Beverage Media
Drew Nieporent's Myriad Restaurant Group Innovates
by Jesse Nash
May 2006
One might imagine that turning 50 would cause a person to slow down, reflect and start dreaming of retirement. But entrepreneur Drew Nieporent, celebrating his birthday this year, gives one the impression he's just getting started. This 1977 graduate of Cornell University School of Hotel Management and the owner of The Myriad Restaurant Group has opened some of the most notable establishments in the country: Montrachet, Tribeca Grill, Nobu, Rubicon in San Francisco, Nobu London, Nobu, Centrico, The Coach House, Pulse, to name a few, as well as Crush Wine and Spirits in March 2006 in Louisville, Kentucky. In fact, when he started in this business, Drew promised his mother he'd eventually open 10 restaurants. He's actually opened over 20.
In an industry that is becoming more and more competitive, especially on the beverage side, Nieporent continues to innovate and has now put a special focus on spirits in his latest restaurant, Proof on Main, in Louisville, Kentucky.
Latest Venture
"Louisville and Bourbon somewhat go hand in hand," explains Nieporent. "But the simple reason that I opened a restaurant there is that it's an interesting area. I have a lot of friends who live there, actually some classmates. The whole neighborhood was like Tribeca; it's a mini-Soho there." He continues, "The whole restaurant/hotel project is contemporary art-inspired. The name of the hotel is 21C, Twenty First Century. The owners of the hotel are local philanthropists and art collectors, Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson. The name of the restaurant. 'Proof,' as in proof being Bourbon, fits perfectly."
Initially, Nieporent was worried he might be sued by the film makers of the movie of the same name starring Gwyneth Paltrow, but so far it hasn't been an issue. "Nobody really saw it as 'The Movie,'" he laughs.
Proof is a good example of just how versatile Nieporent is on the beverage side of the business. First and foremost, a lot of time and energy goes into knowing the kinds of people who live in an area before he opens a restaurant. But he also understands that wine and spirts require two very different levels of expertise.
Beverage Programs a la Nieporent
"The most important thing, other than food, of course, is the manner in which we deal with our beverage program," Nieporent explains. "As a Myriad [Group], we don't have any one way of doing it, so each restaurant has its own identity. Each restaurant has to have a wine director, and if the restaurant is big enough, like Tribeca Grill in Manhattan, we also have what we call a spirits director or a beverage director, because I believe wine and spirits are two separate disciplines."
Another component to Nieporent's success is recognizing beverage trends and how to authenticate and market them. He believes skae has the potential of attracting as much interest as wine and Nieporent, with three incarnations of Nobu restaurants in New York and one on the other side of the pond, has taken advantage of this interest.
"Take Nobu, for instance, where you have the sake component," he explains. "Whatever you're doing, there has to be some authenticity to the beverage styling. And sake really is becoming the new wine with a broad selection of sake - both filtered and unfiltered - you can easily spend a couple of hundred bucks on one bottle. Nobu has always been really smart in the manner in which we market or merchandise, if you will, the sake. We have beautiful green bamboo decanters that we freeze so when it arrives at the table its frosted, like a mug of beer. And people go gaga over it."
Creating Solid Relationships
Another big part of the success formula is creating relationships. "We bought winese from close to two dozen distributors, creating relationships with the wine maker, going to the vineyards in France. It is essential to travel. When our customers are sitting in a restaurant like Montrachet drinking a bottle of wine from Burgundy or Bordeaux, they're actually thinking about their own trips to France. After you meet the winemaker, and you're drinking the wine, it's a much more profound experience.
Accenting the personal touch, Nieporent opened Crush Wine & Spirits a little more than a year ago.
"We have people come into our restaurants, drink our wines and often ask where they can find the bottles," Nieporent explains. "With Crush, we're able to refer them to a place where they can buy them. Now I can make a refferal directly to a store that I own." However, Nieporent acknowledges that the inventory goes way beyond that.
"True you can find many of the wines from my restaurants at Crush," he says. "We allow all the wine directors to be autonomous. The wine program at Crush is really headed up by two people, Lyle Fass, our wine buyer, and Tom Stephenson, our general manager. We have several thousand selections now, an that's been a tremendous asset to everything that we do."
Not so suprisingly, Nieporent is also intensely loyal to his partners and staff. "I think I have an obligation to the staff people who have stayed with me through the years," he says. "I have staff members who have been here since day one -- that's fifteen years. It's like having an extended family."
What's Next?
And it seems his entrepreneurial family will be growing somewhat more in the immediate future with his latest project, The Virgin Spa at Natirar, with business mogul, Richard Branson, set to open in 2008. The Virgin Atlantic founder will build a spa facility that will rival the greats spas of California and Arizon. The Virgin Spa at Natirar could well become the first great Hollywood East Spa, a spectacular estate located on close to 20,000 acres in Peapack, New Jersey.
"The Virgin Spa at the Natirar estate looks something like a chateau. It will be a spa where you can eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner," explains Nieporent. "Several yards away there will be a carriage house, and the carriage house could be seen as very friendly for the community. It will have top-notch food and a facility where you'll be able to have cooking classes, wine classes, and all kinds of special events based on acreage."
Nieporent will be putting his 20 plus years of experience into the two restaurants on the property. "One will be for casual everyday dining. David Rockwell is designing the entire facility, so that's something to look forward to. The other one will be more exclusive. There definitely is going to an organic theme. For the wine list, we are comtemplating buying somebody's collection." Joining forces with Virgin is another bold step for Nieporent. But, he acknowledges that each restaurant project he engages in, both on the beverage side and the food side, is not innovative without collaboration.
"There is a great dedication and commitment on behalf of the people in this business," he notes. "And, quite frankly, you can't ask for more than that."