants in Tribeca. Why? We could afford the rent. Nowadays, everyone charges the piss out of the customer. The rent is almost like it's boilerplate. People pay ridiculous amounts of money for rent. So our business has become more difficult.
Joshua Sharkey (24:30.222)I mean you have you know, a number of restaurants that have like over three decades of of life, which just doesn't happen. Right. I obviously food is y y you have to have great food, it's like table steaks, but it that doesn't seem to be the underlying thing that makes a restaurant last. Like what makes a restaurant last? What why why is it that like incredible restaurants where like we're like incredible food where like it is unreal and the chef is unbelievable and then they close after five years. What w
Drew Nieporent (24:58.488)Well mo most of the time there's always gonna be a conflict between who's directing and who's working. d a director is telling you what to do. Chefs don't want to be instructed. I never told the chef what to cook. I never wrote a menu and handed it to a chef and said, please make the mashed potatoes or you know. Well what I would what I would do would be like, have have you do you like stuffed cabbage? yeah, do you have your you know like
I'd play with them to listen, and then, you know, Libran came up with a stuffed cabbage that was about that big. You know, it's like I'd once had this in where the spotted pig was. It was a restaurant called it was a French French restaurant with Jeff not Jeff Peterson. He's an it was an instructor at one of the culinary schools. Peterson was his last name. I forget his first name. He made a the most delicious stuffed cabbage I've ever eaten in my life, like studded with Lardone and wrapped.
It was a tree and it's like I could never replicate that as hard as I tried. I tried so many different ways. What's my point? My point is restaurateurs, we are a dinosaur. There's no such thing as a real restaurateur anymore. A real restaurateur is a restaurant owner with money. Or a real state guy with money, Daniel Belud. Who's Daniel Belud's investors? SL Green.
Who's John George's investors? Howard Hughes. It's all these money guys. What are the names of the restaurants? Danielle and John George. I I I go back to don't use your name. Lutz is Andre Soldner. It's not it's not called Soldner. So we are in the age, and have been for a while, but we're in the age of the chef. The public relates to the chef. Gordon Ramsey, Gordon Ramsey, Gordon Ramsey, Gordon Ramsey.
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Joshua Sharkey (27:57.964)Yeah. I mean there are so I feel like Simon Kim's doing a great job of of creating a a a brand and a and a business that's that's not solely focused on the chef. Well
Drew Nieporent (28:07.79)Part of the reason why he's so successful is he's very consumer sensitive. Yeah. Like for him to to s to price coca doke that gently and serve soft serve at the end, where does he get you? There's a nugget of chicken. Love fried chicken. There's caviar. Doesn't exist the way we saw caviar.
in the seventies and eighties, you know, Iranian or Russian caviar, but everyone farms caviar. What does he do? He puts caviar on a nugget and that's twenty four dollars for one. Now I there's a compelling argument I could make to you that caviar and fried chicken is the worst combination on God's green earth. Love caviar? Love ch fried chicken. But he sold the public.
Joshua Sharkey (29:05.646)I feel like Chang did that before him at Co., right?
Drew Nieporent (29:10.222)Okay, do you know Jey Jew Jeeju the noodle bar on Christopher S Douglas was a sushi chef for us. Douglas worked for Herssey, Morimoto, Boole. What's what's the guy you work for? Work for Boole? What?
Joshua Sharkey (29:15.358)yeah.
Joshua Sharkey (29:27.88)that you just that you were just talking about?
Drew Nieporent (29:29.784)No, the no no no no Caesar. Caesar. He worked at all these restaurants. So one day I go to Jeju. There's a whole story there too, but one day I go to Jeju and the first w first of all, the first item you put on the menu should be something price low. Because you're right, go to the first thing. And it should be like a signature, pretty much.
$30. This is years ago. Fried chicken. This is fried chicken. I didn't order it. So the next day I called him up. I said, I I I'm confused, Doug. Why are you charging thirty dollars for fried chicken? I'm I'm serving it with caviar.
