Are New Yorkers afraid of heights while they’re eating? I’ve been searching for a restaurant located on one of the upper levels of Manhattan, and there don’t seem to be any. Is there some custom/licensing/tax thing that keeps the restaurants down on the streets?
Try “Windows on the World”, top floor of the World Trade Center
Oh, duh. Thanks.
Er, I stuck this thread in the wrong message board, but while I’m here… . why are there so few way-up restaurants in NYC? None in the Empire State or Chrysler building, or any of the other big boys?
Never mind. Dinner at WOW for me.
Oh, duh. Thanks.
Er, I stuck this thread in the wrong message board, but while I’m here… . why are there so few way-up restaurants in NYC? None in the Empire State or Chrysler building, or any of the other big boys?
Never mind. Dinner at WOW for me.
[[Er, I stuck this thread in the wrong message board, but while I’m here… . why are there so few way-up restaurants in NYC? None in the Empire State or Chrysler building, or any of the other big boys?]] (JamesGifford)
Best reasons I can think of is that they are office buildings, and having people tramping through the place would be disruptive…
Or possibly that space high up in office buildings is expensive, too much so for most restaraunts? Maybe construction problems, too, you’d have to run more sewer / water / gas and so on, the floor would have to be reinforced <Industrial stoves are HEAVY>, and so on…
Just WAG’s off the top of me 'ead, though…
I tried to contain myself, but I escaped.
[[…reinforced , and so on…]] (Me)
Mrph. My habit of putting things in brokets got me again.
Between ‘reinforced’ and ‘and so on’ was supposed to be [Those industrial stoves are HEAVY], but I used angle-brackets and it was intrepreted out of existence…
I tried to contain myself, but I escaped.
It’s not just NY. In Chicago, too… generally, restaurants tend to locate themselves on the top floor (for the view) or at street level (or perhaps first floor). Dunno why.
I suspect that a lot of restaurants in NYC derive a lot of business from people walking by at around dinner time who just decide to stop in. If you are looking to attract a lot of tourists or other first time customers, you are probably better off being located where it is easy for them to find you. The last time I was in NYC, my parents and I felt like we were being used as “advertisement” for at least one restaurant, since we were seated in the window, so people would see a family enjoying a meal, and know both that the food was good and that the resaurant was open.
As a New Yorker who picks and chooses her restaurant experiences according to fair price, good taste, and convenience, here’s my $ .02:
Are the eats good, and fast, and worth the price? High-altitude fare, unless we’re talking about an ethnic, local, walk-up joint, comes at high-altitude prices. The fancier the elevator, the more expensive the food.
No REAL New Yorker eats hi-rise unless his pockets are deep or the occasion warrants. New York’s true gourmands know that the best food rarely rises above the second floor, no matter how sublime the taste.
I’m a substitute teacher for the NYC Board of Ed, an Insurance Claims handler, and mother to a Kindergartener. Just TRY to give me a headache bigger than the one I already have!
Re one particular NY restaurant … Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse??? What the hell does that mean? What the hell is a Chris Steakhouse?
Ruth’s Chris is a national chain, started in New Orleans. The original Ruth, Ruth Fertel, bought the Chris Steakhouse (from Chris, presumably), but couldn’t use the business name in a location other than the original one, so when she relocated, she added her name to the restaurant’s.