Nation's Restaurant News
Master of a 'Myriad' of Concepts
With 16 Hugely Popular White-tablecloth Restaurants, a Roster of Celebrity Chefs and a Number of "Showbiz" Partners, Drew Nieporent Stamps His Own Brand of Excellence on the Myriad Restaurant Group.
September 6, 1999
By the time Drew Nieporent opened Montrachet in 1985, he’d graduated from Cornell’s School of Hotel and Management and worked for some of New York’s most famous restaurateurs. Besides, he was nearly 30 years old by then, and it was high time he got down to the serious business of restaurant-empire building.
He launched Montrachet to a near-perfect three-star review in The New York Times, an award which was repeated in 1998, and was inducted into the Nation’s Restaurant News Hall of Fame. This year the restaurant has been nominated for Best Restaurant in America by the James Beard Foundation.
Today, Nieporent says, Montrachet’s real contribution to the industry is that it was the first restaurant to offer fine dining in a relaxed atmosphere. “Sure, it’s everywhere now. But Montrachet did it first,” he says.
Not long after Montrachet’s triumphant opening, Nieporent was approached by another famous New Yorker, actor Robert De Niro, who envisioned a restaurant housed in a loft space in Manhattan’s TriBeCa area, which at the time was more of a warehouse/manufacturing district than a neighborhood. With the sure sense of an empire builder, Nieporent smelled success in spite of the obvious challenges, and Tribeca Grill opened to great fanfare in 1990.
Montrachet and Tribeca Grill are now joined by 14 sister restaurants, all related under the Myriad Restaurant Group brand name, but each is distinct in its style and ambiance. There’s Rubicon--born of a partnership Nieporent entered into with Francis Ford Coppola, Robin Williams and De Niro in 1994--which was quickly established as one of San Francisco’s favorite spots. The four Nobu locations--one in London, another in Las Vegas and two in New York--may carry the same name, but each nurtures its own individual personality. In addition, Nieporent opened the Las Vegas Nobu location and Berkeley Bar and Grill in Manhattan within two weeks of one another this spring, and construction of Earth and Ocean has begun in Seattle for an opening later this year.
So, if all of these operations have their own distinct “personalities,” perhaps the natural question is this: Can consumers recognize the one brand that pulses through them all?
“When a brand becomes so big and so well known, it supercedes itself. It becomes legend or a household name,” says Nieporent. “Take the Yankees, for example. The legend is so much bigger than anything you could say about the nine players. It’s the whole works--the history, the stadium, the loyalty, the uniforms. But still, fans love to talk about and compare the individual players.”
Same with a restaurant group like Myriad, he asserts. Customers compare the individual identities, yet appreciate the group. Each restaurant, with its unique personality, is its own brand that helps support the whole.
That kind of momentum adds to the potential success of every new venture within the Myriad brand, because when Myriad fans hear that Drew Nieporent is opening a new concept, they automatically expect to like it.
The thread that connects the group of distinct restaurants is more than the Myriad name. While patrons are apt to compare their experiences at the various Myriad concepts, Nieporent says that great, not good, food and service are consistent expectations from the brand. “We strive for real quality in each operation. We might cookie-cut our concepts,” Nieporent says, “but we don’t. We have created a 'brand’ with Myriad restaurants, and I think there’s also a subliminal thread that runs through them: Drew’s taste.”
Drew is, after all, the man in the white-tablecloth dining today. When his tiny cell phone rings, he answers “Headquarters,” because wherever he is at the moment is “Decision Central.” But while he may have the ultimate say in the multitude of decisions that define a new space, menu and concept, Nieporent says that he thrives on collaboration. Although he is the Myriad brand spearhead, managing such a widely flung, multiconcept empire requires a team of talented visionaries and dedicated day-to-day managers.
“I love when somebody comes up with an idea that I’d never have thought of,” he says. “That’s what makes the whole creative process so much fun.”
And within his Myriad world, Nieporent has many talented people with whom to collaborate, including his brother, Tracy Nieporent, who handles marketing; Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, for whom the Nobu restaurants are named; and a host of energetic, conscientious people who work hard to make each restaurant be as good as it can be.
Among the group dedicated people, Josh Foster has held the important title and responsibility of head steward and purchasing manager for Tribeca Grill for three years. He handles virtually every purchasing decision made for the physical plant and the equipment used throughout the house.