He I mean it was a hundred years before Coconut. And this was like seven years ago. So every a lot of us have similar ideas. Like David Burke, everybody has ripped that guy off. But you know, he he's still around and he's still trying to be creative and still trying to make a living. But the point is, like, look, you you're in this game, you see it, and a restaurant will survive.
If number one, and this is true, the rent allows you to survive. Because during the pandemic, I called my landlord and said, I'm not paying rent. And he I didn't he didn't take any rent. Other people, like Keith McNally, right up the block at the Beakman, no, no, 30,000, you owe me, you know. So how can you pay 30,000 and you're closed? Yeah. So number one, you stay in business if your rent's low. Number two, obviously your chefs are going to leave. But
If you're able to replicate or know how, some people don't even know how to find a chef to replace the chef to replicate quality. The menu doesn't have to stay the same, but the food has to stay at a certain level. and then you have to design a place that's comfortable, spacious, that people want to go to. And then prices have to be gentle. That was my formula. That was my formula.
Drew Nieporent (31:38.798)Okay. So so so Montrachet became cortone, became Bittar. I had a I had a landlord there, my rent went when when I s when I sold it to the the current people there, who are getting sued by the way by or they're suing the landlord for whatever.
Joshua Sharkey (31:56.066)Is this chip and Tina though? Yeah.
Drew Nieporent (32:00.376)I sold them a lease where the rent started at twelve thousand and fifteen years later ended in fifteen thousand. Frenchette pays thirty-four thousand right next door. Right next door.
They took out thirty seats. Yeah. And it's seventy five seats. I think they took out more.
Everyone has their own way of doing things, but Morachet, Corton, Metard, 38 years. And you know what? I laid it out beautifully. Then when I converted it to Cortone, I put this beautiful kitchen. Took like almost more than a third of the space. That would have been incredible. We had two Michelin stars. We had everyone, everything, but but customers. Then I find Marcus Glocker had been the chef for Gordon Ramsey.
Lovely guy. I'm sorry, I'm busy. I'm doing doing something with a meat company. Bah bah bah bah ba.
Finally comes around, John White John Winterman and I, we worked we work for Charlie Trotter, but separate separate. We we have an idea. Let me send it to you. And I looked at this thing, I was like It's like this is I I should have written this. So I bring them on as par as partners, they're partners. By the way, you said to me, th I think there was a question about how do you keep a chef? You know, even when the chef owns twenty percent or something whatever, they're not gonna stay. Because
Drew Nieporent (33:26.338)When they open their own restaurant, they own fifty percent. Maybe. But anyway, the b the bottom line was the pandemic happened. no. And then Keith McNally, this is Marcus. Keith McNally has offered me a quarter of a million dollars to cook at Augustine. It's like take it. I mean, we were open five nights, make it half that at Battard. We had three stars. So he goes over there and I I swear to you, I'm thinking i
'Cause in the old days w when the chef of a three star restaurant went to another restaurant, the focus went on that restaurant and you got hosed. He he couldn't get arrested over there. And during the pandemic he was charged by his landlord and he he he just threw in the towel. So Marcus actually came back. I tried to sell the restaurant to Marcus, which would have been the smartest thing for Marcus to do. But Marcus is very hard you know, he's he's got a hard head, terrific guy, great chef. went to do
Joshua Sharkey (34:25.045)Was the next restaurant at at the Ace Hotel?
Drew Nieporent (34:26.668)I think so though. Yeah. Some stupid name.
Joshua Sharkey (34:29.389)I Marcus is a good friend of mine, but I'm good at that. yes and he's he's I think he's doing another another one now but
Drew Nieporent (34:36.353)Marcus, I I I went to Austria with Marcus.
Joshua Sharkey (34:38.616)Yes, I know. He actually sent me some pictures. He said that it was a great time.
