New York Sun
Nieporent Aims to Make Restaurant Week The Best It Can Be
June 14-17, 2005
By Pranay Gupte
Tracy Nieporent acknowledges that New York’s Restaurant Week, over which he presides, is a misnomer. “It’s actually two weeks in June, and two weeks in January,” Mr. Nieporent said. “But Restaurant Week has a ring to it, and I want to extend it as much as I can.”
That extension involves not only persuading more restaurants to join Restaurant Week, offering patrons three-course lunches at $20.12, and dinners at $35. Virtually all the establishments participating in this year’s event which runs from Monday to June 24 and June 27 to July 1- are in Manhattan, and Mr. Nieporent want to recruit restaurants in the outer boroughs.
The five boroughs have 17,312 restaurants, according to the New York State Restaurant Association. Their annual sales are $23.3 billion. 201 of NYC’s restaurants are participating in Restaurant Week. When the event was launched in 1992 for the Democratic National Convention, 100 restaurants signed up.
Signing up requires restaurants to pay $2,500 to NYC & Company, the city’s non-profit tourism promotion agency. That may be too hefty for small restaurants. It may be a bit much for the more prosperous establishments as well, some of whose proprietors grouse that although Restaurants Week fills tables, it scarcely generates profits.
Such complains do not faze Mr. Nieporent, an indefatigable and exuberant man. “There’s so much great food to be had out there,” Mr. Nieporent said. “This city is a diner’s paradise-the quality of food, the ethnic variety, the ambiance of our restaurants.
“But restaurants also need to be on their guard: regardless of how well a restaurant may have been written up in the press, it’s the individual experience that truly matters,” he said. “That makes every meal a test for a restaurant. You’ve got to win people over with every bite. And for Restaurant Week, it means stronger branding, more outreach.”
If Mr. Nieporent sounds like an executive from Madison Avenue, that could be because he worked in advertising after graduating with a degree in English from the State University of New York at Brockport (“Harvard on the Barge Canal,” he says).
He worked at N.W. Ayer. One of his memorable campaigns was for the Army: “Be All You Can Be.” While he’s not militaristic, he maintains a healthy respect for the integrity of the military people he worked with.
The relentless intensity of New York’s advertising world, however, dismayed him. When the opportunity arose to join his brother Drew, a celebrated restaurateur, Mr. Nieporent seized it. “From a large office at the advertising agency, I went to a basement office not much bigger than a Mercury space capsule,” Mr. Nieporent, a man of formidable mirth, said.
At the invitation of industry doyens such as Tim Zagat and Danny Meyer, Mr. Nieporent joined the restaurant committee of what was then known as the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau. He set about creating a collegial style.
“From the outset, I felt that not only did I need to help the restaurant industry, I would also need to support consumers,” he said. “The idea was to make top-quality restaurants more accessible to everyday New Yorkers and to visitors.”
He pushed the six-member restaurant committee to stretch Restaurant Week to tow weeks, and then he pushed the committee to replicate the summer event during the winter. He introduced the Z card, a wallet-sized fold-out marking participating restaurants on a city map. He helped build more value for corporate sponsors.
“And I’ve focused on appealing to young people,” Mr. Nieporent said. “I see my job as restaurant-committee chairman as a bully pulpit. You’ve constantly got to prime the pump.”
His advertising background has helped Mr. Nieporent refine the event’s public messages. ‘We’re much more coherent and targeted now,” he said. “While we’ve gained a core of acceptance for Restaurant Week, we need to address the question of how to keep people engaged.”
One answer he helped formulate was a cookbook, which proved to be highly successful. A cocktail book is now in bookstores. Mr. Nieporent has also spearheaded a series of business seminars for restaurateurs. Among the most popular offerings: “How to Deal with Restaurant Critics.” He’s also planning to be part of a radio show that may be broadcast from the Algonquin’s famous round table.
“Perhaps we can help restaurateurs with marketing savvy,” Mr. Nieporent said. “A key test for a restaurant is the number of repeat visitors. In Restaurant Week we also need to guard against being elitist. Everyone needs to be welcomed as warmly as though they were paying the full fare.”