R.I.P. Power Lunch

The legendary Four Seasons Restaurant is selling all of its stuff.

By Stephen Wallis

Jul 11, 2016

http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a45933/four-seasons-restaurant-auction/

The legendary Four Seasons Restaurant is closing. That's the bad news. The good news? The objects that populated the perfect Philip Johnson interior are about to be sold.

Hello, Mr. Bloomberg. Welcome, Mr. Diller. Right this way, Mr. Lauder … Such is how things have been since the Four Seasons restaurant opened in New York in 1959, when the luxe modern dining rooms conjured by Philip Johnson became the original home of, as Esquire editor in chief to-be Lee Eisenberg later coined it in these pages, the "power lunch."

But the home of the power lunch is going on hiatus. On July 16, the Four Seasons will close. Ten days later, it will be cleared out: Wright auction house is selling the furnishings, tableware, cookware, and many other items that made the restaurant the icon it is.

It's a shocking turn of events—brought about by a dispute between the building's owner and the restaurant's longtime principal owners—that will see the landmarked interior taken over, old-guard regulars would say heretically, by a trio of buzzy thirtysomething restaurateurs. (The Four Seasons plans to open its next incarnation a few blocks away next year.) The episode has riled both powerful patrons and preservationists who decry the dispersal of Johnson's revered design scheme. It also means that some of the most storied and beautiful midcentury furniture in Manhattan is now available to own.

Six Eero Saarinen Tulip tables, specially made with polished-bronze tops for the lively Grill Room, are expected to bring in at least $3,000 each. The two classic Mies van der Rohe Barcelona chairsand ottomans that graced the travertine-clad lobby from day one are estimated at $5,000 to $7,000 for each pair. More than 200 of the Mies Brno dining chairs will be offered up, from pairs to sets of a dozen, with estimates starting at $1,000.

Also highlighting the 500-lot sale: banquettes Johnson custom-designed in a Miesian spirit, with slender metal legs and trim tufted cushions (estimates start at $2,000 each)—including the one installed around the Grill Room's table No. 32, where Johnson sat during his frequent lunches at the restaurant. "It was in the southeast corner, where he could see and be seen and command the space," recalls architect Robert A. M. Stern, outgoing dean of the Yale School of Architecture and a guest of Johnson's beginning in 1964. "Walking across the room to his table was like paying homage to the king." The estimate for that banquette is $3,000 to $5,000, but one would imagine that will prove conservative. After all, it's hard to put a price on a throne.