Drew Nieporent (34:43.029)For for whatever reason he hates my guts now, but I I
Joshua Sharkey (34:45.398)Yeah he does. He actually he's he's he's said some really nice things about you. Well
Drew Nieporent (34:49.111)You you know, I didn't even know you knew him, but I was saying wonderful things about him. The the he's now in sort of limbo. Yeah, that's that's that's a g there's a great story behind that, but not not for the cameras. But anyway, I'll tell you that story another time. But that's a great place. Do you know that guy? yeah, I'll tell you that story later. But the the point is like even with Marcus, Marcus really valued his partnership and he said he told Keith McNally,
Joshua Sharkey (35:05.372)no.
Drew Nieporent (35:18.882)I'll come cook at Augustine, but I want to stay in it at Batard. And Keith McNally, if you read his book, I mean Keith McNally is you know, is a genius about replicating a certain feeling. Yeah. To this day, five hundred people a night, maybe more, clown to Baltazar and Pastis to eat what? Snails? Really?
This time in America, you're eating snails? But anyway, and he takes me on in his book, which apparently did great, but he's so misguided and so wrong. He had a stroke, tried to kill himself. I had a stroke, and I'm sitting here with you now.
Joshua Sharkey (36:03.822)Weren't you guys in the hospital together?
Drew Nieporent (36:06.456)Well, in his book, he claims that in the emergency he was in for some kind of leg thing. And I come in and I'm in like the next bed and he's hiding from me. Yeah. By the way, we had a cordial relationship up until a certain moment, but that's the way he works. Like even with his own children and wives and everything else. But he claims in the book that he hears me say, I'm Robert De Niro's partner. and you know, I can get to a table and something something of that nature. Yeah.
Can I you something? I I've I've I've seen a lot of hospitals lately, which again I'm gonna talk to you in private about, but I'll do it now. There's a nurse. They don't know who you are. Do you know who Robert Janeiro is? yeah. I'm his partner of thirty-eight years.
What? So that's cringe worthy to have.
Joshua Sharkey (36:58.102)ask you actually how did it I mean, 'cause you know Marcus and Marcus is incredible chef and so he goes to, you know, work with McNally and comes back, but before that, Riyadh did something similar.
Drew Nieporent (37:11.575)Love Riot and Lee.
Drew Nieporent (37:15.896)For us to be speaking today, right? W what happened? I called you, you responded, and here we are.
Riyadh will never, ever, ever accept an invitation to Noble or anywhere else to have lunch with me. And the only reason and this is years now. And the only reason I want to have lunch with Riyadh is I want to know what the I happened with his relationship with Keith McNally. Now, here's what happened that I think.
Joshua Sharkey (37:45.391)That's I would love to let too.
Drew Nieporent (37:47.426)Yeah, well, I'm inviting you now. Maybe if you invite him and then I'll show up. If I like I called Riyadh the other day to get somebody into Laveau d'Or, no problem. You can't talk to him, but he'll text you. What happened was Riyadh and and those guys they were doing Mineta and they were doing other things. And there were two guys and they wanted a piece. And my understanding is that Keith wouldn't give them any ownership. And then he farmed them out.
Keith, when he's stealing your chef, like he did with Marcus, and he ha he had something with another guy when he opened Polino's forget that guy's Nate Appelman. Nate Appelman from San Francisco, I was gonna do a thing with, and he he just stole Ke Keith has no absolutely no memory of what a thief a a thief he is. But he has great memory, like like James Corden. What could James Corden have done? his wife was allergic to something.
Joshua Sharkey (38:26.552)Yeah, neat.
Drew Nieporent (38:47.67)It came out wrong twice, three times. So what did James Corden do in that British way? He yelled at the waitress, but then they brought him champagne, everything was cool. And then he outs James Corden like he's the worst scourge on God's Green Earth. And do you know something? And it's in his book. He went to like a hundred thousand followers. I d if it if that's the way it has to work, I'm I I'm I'll never do it, you know? But anyway.
