Did you think your generation invented “theming”?
Jerome Brody died in May, at 78. If you've ever ducked into the Oyster Bar, had a steak and a Chivas at Gallagher's, sat around The Pool at The Four Seasons or fox-trotted in the Rainbow Room, you know Jerry Brody. And the clear images conjured by the mention of those New York joints is a testament to this restaurateur's work.
Working in the 1950s with Joseph Baum at Restaurant Associates, Brody – neither chef nor designer, simply shrewd observer – sensed that good food alone wasn't enough in a fine-dining mecca like New York. So he created The Forum of the Twelve Caesars as ancient Rome in modern Manhattan; La Fonda del Sol as a flamboyant Mexican experience with an Alexander Girard design; and his masterpiece Four Seasons as pure Manhattan cosmopolitan elegance. With Mies van der Rohe's Seagram's Building as their stage, Philip Johnson and Eero Saarinen created the understated, classic urban experience. There are Lichtenstein lithographs, LeVa drawings, Miró tapestries and a Larry Rivers oil on canvas casually displayed around the rooms. A stage curtain designed by Picasso for a 1920 Paris theatrical production hangs nonchalantly in a corridor.
As manager of the Rainbow Room in the 1960s and 70s, Brody saw the scene of choice change from stylish clubs to energetic discos. But the Room remained in style. Brody took advantage of the essential sophistication that rooftop location represented to people – both to old-line Manhattanites and new émigrés.
From the stars, Brody plunged into the catacombs of Grand Central Station. The old terminal was dark and grimy, its underground Oyster Bar uninviting. Have you seen it today? Bright, lively and bustling under the vaulted, tiled ceiling. (That ceiling was imitated, almost tile by tile, in an Atlanta basement venue called The Lobster Bar.)
Good steakhouses abound in New York. But Brody saw that Gallagher's was about sports – red-blooded and manly, the hangout of boxers and ballplayers, fans and sportswriters. Under his guidance, the restaurant grabbed onto its athletic past, re-associating itself with the historic New York sports scene. Photos of guys named Joe (Louis, DiMaggio, Namath, Frazier) and others were showcased around the room.
Brody made it inviting for the Yankees and Knicks to hold events there. And wasn't Gallagher's among the first to display he-man slabs of beef in its windows? Brody also understood the love/hate relationship between New York and the rest of the country. Out-of towners resent the arrogance and aggressiveness, but admire the city's supremacy in finance, retail, theater, media, fashion, the arts and, yes, restaurants. There are now Gallagher's in Las Vegas and Denver, Oyster Bars soon to open in Kansas City and San Antonio.
In fact, the theme that Brody seemed to understand and capitalized on – whether in the shimmering Rainbow Room or the streetwise Oyster Bar or the burly Gallagher's – was New York! And he didn't do it by re-creating Central Park or a Greenwich Village street. (He left that to a Las Vegas hotelier.) He did it with architecture, visual touches, furnishings and the way of making you feel an insider, part of the action.
Jerry Brody didn't know he was theming. But he left a blueprint to follow.