THE PRINCE REGENT: Michael Stillman’s Park Avenue is the official stand-in for the Regency, but a host of uptown restaurateurs are challenging his rule. (Astrid Stawiarz)
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Hotelier Jonathan Tisch is having trouble sleeping at night. Ever since it was announced in September that his Loews Regency hotel — the city’s reigning power breakfast spot since 1975 — would close in January for a yearlong renovation, he feels like a hunted man.
“At 4 a.m., when I think of the scale of the Loews Regency’s renovation, and I think of closing to do this for the first time in our history, I worry about [our clientele] becoming more comfortable in other venues,’’ says Tisch, sitting at his office overlooking the hotel, on Park Avenue and 61st Street, owned since 1963 by his family.
Tisch has a right to worry. Two short avenue blocks away, Sirio, the new restaurant at the Pierre Hotel run by power host Sirio Maccioni, is planning to open tomorrow — and he’ll be serving breakfast. With blueberry pancakes, eggs Benedict and frittata mozzarella, he hopes to lure Tisch’s regulars, including Al Sharpton, Andrew Cuomo and media honchos like CBS head Les Moonves, to his place for good.
“The Tisch family are dear friends, but business is business,’’ shrugs Sirio’s son Mario Maccioni.
Meanwhile, 10 blocks south, the Four Seasons is also plotting to offer a morning meal.
“A couple of years ago we wanted to open for breakfast, and now I’m convinced it’s the right thing to do,” says Four Seasons co-owner Julian Niccolini. “We have a tremendous chance to capture that audience.”
Others are circling the carcass, waiting to pick off VIPs.
Michael McCarty’s expertise handling a high-powered a.m. crowd is nothing to scoff at. He’s long played host to a cast of media titans at Michael’s, his art-filled restaurant on West 55th Street, where breakfast regulars include Isaac Mizrahi and Harrison Ford.
“I have some customers that have two breakfasts — one meeting after another,” says McCarty. “People say they do more business over breakfast than in a full day at the office. And chance meetings can turn into deals — if you could see the crowd and watch the dynamic of the room, it’s astounding.’’
Another Midtown contender is the Lambs Club, helmed by Geoffrey Zakarian, who’s been catering to Condé Nast’s early-risers since his days at 44 at the Royalton Hotel.
“I have fond memories and great respect for Jonathan and what they do over at the Regency,” Zakarian says, but adds: “I can’t deny that this is a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase how fantastic our breakfast is to new customers.’’
He goes on to explain why his dining spot is worth making the trip 20 blocks south to Midtown. “Breakfast people tend to eat the same thing every day, so we are very meticulous,” explains Zakarian. “If someone wants two scoops of protein powder in a smoothie, we make sure it’s exactly two scoops.’’
Even downtown restaurants are hoping to profit. The Hotel Americano in the heart of burgeoning Chelsea is attracting the gallery crowd along with residents of the area’s rising starchitect buildings at breakfast.
“All the parents whose kids are at the new Avenues school, where Suri Cruise goes, come here after they drop off their children,’’ says Americano owner Carlos Couturier.
“We are closer for the people in the financial world, and because a lot of art, media and fashion is moving downtown and to this area, I think there is a definite opportunity for us to capture some of the Regency’s power-breakfast crowd.”
Tisch, for his part, is not taking the onslaught lying down. He’s so anxious to keep the legendary meal alive that he has organized a pop-up power breakfast two blocks up on the other side of the street, at Michael Stillman’s Park Avenue Winter (which morphs into Park Avenue Spring, then Summer, then Autumn as the seasons progress), to begin Jan. 7, a week after the Regency shutters for about a year.
To ensure success, Tisch is also moving his famous seating chart, meticulously organized like a VIP wedding, to the new venue. His maitre d’ Lee Wynn, as well as a Regency doorman will also make the jump, along with the coveted list of client contacts and their morning preferences.
“I understand the world moves faster now and people are always on their BlackBerrys, but the Regency breakfast is such a part of New York,’’ says Stillman, as he gears up to welcome the Regency’s morning throngs. “I can think of 20 restaurants that have tried to poach that crowd, but they held on to it. [The Regency] is known for its seating chart, and we are working with them to see how we can do that chart with a restaurant that also changes with the seasons.
“Their breakfast crowd is a who’s who. We have to figure out how to have the exact right teas and exact right toast for them. Al Sharpton said that he was worried we wouldn’t have his green tea. We will not only know what kind of green tea he wants, we will have special seasonal blends for him.”
Stillman has other plans in the works, including a mimosa bar and a homemade-cereal cart.
But once the Regency reopens, Stillman contractually must stop serving breakfast altogether, and return Tisch’s clientele.
So how will he feel about giving up his hard-developed morning business when Tisch is ready to premiere his updated room?
“We are making friends with these people, and hope they come back for lunch and dinner,’’ he explains.
And what of the Four Seasons as a potential threat?
“I go there every year for my birthday, and I love it, but it was very seasonal years ago, and it is less so now,” says Stillman.
And he feels the clientele might not make the trip south. “There is a real difference between 53rd and 63rd streets,’’ he maintains.
Regency regulars are also
pledging allegiance to the hotel while it undergoes its top-to-bottom upgrade.
“People may experiment with other places, but the brilliant part of the Tisches’ breakfast is that everybody from the lowest server to the maitre d’ knows the regulars and makes them feel special,’’ says restaurant-guide bigwig Tim Zagat.
“There is a long line of people waited to be seated, but when you walk up, the maitre d’ rushes over and whisks you up front and seats you immediately. Then the Tisches go around and greet each table. It’s like being invited to their home, and it’s the place where everyone I know goes when they want to see their friends without having to plan it.’’
Like Zagat, Bill White, former president of the Intrepid and now chairman and CEO of the Constellations Group, a strategic business development firm, says that he will go where the Tisch family leads.
“I go to the Four Seasons for lunch every day, but I am loyal to Jon [Tisch], and my mornings are Regency-centric,’’ he declares. “I was in a couple weeks ago with a government leader from South America who was here for the General Assembly meeting, and instead of setting up 15 meetings and traveling back and forth, all we had to do was walk around that breakfast room.’’
Tisch will no doubt keep his eyes on the competition as well as his renovation, and will certainly have some more sleepless nights before his projected reopening at the start of 2014.
“The other places are all good, but we have a sense of family and history and personal relationships with many of the guests,’’ he says. “There were people who were close to tears when we said we were closing, who said ‘How can you do this to us?’ People like a little change, but it makes them nervous. They will dip their toes in the water elsewhere, but hopefully come back to us.’’