Joshua Sharkey (39:08.302)Well
Joshua Sharkey (39:15.064)wanna actually pivot a little bit because you there's a lot of work that happened before Nobu came the the the sort of globally what it is. And I know that you pruned, you helped prune a menu that had like hundreds of mod items and then it sort of, you know, dialed down to a very small amount. But also, I don't know this other than I'm kind of like extrapolating from like hearing from you and reading your book. It seems like signature dishes are really important to you. Like having a signature dish on a menu as opposed to like a changing menu that changes all the time.
Is that am I picking up on that? Is that is that is like really important to have signature edition?
Drew Nieporent (39:49.006)Good topic. You work for Great Coons. This guy would twist himself in pretzels to try to invent something. In our era, if Boulet cooked a chicken this way, somebody else cooked a chicken another way, another way. The chicken was never the same. But the whole French thing was a scoffier and everything was the same. Okay. No boot.
In LA it's Matsuhisa.
Drew Nieporent (40:20.568)So the first thing, and this is an important part of the whole story, because if you watch the Nobu documentary, my partner, my Israeli partner goes, You know, I wanted to call the restaurant Matsuisa. But Bob
And Bob's like looking at him like, what's gonna cut? But Bob wanted to call it Nobu. Now, you and I have been chatting for a little time now. You see, I'm not shy. So not only did I name it Nobu, but there was a reason why I named it Nobu. Matsuisa sounds like an electronics company. All the Japanese restaurants had what? Soshi screens, tatami rooms, some places you sat on the floor.
It was very hard to neg navigate the menu, you know, the way they eat. Like in if you go to Japan, a restaurant serves only eel, or serves only sushi, or serves only tepanyaki, whatever it is, they're not westernized like we are. So everything I do is to make it easier on the customer to be able to understand. Like, again. But at Nobu,
Drew Nieporent (41:35.426)We took what at Matsuisa was like ridiculous huge menu. Nobu special hot dishes, nobu dishes. You could call them signatures. They weren't back then. But guess what? It's thirty-two years later. And it's exactly the same. So of course they're signatures now. And of course, guess what?
How smart is it that you kept the menu consistent for 32 years and the customers maybe they caught up. There's no way a customer goes to NOBA and says, every time I go to NOBA, the menu's the same. There's no way. They think the menu is evolving, but it's not. So the answer is some restaurants can get away with constant innovation. Some chefs can say, I don't even know what menu I'm gonna write until I go to the market. I have no idea, you know, when I'm gonna
Do until I I forage, you know, the morels from the the field. But there is something to be said when the menu is the same, and then you open a second one and it's the same. And then you open a third one, it's the same. Then you go to London, it's the same. And now there's fifty seven and they're all the same. Yeah.
Joshua Sharkey (42:56.11)No, it does. It creates like, you know, this sort of I mean, it creates a brand. I mean the yellow tail The greatest vision. You know, like it's been copied a million times with by a million different chefs, but it it somehow, you know, that that sticks. I wonder if I know you worked at at McDonald's when you were a kid. Right. And you were I think you were there for the for the launch of the of the court of Do you think that that experience of that launch 'cause that that's iconic, right? Do you think that that had any sort of subconscious in your brand, like, my god, we have to have like a we have to have a
Drew Nieporent (43:00.814)The other
Joshua Sharkey (43:25.582)A signature thing that never changes that we can talk about.
Drew Nieporent (43:28.546)That's a that's a good question, but honestly, what McDonalds did for me was maybe about twelve years ago, Madison Square Garden. You know, Jimmy Dolan is spending a billion dollars in the garden and we're upgrading the food. Would you like a concession? Said, Yeah. What would you like to do? I said, I'll do a chicken parmesan sandwich. great. Next day they called me up. You got the hamburger.
I go woah. 'Cause twelve years ago, guess what? Shake Shack.
Drew Nieporent (44:05.87)I said, you have the worst hamburger at Madison Square Garden. Horrible. Well, that's all that's left. If you don't do the hamburger, you got nothing. So I swear to God, I like, I I sat down and I broke it down, the meat.
Like Patla Freda. Give up on that one. You're not gonna find a butcher that's more you know, like this guy's everywhere. The bun.
