LOEWS Summer/Fall 2011 - (Page 54)
Loews Living the breakfast club Big names and key deals are what drive power Breakfasts at loews regency. BY KARA NEWMAN As charismatic in person as he is onscreen, Alec Baldwin strides by on his way to meet a group of associates. At a nearby table, former Right: Jonathan Tisch, Chairman & CEO, Loews Hotels and Co-Chairman of the Board, Loews Corporation New York governor and CNN host Elliot Spitzer shares a laugh with Christine Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council. Meanwhile, Al Sharpton holds court discreetly at table 21, his regular spot. On any given morning you may see both familiar and not-so-familiar faces here at 540 Park, the restaurant of the Loews Regency. These would include New York governor Andrew Cuomo, Marvin Traub (former CEO of Bloomingdale’s), Israeli President Shimon Peres, CBS president and CEO Les Moonves, Newsweek editor Tina Brown and Sandy Weill, former chair of Citigroup. On the surface, things seem like business as usual in New York. Then you notice that Blackberries are on tables, but turned off. No laptops are in sight. And diners clearly are having intense discussions while enjoying typical morning fare—in fact, there’s a distinct charge in the air. You can almost feel the weight of the loews magazine to the 1970s, when New York City was facing severe financial trouble,” recalls Jonathan Tisch, Loews Hotels Chairman and CEO/Co-Chairman of Loews Corporation. The city was teetering on brink of bankruptcy—even President Ford had declined to offer aid. “My father (Preston Robert Tisch, known as Bob) and investment banker Felix Rohatyn were working with the mayor to save New York City,” recalls Tisch. “My father said, ‘Let’s meet at the Regency, it’s easy for me, I’ll just take the elevator.’” As such, the first breakfast time regulars included Bob Tisch, Rohatyn, labor leader Victor Gotbaum, real estate mogul Lewis decisions being made just a few feet away. Welcome to the home of the Power Breakfast. THE TRADITION OF POWER BROKERS GETTING TOGETHER at the Loews Regency started almost 40 years ago. “It goes back 54
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