You’re the Tops

Recently, I had an outstanding dinner in an extraordinary restaurant—I use both adjectives deliberately. The place is The Cellar in the Sky, part of the restaurant complex on the ground and top floors (and some intermediate floors) of the World Trade Center 1 Tower in New York. When the twin towers of the Trade Center were built, the problem of how to feed the multitudes who’d be working there was an urgent one. The task of solving the problem fell to Joe Baum, without doubt the most influential restauranteur in the United States and a genius in his field—again I use the words deliberately. He was singlehandly responsible for the vast restaurant revolution of the late Fifties, when he changed what had been the only standard for restaurant elegance—French, with plush banquettes, etc. He created such places as The Four Seasons, The Forum, La Fonda del Sol, and the Brasserie, unforgettable for their food and surroundings: how I remember the collection of Mexican folk art in La Fonda, museum pieces all. Happily, The Four Seasons, though now in other hands, is carried on in the same spirit in which it was created.

Windows on the World, the collective name of the restaurants on the 107th floor of the building, occupy about one acre of floor space swathed in glass and with the most spectacular view in New York. The Statue of Liberty is but a toy way down below, the city’s skyline an airplane photograph, and, on a clear day, you can see fifty miles. In a snow storm, or when thick clouds swirl by, you get an even more extraordinary feeling of being in space. Starting with this unequaled view, Joe Baum has architecturally so arranged his restaurants that every single diner in the various restaurants, such as the Hors d’Oeuvrerie, the City Lights Bar, and The Restaurant, shares the view, thanks to the terraced tables. I’ll write about these restaurants and the ground floor establishment, The Market Place, some other time, because they all are differently priced and wonderfully out of the ordinary (you can also have private dining rooms with the same view).

NH

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Nika Hazelton

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Recently, I had an outstanding dinner in an extraordinary restaurant—I use both adjectives deliberately. The place is The Cellar in the Sky, part of the restaurant complex on the ground and top floors (and some intermediate floors) of the World Trade Center 1 Tower in New York. When the twin towers of the Trade Center were built, the problem of how to feed the multitudes who’d be working there was an urgent one. The task of solving the problem fell to Joe Baum, without doubt the most influential restauranteur in the United States and a genius in his field—again I use the words deliberately. He was singlehandly responsible for the vast restaurant revolution of the late Fifties, when he changed what had been the only standard for restaurant elegance—French, with plush banquettes, etc. He created such places as The Four Seasons, The Forum, La Fonda del Sol, and the Brasserie, unforgettable for their food and surroundings: how I remember the collection of Mexican folk art in La Fonda, museum pieces all. Happily, The Four Seasons, though now in other hands, is carried on in the same spirit in which it was created.

Windows on the World, the collective name of the restaurants on the 107th floor of the building, occupy about one acre of floor space swathed in glass and with the most spectacular view in New York. The Statue of Liberty is but a toy way down below, the city’s skyline an airplane photograph, and, on a clear day, you can see fifty miles. In a snow storm, or when thick clouds swirl by, you get an even more extraordinary feeling of being in space. Starting with this unequaled view, Joe Baum has architecturally so arranged his restaurants that every single diner in the various restaurants, such as the Hors d’Oeuvrerie, the City Lights Bar, and The Restaurant, shares the view, thanks to the terraced tables. I’ll write about these restaurants and the ground floor establishment, The Market Place, some other time, because they all are differently priced and wonderfully out of the ordinary (you can also have private dining rooms with the same view).