Portuguese muffin, I used to serve it at Centrico. Learn something from every operation. The condiments I'll make, but guess what?
When I worked at McDonald's, we cooked on a flat griddle. The meat was frozen. It basically steamed and then greased and was disgusting. I find a conveyor belt from Japan cooks eighteen hamburgers in four minutes, toasts the buns on the bottom. You salt and pepper these things, they come out perfect medium rare.
been there twelve years.
Drew Nieporent (45:16.91)I think Taylor Swift had it at the wedding. Well, I'm not sure about that, but this burger, everyone loves this burger. Started with one concession, then two, then three, then four, then the sweets, then the Delta Club, then the Madison Club. The proof is in the pudding. When something's good, everybody wants it. So McDonald's taught me that. McDonald's talk talked about quality, service, and cleanliness, but I have two eyes. They got maybe quality and service down, but
cleanliness and and service, but quality. Yeah. But I do like a big one.
Joshua Sharkey (45:50.35)How you find that machine? How did you find that machine?
Drew Nieporent (45:53.6)no no no no. I'm not ch it might have been a like a fancy food show or something like that. Or somebody might have
Joshua Sharkey (45:53.998)Did you have to go to Japan like test them?
Drew Nieporent (46:02.774)Well not twelve. I mean we had we bought two. They're expensive. And they break down. We we just bought new ones because we've been there twelve years. But let me tell you something. I you know, I'm seventy one now. I opened my first restaurant, I was twenty-nine. I always, you know, told people, I never opened a deli. I love to open a deli because they could do a great job. maybe too old for that. But the hamburger, I think it's only been a Madison Square Garden for twelve years. But
It's called the Daily Burger there. And they even have my picture up there. And everything about it is genius. Even the wrapper, we wrap it and it holds the heat in. I mean, you go to the Delta club, which is the most expensive tickets, and you they're free down there. All the food's free down there. And you pull one of these burgers, top. Yeah. And it I we serve two thousand burgers a game. It's wild. And the other thing I would just point out.
Our friend you must know him, Billy Derney from hometown and
Joshua Sharkey (47:05.646)Red Hook Tablet.
Drew Nieporent (47:07.608)This guy on Instagram must show his hamburger every day. And it's the perfect melt and the raw onion and he's got the waffle fries, whatever they call those things. I mean, that guy, you know, everybody can be like everybody else, but some people are smarter than others. And they know how deliver quality. So my burger, I mean, the Bruce and the pudding, that's it.
Joshua Sharkey (47:34.254)hold on before I ask. Did you go to the next game? Any of them?
Drew Nieporent (47:40.846)What are crazy? You have to understand. You have to understand. You're looking at I have passion for music because in the book I talk about the film More East. I'm a huge Jet fan. I do the food at the Jets. Jet fan?
Joshua Sharkey (47:53.518)That's huge. interesting. huh. Huge.
Drew Nieporent (47:56.28)Joe Willie Namath. Sh I had a restaurant for the last eleven years at Citifield until Steve Cohen came in and the pandemic there also knocked us out of the park. And now they they've they they I mean, my brother's a sick Met fan. So we do the Food at Met Life, guest chef for years, food at City Field, food at Madison Square Garden. Yankees do their own food. I'm going next week, I think Friday. They're in a total
Wound right now, but no, I love I love sports. So you asked me, did I go to the Knick game? I mean, I I go back to the Knicks in '69. The Knicks actually, I'll show you a picture later. The Knicks were at Tribeca Grill, the 73 Knicks, all of them. And Bill Bradley broke my ball, said that that thing do a horseshoe, but Willis Reed was there and Frazier and everybody. No, hey, man, listen. You know, after Clive Davis died, Jennifer Hudson came here.
Ja Rule came here. They they I think Jennifer sang it, Clive Davis's thing. After the parade, you know, we had some of the Nick players. One of our best customers was Ariel Hakaporti. He he got traded. But I'm a huge, huge
Joshua Sharkey (49:09.592)Yeah, fans. I mean as a as a new I mean you grew up here from you were from you were went to Stuyvesant. You're a yeah, you're you're a true New Yorker. I'm a feel for like being in the in S G now. It's gonna be crazy.
