08/13/08 Greenwich Hedge Funds Not Welcome at Famed Eatery

Hedge fund managers are probably used to being considered next to various lower forms of life, but now at least one restaurateur has likened them to reality TV stars, as in, those are the kinds of people he does not want to see at his exclusive boite.

Editor-turned-restaurant owner Graydon Carter told The New York Times that the asset class and reality TV stars won’t find a welcome.

He was quoted as saying that the restaurant regularly screens out those calling from Connecticut’s 203 area code, known to be the home of many a hedge fund tycoon.

It is possible that Carter, who is the editor of Vanity Fair, might not be engaged in the kind of reverse snobbery that his exclusion list would imply. In addition to hedge fund executives, the restaurant won’t re-admit patrons who have been rude to the staff.

The Times article did not review the food, although it did note that $55 was a steep price for macaroni and cheese with truffles. Especially when hedge fund-types aren’t around to foot the bill.

An Insiders’ Clubhouse

By LESLIE KAUFMAN

FRAN LEBOWITZ, the New York City society commentator-at-large, tells of dining recently at the Waverly Inn & Garden in Greenwich Village.

Her companion was Toni Morrison, the winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in literature. When the two stepped out onto the sidewalk, the paparazzi who were waiting across Bank Street were stumped.

“Hey, Fran, who are you with?” they screamed.

Ms. Lebowitz is a friend of Graydon Carter, an owner of the restaurant — so much so that her likeness adorns the Edward Sorel mural in the main dining room. Still, she sighed at the state of fame as it relates to restaurant clientele....

....His second career, which seemed like a lark, now looks more serious. Last week, he and two partners bought the Monkey Bar from the Glazier Group, which had struggled to make a go of the place for the past few years. The Glazier family has been in the restaurant business in New York for about 25 years; Mr. Carter started operating the Waverly Inn less than two years ago....

.....In fall of 2006, the Waverly Inn began seating guests. Almost two years later, in what is becoming a long-running inside gag, the place is still not officially open. The phone number doesn’t work and “preview” is printed defiantly on the top of the menu. Clearly amused by his own cheekiness, Mr. Carter says he does not know when that will change. “Oh, we’re still trying to work the bugs out,” he said.....

.....Mr. Carter, too, insists that he is a man of the people, saying that his place “will seat just about anybody.”

Insiders just call Mr. Carter’s office directly but it is in fact possible to drop by the reservations desk at the restaurant and book a table for those netherworld hours before 6:30 or after 11:15 p.m., and on weekends from June through August. (The desk takes reservations for dinner, the only time the restaurant is open, just three days ahead....

...Mr. Carter and other insiders describe the cast of regulars — known to staff members as “friends and family” — roughly as follows:

Mr. Carter’s four grown children; Ronald O. Perelman, the billionaire; the Waverly’s landlord and his children; Barry Diller, the media mogul; two dozen neighbors who live within a radius of two blocks; Robert De Niro and Gwyneth Paltrow, the actors; Mr. Carter’s next-door neighbors, the fashion designers Calvin Klein and Donna Karan, often together; and a sprinkling of writers and editors from the Condé Nast empire....

...He said he tried to avoid “any stars of reality TV and hedge fund managers. For that reason, we screen calls from the 203 area code,” he said, poking fun at chateau country in the Connecticut suburbs.

That’s not all: “I don’t like people who are rude to our waiters,” he said....

....Has anyone been blacklisted? Mr. Carter won’t say, but Mr. Varda admits that there is one group. “B-list stars who call the paparazzi from inside the restaurant,” he said. “They are not invited back.” (Privacy is so sacred at the Waverly that Mr. Varda says he has stopped a major film star from photographing his own family at dinner.) Also, waiters have been dismissed for being overly attentive to celebrities.....

....These are uncertain economic times to open a restaurant, but so far, by all accounts the Waverly Inn has been lucrative. No one will say how lucrative, of course. But the Waverly’s prices can be precious, the $55 macaroni and cheese with truffles being the most notorious example. Ever cautious, Mr. Varda says that the downturn has been felt even in his hallowed halls. “Instead of paying $4,000 for a bottle of wine, people are paying $500,” he said....

Please Also See:

Graydon Carter Now A Restaurant Mogul, Too
The Business Sheet, NY

Hedge-Fund Managers Are Not Welcome at the Waverly
New York Magazine

Rules Of The Waverly Inn
Gawker

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