Master Restaurateurs: Drew Nieporent, Founder Of Nobu Worldwide, Talks About The State Of The Restaurant Business, Part Two

Drew Nieporent, who first ventured into New York’s derelict Tribeca neighborhood in 1985 with Montrachet and Tribeca Grill, expanded and contracted an empire that includes Nobu around the world. Having been through good times and bad, he is still buoyant about the New York restaurant business.

Prices for upscale restaurants have risen so that it’s tough not to spend $100 per person anywhere. Is there any price resistance at your restaurants?

The whole price thing is absolutely crazy! Any kind of restaurant is now charging $20-$30 for an appetizer and $50 and up for mains. An “inexpensive” wine is now $50 and an inexpensive wine is $80 in most places. Prices are insane, but apparently people are paying. I see little resistance. I spent my entire career keeping prices at a reasonable level, even at the height of my success. When we opened Nobu in 1994 we were thought of as high priced, but now it’s in the middle of the pack. The pandemic changed a lot of things, but people are paying the price to dine out.

Do you think the food media has very consciously avoided covering upscale restaurants? If so, why?

The food media is a bit of a jungle now. We’ve lost many of the important critics like Gael Greene [of New York Magazine], and Zagat has gone away. The Times now has a food critic [Pete Welles] for 10 years who realty doesn’t like upscale restaurants and has said so. He bombed Per Se and Eleven Madison Park. He’s been good to my restaurants, except Nobu, which he killed. There used to be a consensus what were the best in New York, but now there are so many new places and so many in Brooklyn. I don’t think the media are avoiding upscale restaurants but just having a problem covering the endless number of new places that are opening. And this is my pet peeve: they cover pizza, tacos and banh miplaces almost on the same level they used to cover our restaurants.

Has foreign tourism brought business back and do they eat downtown?

When I opened in 1985 the dirty word was “tourists” and “tourist trap,” so we changed it to “visitors” and embraced them.We need their money as much as any. New York is a mecca for restaurants, probably the capital of the world for finding every kind of food here. It’s a major part of the city’s business and always has been. Now these visitors will eat downtown or any part of the city if the food is good.

Did Brooklyn steal some of Manhattan’s thunder as the place people wanted to try?

There was a moment of time when Brooklyn was riding a real high and probably did steal some of the business. Then it settled in with simpler smaller, restaurants, although Gage & Tollner and River Café are still busy. Brooklyn is the hot spot for dining out in the New York area at the moment, but I wouldn’t say it’s stolen Manhattan’s thunder. Manhattan still had the best restaurants.

You once said that landlords seem never to have noticed 9/11, recession and Covid, and just keep raising rents only a CVS pharmacy seems to be able to afford. Is this driving restaurateurs out of business?

Even before 9/11 and the recession and Covid the landlords really pissed me off because they created this idea of what market rent should be based pn whatever the schmuck on the block pays the highest. Rents were impossible and they didn’t relent but are relenting now and that’s why there is a surge of new restaurants. Of course, a great number closed. Landlords are starting to get religion and ease up, especially in Manhattan. In Brooklyn the rents got a little silly but are now more manageable.

Has home delivery and work-at-home changed the restaurant scene in New York?

Food take-out has actually helped the biz by and large, and the pandemic created a new wave of people bringing home food; even at Nobu we do a tremendous amount of take-out.It’s extraordinary, and with so many the delivery services it’s hard not to get hit on the street by a delivery guy. That’s not I say I endorse it because food should be eaten at a restaurant when cooked with precision and served hot, but, without doubt, with the add-on fees it has helped our bottom line.

You have a Nobu (two?) in London. How does that city’s restaurant scene differ from New York?

In London we have three Nobus—at the Metro hotel, Appointment Square Nobu hotel and Shoreditch. I absolutely adore London as a restaurant scene. I used to say it reminded me of New York—every kind of restaurant imaginable now, and lots of great British’s chefs.

You yourself have always chosen to live outside New York and commute. Why?

It’s obvious I Ioved living in New York, growing up in Cooper Village, and Washington Square Park, but my wife and I moved to Ridgewood, New Jersey, and were there for 30 years and we’re now in Piermont, New York,, and it’s fantastic The quality of life is much better, the views of Hudson River spectacular, and even if I’m in my car two-and-a-half hours a day, on the Palisades Parkway I can be home in twenty minutes.

I know you keep up with others’ restaurants. Where do you like to eat these days?

I love going out to eat but Im cheap and don’t like to spend money. I love Aska, Ernesto’s, San Sabino. I love Chinatown places for the soup dumplings and Joe’s Shanghai, and a slew of Chinese places in Flushing.

Tell me about your charity causes.

I’ve been involved from beginning City Meals on Wheels. My grandmother received them, near and dear to my heart.. We’ve donated to dozens of others. Make a Wish, City harvest. We don’t say no to a lot of things.