Drew Nieporent (49:20.568)Can you want you have to understand that I I mean I go back to the the original garden on 49th and 8th. So we used to go to the garden and get the GO tickets, they were called. You sit in the upper deck, and the upper deck it hung the overhang was so long that it you could only see half the rink for Ranger games. You could only see half of to now serve hamburgers there for 12 years, it's like the greatest thing on God's green earth.
Joshua Sharkey (49:48.024)Wild. Yeah, I I I remember City Field. I had a restaurant long before this company, and we were part of the opening of of City Field the hot dogs. And my grandfather worked for the Mets. He was like a bookkeeper for the Mets. And I that was a wild just seeing like them rebuilding. I remember when they're rebuilding the damn. Just such a New York is just like, you this it changes so much, but being part of like seeing those changes, I'm sure you've seen so many of them.
Drew Nieporent (50:05.762)Made amazing.
Joshua Sharkey (50:15.618)You know, something about books that are like I always I always feel like it it's tough because it's it's printed, it's published, it's done. You know, it's not you can't add to it now. But two things. One, you didn't the names just sort of like happened. Right. Would you change the name then? Yeah. What would you call it?
Drew Nieporent (50:34.35)Absolutely. Well, I can't tell you because I'm gonna try to make a movie series. and it won't be The Bear and it won't be, you know, although I I admire the bear. I had a title for this book for years. But it was really more of a movie. Like when your partners with Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Bill Murray, Mikhail Barishnikov, Ed Harris, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christopher Walken, have I dropped a few names?
Joshua Sharkey (50:40.862)course.
Joshua Sharkey (51:01.912)Well, you had I think wasn't Robin Williams' partner in Rubicon as well?
Drew Nieporent (51:04.588)Robin Williams. When you're partners with all these people, if you can't make a movie, but now I'm 71, I'm like, maybe that's a pipe dream. So the title was something completely different. And my daughter hated my title. My wife hated my title. The the publisher didn't like it. So they came back and I said, Well, whatever you want to call it. I'm not trying to be difficult. They come up with that. How could I have opened 40 restaurants and I'm difficult? But now
That the book's out for a while. I've read the book a hundred times. I've read the book on audio, by the way, Audible. I get the title. Yeah, I would have done a lot of different things.
Joshua Sharkey (51:45.194)By the so it's good. R restaurant's a director, you got all these film folks that are partner with you. Do you have a favorite director or like five favorite films?
Drew Nieporent (51:56.3)Well, because I was partners with Francis Ford Coppola, who and we were in business together.
And his wine is called Rubicon. So we couldn't name the restaurant Rubicon because I had had Montrachet in New York. I would have to say I always admired him, but his trajectory, even though he's a lovely person, Megalopolis, did you happen to see that? You haven't been on too many planes lately then. I it's like it's like if I open a restaurant that was
Joshua Sharkey (52:22.616)No.
I don't watch films on planes.
Drew Nieporent (52:32.684)Yeah. obviously I'm I love everything.
Joshua Sharkey (52:35.832)Films. What films do you like? Well is there do have do you have a top five?
Drew Nieporent (52:40.27)Believe it or not, I was in the I was in the Academy Awards. Because the Academy Awards after 9-11, there was this whole thing, should we have the Academy Awards? So I forget the guy's name. he was over here and he he had Gorbachev and he had firemen and they asked me and they said, What's your favorite film? And I go, Lawrence of Arabia. And and so in the opening, Tom Cruise comes out and he goes,
You know, we weren't sure if we're gonna do this, but now we're gonna do this and now it's a short film and and they do this short film, which is on the internet. It's on YouTube, you should watch it. Two thousand and one. And I'm on the Oscars for a second. I watched a film last night, The Father of the Bride Two. And yeah, I gotta tell you, Diane Keaton, Steve Martin, and Martin Short. I mean Martin Short is like a comic child.
