Four Seasons Restaurant collection
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Abstract
Scrapbooks, ephemera, photographs, renovation files, books, pamphlets, audiovisual materials, and a few objects documenting the history of the Four Seasons, the pioneering restaurant of "New American Cuisine," located at 99 East 52nd Street, Manhattan, from 1959 to 2016. Its spaces, designed by architect Philip Johnson, included the iconic Pool Room and Grill Room—birthplace of the "power lunch"—and gained official New York City interior landmark status in 1989. The Four Seasons moved in 2018 to 42 East 49th Street, where it closed permanently in 2019.
Historical Note
When it opened in 1959 at 99 East 52nd Street in Manhattan, off Park Avenue, its $4.5 million dollar cost (about $40 million today) made the Four Seasons the most expensive restaurant ever constructed in New York. Under the stewardship of James Beard, the restaurant pioneered what came to be called "New American Cuisine" and is credited with introducing seasonally-changing menus, and American wines, to the nation.
Occupying ground floor space originally intended for an auto showroom in the Seagram Building—the only New York work of International Style exponent Ludwig Mies van der Rohe—the Four Seasons was designed by Philip Johnson and a team of consultants for Restaurant Associates, which managed it with the Bronfman family (owners of the building and of the Seagram Company) through 1973. The restaurant's interiors included two main dining rooms: the Pool Room, where live trees, changed seasonally, marked the corners of a 20-foot-square white marble water feature, and the Grill Room, where rippling chain draperies at the windows complemented artist Richard Lippold's quivering brass rod sculpture suspended over the bar. In 1989 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Four Seasons an interior landmark. (This designation excluded a key decorative feature which hung in the passage connecting the Pool and Grill rooms since the restaurant opened: Pablo Picasso's painted theater curtain for Diaghilev's 1919 ballet "Le Tricorne." Purchased by the Bronfmans for the space, it was given in 2005 to the New York Landmarks Conservancy. Sale of the Seagram Building prompted its removal and conservation in 2014. Custody of the curtain was transferred to the New-York Historical Society, where it remains on display.)
Tom Margittai and Paul Kovi assumed management of the restaurant beginning in 1973, passing control in 1994 to junior partners Julian Niccolini and Alex von Bidder. Under their leadership the Four Seasons played host to countless celebrity regulars, financiers, publishers, politicians, and fashion editors. For decades architect Philip Johnson had his daily private table in the Grill Room, where the concept of the "power lunch"—a working meal over which the rich and powerful discuss important deals—is said to have originated.
Through a change in ownership of the Seagram Building, the Four Seasons lost its lease in 2016, and closed after dinner service on July 16 of that year. In 2018 the restaurant moved a few blocks south to 42 East 49th Street, to a $30 million dollar space designed by Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld that echoed the décor of its original location. The Four Seasons closed permanently on June 11, 2019.
For further details see John Mariani and Alex von Bidder, The Four Seasons: A History of America's Premier Restaurant (New York: Crown Publishers, 1994), New-York Historical Society library call number F128 TX945 .5 .F45M37 1994.
Arrangement
The collection is organized in seven series:
- Series I.
- Scrapbooks, 1959-2003, 2005-2019, undated
- Series II.
- Ephemera, 1962-2019, undated
- Series III.
- Photographs, slides, transparencies, circa 1970s-2015
- Series IV.
- Renovations (original and new location), 1987-2018
- Series V.
- Books, pamphlets, and periodicals, 1971-2016, undated
- Series VI.
- Audiovisual, 1990-2012, undated
- Series VII.
- Objects, 1995-2018, undated
Scope and Contents
Except for two employee handbooks and an in-house operations manual [see Series II], this collection does not include the business records of the Four Seasons. Rather, the material is largely ephemeral in nature. A significant portion is devoted to scrapbooks documenting the years 1959–2003, presumably assembled by the restaurant's public relations staff from newspaper clippings, magazine and trade publication tear sheets, award certificates, photographs, banquet and regular menus, and invitations, all relating to events and people—especially celebrity diners—at the Four Seasons [see Series I].
Assorted ephemera dating from 1962–2019 complements the scrapbooks, and includes printed items, such as wine lists; matchboxes and a shopping bag with the Four Seasons logo; and a menu for President John F. Kennedy's 45th birthday dinner at the restaurant [see Series II].
Photographs document the Four Seasons' spaces, décor, and staff between the 1970s and 2015, with a large portion given to the kitchen renovations undertaken in 1997. Others capture owners Tom Margittai, Paul Kovi, Julian Niccolini, and Alex von Bidder posed with celebrities and world figures who visited the restaurant, such as Anne, Princess Royal, James Beard, George H. W. Bush, Barbara Bush, Bill Clinton, David Frost, Keith Hernandez, Philip Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Sophia Loren, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Lee Radziwill, Diane von Furstenberg, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and the 14th Dalai Lama [see Series III].
The collection contains a series of files on construction and renovation projects at the original (99 East 52nd Street) and final (42 East 49th Street) locations of the Four Seasons between 1987 and 2018; workaday topics include "Asbestos," "Bathroom ADA," "Exhaust," "Ice Machines," and "Plumbing" [see Series IV].
The restaurant's famous food and stylish interiors were featured in numerous books, pamphlets, and periodicals over its six-decade history, and the collection includes a selection of these, such as the Four Seasons Cookbook (1971), Dunbar Fine Furniture of the 1950s (2000), and owner Alex von Bidder's picture book for children, Wiggens Learns His Manners at the Four Seasons Restaurant (2009) [see Series V].
As with print media, the Four Seasons was profiled countless times by television news outlets, such as CNN, and was the setting for reality and scripted programs, like the short-lived 1990s soap "Central Park West" on CBS. The collection includes copies of many of these appearances, as well as wedding ceremonies and receptions held at the restaurant, on VHS cassettes, CDs, and DVDs, dated 1990–2012 [see Series VI].
Lastly, the collection contains a handful of objects associated with the Four Seasons, such as plaques displaying its 2014 Zagat restaurant review rating, and a hard hat with the restaurant's logo from construction of its final home at 42 East 49th Street [see Series VII].
Subjects
Organizations
Families
Genres
People
Access Restrictions
Open to qualified researchers.
The VHS cassettes in Series VI are restricted because of their fragility and because N-YHS has no equipment on which to play them. Similarly, the digital media (i.e., CDs and DVDs), also in Series VI, are currently restricted from access in order to ensure that the digital files are not accidentally corrupted. For further information please contact the curator of manuscripts at manuscripts@nyhistory.org.
Use Restrictions
Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to 20 exposures of stable, unbound material per day. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to:
Department of Rights and Reproductions
The New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024-5194
rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org
(212) 873-3400 ext. 282
Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions
Preferred Citation
The collection should be cited as: The Four Seasons Restaurant Collection, MS 3151, The New-York Historical Society.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection is the gift of Alex von Bidder, co-owner of the Four Seasons from 1994 through 2019. Most of the material arrived in 2019 (accession no. MS-2019-039), except for the files under Series IV, and some of the objects in Series VII, which were received in 2016.
Separated Materials
Some objects from this collection have been transferred to the custody of the New-York Historical Society's museum division, including two neckties, a spool of ribbon, a Four Seasons table lamp, a wooden model of the new Four Seasons restaurant, and seven framed medals awarded to the Four Seasons by the James Beard Foundation and DiRoNa (Distinguished Restaurants of North America).
About this Guide
Processing Information
Archivist Joseph Ditta arranged and described this collection in January-February 2020.