In addition to ensuring that there will be enough toilet paper and light bulbs, Foster says, he costs out menus and orders all the food for the high-volume, 180-seat restaurant, where the check average hovers between $50 and $60.
Foster “inherited” most of the vendors he works with--vendors who, he says, have worked with Myriad restaurants for at least 10 years and “would do anything in the world for Drew.”
For Foster, although price is one of his considerations when making purchases, price comes in second to service. “I define service largely as follow-up,” he says. “In this industry, you have a lot of people who just want to take your order and go away. I’m amazed and impressed when somebody calls me up and says, 'You asked about black mission figs last week and I found a source for you.’ That’s somebody who will get more of my business.”
The meat and poultry served at the Manhattan Myriad restaurants are provided by J.T. Jobbagy Inc. The business relationship between Jobbagy and Nieporent began in the early '80s, when Nieporent worked in such stellar restaurants as Tavern on the Green and La Grenouille. “When Drew opened Montrachet, we sold him meat, and we’ve continued to supply his restaurants ever since,” says John Jobbagy.
Foster says that he appreciates the quick and considerate service he gets from J.T. Jobbagy. “They’re small enough to send a van over with an order in an emergency--and they do,” says Foster.
Quality is also key in the back-of-the-house, where few customers venture, but all reap the benefits of careful maintenance. Tribeca Grill uses most of Ecolab’s Oasis System, which Foster appreciates for its perfect measuring method. And to ensure that the restaurant is ready for Health Department inspections, Foster contracts a former NYC Health Department employee, who makes spot checks using the same criteria cited in “real” inspections.
“He makes the entire tour of the restaurant,” Foster says, “then he sits down with everyone on the staff and goes over what was good and what needs improvement. I think it’s especially good that we include everyone on the staff so they all know what they can do. And it makes everybody feel like part of the team.” Foster’s attitude toward the employees and their need to feel like “part of the team” is echoed in Nieporent’s business philosophy.
“I don’t know exactly how many people work for Myriad,” Nieporent says, “but say there’s a thousand. That’s a thousand people who pay their rent and support their families because they have jobs my restaurants. And because we have several very successful restaurants in TriBeCa now (Tribeca Grill, TriBakery, Montrachet, Layla and Nobu), that neighborhood has blossomed and even more people have jobs down there.
“Employee turnover is very low because we carefully hire good people, we train them well and we give them opportunities to grow within the business. And morale is high because everybody’s making money. Making money makes people happy.”
Nieporent also believes in sharing the wealth in the community. “Most of what you might call our marketing is through charities we help with, “ he says, noting that Myriad receives about 10 solicitations a day. “We like chef-driven publicity when our chefs can go our meet people. I want their personalities and talent to be visible, to be effervescent.”
The future will see the Myriad Restaurant Group grow, but even its creator can’t say exactly how. Nieporent stays open to new locations, ideas, suggestions and co-op deals with existing businesses that want a piece of both his expertise and his finesse.
Keepin’ It Clean
Meticulous sanitation in such a high-volume restaurant as Tribeca Grill is more than a full-time job--it must be a near obsession, if it’s to be done right. And Josh Foster, head steward and purchasing manager, has that kind of obsession about cleanliness, which drives him to demand super performance not only from restaurant staff but from Ecolab, who he contracts for cleaning chemicals, as well.
Foster recognizes how important sanitation is in maintaining the “brand loyalty” that patrons have developed toward Tribeca Grill over the years.
“Our Ecolab rep stops in once a week to make sure the glasses are spotless and everything is working up to our standards,” Foster says. “Our rep comes by once a week at my request. I think that’s beyond typical service.”
Oreste Cipollaro, Ecolab sales service rep, says that meeting and exceeding customer expectations is just part of his job. “We give 24/7 service so restaurant managers never have to worry about running out of our products or needing repairs, says Cipollaro.
In addition to weekly stops at Tribeca Grill, Cipollaro responds to emergency calls. “It happens to everybody--they run out of something. If we get a call at midnight this New Year’s Eve from Tribeca Grill or any of our customers, no problem. We’ll deliver whatever they need.”
The products Tribeca Grill purchases from Ecolab are essential to keep the restaurant going because, Cipollaro notes, if they run out of dishwashing soap, they can’t keep serving food.
“The beautiful food they send out has to be prepared in a meticulously clean kitchen. That just makes sense,” Cipollaro says. “At Tribeca, they have very high standards for sanitation.”