Joshua Sharkey (53:38.714)Have you seen his his little interview show he does?
Drew Nieporent (53:41.872)yeah. Jimmy Click. this it's it's insane. So all you do now on Netflix is like type in Martin Short. Yeah. I I'd see and he's made so many bad films, not bad in the sense that they're bad. They just they never did anything. Yeah. But look, life when you get to the rosy age of seventy one, which is it's not really that old, but yeah, there's a lot of looking back on things and you know, I mean, Robert De Niro
probably been his partner longer than he's had relationships with most people. Nobu, it goes without saying, is the most successful single restaurant idea of the last 30 years.
If you read the book, you find out.
Maybe that's why they call it I'm not trying to be difficult, because my personality is such that I grew up the ethos of Robert F. Kennedy, the ethos of Martin Luther King, both assassinated. I mean for me, it's so important that you're good to each other you're good to one another. So like when I'm gonna open my first restaurant, I swear to you, I'm gonna build a U.
I'm gonna solve every problem. Everyone's gonna want to work for me. And then on the second restaurant, Tribeca Grill. but the first restaurant was no there are no no categories, no captains, waiters, or bus boys. Everybody shares the money. I don't care if you don't speak English, you share the money. The second restaurant, Tribeca Grill. We're not sharing our money with these people. They don't speak English. The wine guy. I they don't know anything about wine. Why am I sharing the money with these people? So even in your head, when you want to do the right thing.
Drew Nieporent (55:29.378)You're you they punch you in the teeth. I got through it. I escaped all the scoundrels, all the fly by night people. I've saw so many of them. In 1997, David Boulet is not coming to meetings with Philip Johnson. Can you take a meeting with Philip Johnson? This guy was the greatest architect ever to live in America. I take the meeting. The next day they call and say, he loved you.
He wants to work with you in the worst way. There's only one problem. What's that? You're gonna have to meet his partner, Donald Trump. But he only owns five percent. Now when you meet him, he's gonna talk like he owns the whole thing.
Just remember, we own it. He owns five percent. And you'll have to read the book to get the rest of that story. But the the point is, I've I'm so fortunate. I I've I've seen so many things and I'm a spec.
Drew Nieporent (56:32.042)I feel that people can learn something from me, but only if they listen. I used to seek out Joe Baum, George Lang, Nick Valenti, all my seniors in the restaurant business. If I got a nugget of wisdom from any of them, I was like, Do you know how many people call me?
Like a joke. I walk into a restaurant sometimes though.
Totally anonymous. Hey, I worked for you in East Hampton. Hey, I worked at Tribeca Grill. Hey, I write this book. You should see the letters I got from ex employees telling me stories. I'm the you made me the first woman captain at Tavern on the Green. I don't even know this stuff. Yeah. I mean, I know it, but I don't know it. It's so that's the gratifying part. That I can I can I can be a wash in the glow.
Of still owning Nobu and making the hamburgers at Madison Square Garden the home of the world champion, New York Knickerbockers. And I can still tell fun stories.
Joshua Sharkey (57:41.496)First of all, yeah, you're seventy one, there's still a lot more time left. But what do you is there is there one thing looking back now, it's been forty one years since you opened your first restaurant. It's wild. What what do you what's like the thing you're most proud of? Like w I I know that's a hard question, but is there something you're like fuck this is the fucking thing that I want to be remembered for the most, you know?
Drew Nieporent (57:44.81)Well.
Drew Nieporent (58:00.268)I I I'm most proud of
Most proud of my lineage, meaning I had a wonderful mother, wonderful father, wonderful brother, grew up in a certain way, had a goal, you know, the way I achieved that goal, and then I built on it. So I want to be known for the entire thing, you know, like everything that I've done up till now. And perhaps if I have to.
