FEATURE

by Denny Lewis

If you were to film a thriller for restaurateurs, you might set the story in the start-up and build-out phase of a new restaurant. New York documentary filmmakers walk the fine line between comedy, drama, horror and tragedy in Eat This New York, chronicling the friendship, folly and frustration of two new Brooklyn restaurateurs on the path to achieving their restaurant dream.

The documentary film Eat This New York opens with that ominous message. At this point, the restaurateurs, chefs and general managers watching will already begin to feel a little uncomfortable. Through the course of the movie, as  two enthusiastic-but-inexperienced would-be restaurateurs strive to open their first restaurant, those restaurant veterans watching will squirm in their seats, break into cold sweats and stand up in a build-out flashback to scream, “No! No! We can’t be out of start-up money!”

For over a year, husband-and-wife filmmakers Andrew Rossi and Kate Novack documented the pain and anguish of Billy Phelps and John McCormick in their quest to bring about their romantic vision of the perfect restaurant. We become flies on the dusty, crumbling wall in the tiny location in Brooklyn that Phelps and McCormick try to transform into a neighborhood café, Moto, which will look “the way we wished every place looked…the café, the bistro, the corner place, the coffee shop, Paris in the ‘20s, or you know, the café scene.”

The romantic vision that every budding restaurateur holds dear is the hook for Novack and Rossi’s storytelling. They portray that vision as an everyday manifestation of the American Dream, whether the dreamers envision four-star dining, a chain of family restaurants or just feeding the hungry, huddled masses. The position of Phelps and McCormick as novices gives them even greater underdog status and appeal that makes you want to pick up a hammer or paint brush to aid them on their mission.

But Novack and Rossi are not so cruel as to subject us to a full feature of constant assurances to contractors or negotiations with chefs. They intersperse the dilemmas with glimpses through the clouds to Mt. Olympus, to the shining summit inhabited by New York City’s restaurant gods. We get Drew Nieporent receiving a lifetime achievement award, Sirio Maccioni wondering if it is all worth it and Daniel Boulud effortlessly serving a flawless risotto.

In these interviews that Novack conducted, we get to peek behind the public images of these culinary greats at the romantic visions that once—and still do—drive them. We can see the Billy Phelps and the John McCormick in all of the stately trendsetters. Who would believe that Sirio Maccioni would overbook a table for Frank Sinatra, Aristotle Onassis and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor all at the same time? Could we imagine Keith McNally managing a boutique in Paris? Was there really a time when Danny Meyer “didn’t have any systems whatsoever”? The interviews have a soothing, everything’s-going-to-be-all-right effect on the openly frayed-nerve scenario that develops between Phelps, McCormick, contractors, financiers and the Café Moto dream.

By the end of the film, we’ve traveled enough road with the partners in this buddy picture to feel real exaltation when the doors open for business. The lessons learned—not the least of which is taking a reality check on the incredible volume of non-stop hard work—are countless, but the over-arching theme might be: have more money and more time than you think you actually need. Through all the trials and tribulations, it is the vision and the enthusiasm that pulls the beleaguered friends through and shines the light of success on their enterprise. In the words of Gourmet editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl, “What makes great restaurants are people with vision.”

Consulting the Stars... Outtakes From Eat This New York

We have to constantly, perpetually recreate what we do…I don’t know if any Artist would be very happy to paint the same painting the thousandth time.

            —Daniel Boulud, Daniel, Café Boulud.

My managerial style was basically “monkey see, monkey do.” I just figured, “I will try to exemplify what I want you to do,” but I really wasn’t teaching anybody anything.

            —Danny Meyer, Union Square Café, Gramercy Tavern, Tabla, Blue Smoke.

In some ways, when you don’t have money, it’s much more fun. And you don’t throw money at problems, you have to solve them some way creatively.

            —Keith McNally, Odeon, Lucky Strike, Pastis, Balthazar, Pravda.

Even 15 years ago, my dream was to have one restaurant. That’s it. And for the rest of my life, do that restaurant. But when I opened Jo Jo, my little place over there on the Upper East Side, after a year I said, “I’m not going to spend the rest of my life just in that place.”

            —Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Prime, Rare, Jo Jo, Vong.

Montrachet, which was the first restaurant that I opened in 1985, was really 1,500 square feet for $1,500 a month rent. I said, “Man, I can afford that.” And I took a look, just this incredible little space on West Broadway. I signed the lease before we even raised any capital.

            —Drew Nieporent, Nobu, Montrachet, Tribeca Grill.

You know why I’m successful? Because I hate to work and because I hate this business. And every day, every moment, I have to promise myself to be good…Because when I come in the morning, I am mad. I take an espresso. My wife puts some ice on my head and they push me out of the house, okay? And every day I have to prove, because it’s much more difficult to prove it to yourself than to prove it to the other.

            —Sirio Maccioni, Le Cirque 2000.