Make a movie about it, the movie will be compelling enough for people to see. Because I w I remember my my mother was an actress where we would watch the Oscars every single year. The Tonys every single year. And I'm like looking up there and I'm like, Well, you know, looking at the TV with her and I'm like, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna be there one day. I'm not in the movie business, but then Robert De Niro becomes my partner. Now, if you watch
The Oscars now, you know what you realize? They could make a movie about your life, but you're not getting on stage to accept the award. The director's gonna get the award. The actors are gonna get the award. They might throw you a bone. So, you know, it's like we all have the egos, mine is huge. But, you know, like I I spent a great deal of my life trying to like calm down, trying, you know, not to be difficult, calm down. But yeah, I want people to say that.
They they should put a sign yeah. The Knicks won a championship after fifty-three years. God bless. I opened 40 restaurants. Yeah. Put well, I don't care if they no, th that it's not even in the cards. They didn't even want to put De Niro's name up on in Tribeca because of the protests or whatever. But yeah, it would be nice to have some recognition. Like, you know, I have this amazing archive. I I basically gave it to the Coleria Institute.
Drew Nieporent (01:00:01.196)It's probably sitting in some, you know, utility closet someplace. Nobody cares.
Joshua Sharkey (01:00:06.328)I wouldn't say no bigger. I mean look, I I I I can tell you as someone who's been a you know, in the New York restaurant world for twenty five years. I think a lot of do, and I can tell you. I think it's what's interesting. I I read the book and you know, when you were I think you were nine, you're sitting and listening to the radio, Howard Cressel's talking about you know, Muhammad Ali. Right. And I can see the, you know, that that spark where you're like, my god, I want to be fucking I wanna be the fucking best. And I think that's a very New York thing, by the way, that
Yeah. Mentality and like that that grit. But I I hope you can now look back and be like, I did that.
Drew Nieporent (01:00:41.742)Not only did I do that.
Joshua Sharkey (01:00:46.906)that's why you came to the restaurant, right?
Drew Nieporent (01:00:48.526)Came to Nobu. Well he had Parkinson's, yeah. And he was but i there was a number of years ago and then I I did an event in Las Vegas, Larry Ruvo honored him right before he died, actually. I mean, the the thing about Muhammad Ali was he said, I am the greatest, make no mistake about that and then he backed it up. And, you know, boxing back then was like, you know, all these poor guys and you know the
Joshua Sharkey (01:00:50.197)How old was he at that point?
Drew Nieporent (01:01:16.758)Two guys in a ring and today it's like some ridiculous show, you know. But I have been so fortunate to meet so many people, obviously owning restaurants, they come to your restaurant. And you know, it's a kick for me. But I'm not, you know, obsessed with this whole celebrity thing. I I put it in perspective. But honestly, if you if you look at it, right, I mean Robin Williams, Coppola, De Niro, Bill Murray, Sean Penn.
I mean these guys I signed a document with their name on it and my name on it. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. Well pretty amazing.
Joshua Sharkey (01:01:58.606)I'm glad we're gonna spend some time on this. I could probably ask you another million questions, but
Drew Nieporent (01:02:02.03)Well yeah, I I mean i I love what you're doing. You seem to be hitting the right people. I was actually shocked today to see certain people that you've you've spoken with. I'll be low low on the totem pole. I'll get like three I'll get like three
Joshua Sharkey (01:02:17.262)That's true. But but it's it's great and it's a and it's a and it's a really incredible book. I'm stoked to see you know, see see if you if you make a movie at it too. So thank you, Drew. Thanks, thank appreciate it, man.
Drew Nieporent (01:02:27.278)Appreciate it.
Joshua Sharkey (01:02:29.304)Thanks so much for listening to the show. If you liked this episode or any other ones, you can actually check out more of this at getmes.com slash josh. That's G-E-T-M-E-E-Z slash J-O-S-H. I have my podcast there, the Mees Podcast, plus some other shows and interviews. Starting to write some stories and blog posts, some recipes, recaps, things like that. So I think you'll enjoy it. Again, it's getmeez dot com slash josh, G-E-T-M-E-E-Z.
Double EZ.com slash J O S H. Thank you very much. Very grateful for all of you.
