David Emil’s ‘Windows on the World’ was touted as the world’s most lucrative restaurant before the terrorist strikes of September 11 brought it crashing down 107 floors from the top of the World Trade
Centre.
Eight months later, Emil is embarking on a new venture, ”Noche” – a luxury Latin-themed eatery in New York’s Times Square which opened to the public on Thursday.
But the ghosts of the past and especially the 79 ”Windows” staff who died are ever-present.
Windows had been a landmark within a landmark, luring
high-rolling diners willing to pay top dollar for the unprecedented views it commanded of the New York skyline.
With an income of $37-million in 2000, it was far and away the highest earning restaurant in the United States and, according to Emil, the world.
”We never located or heard of a rival in terms of revenue,” the 51-year-old said. While Noche has no pretensions to that kind of status, it does reunite 55 of the 370 surviving Windows staff, who were not in the restaurant on the morning of September 11.
For Emil, the decision to hire his former employees was fraught with conflicting concerns.
”It was a very emotionally complex question,” he said.
”There was a worry that it could reinforce the sense of loss, because whenever we came to work, we would be made aware of the people who are no longer here, as well as those who are.”
But with New York’s restaurant industry facing a recession, the need to provide employment to as many of those who had lost their jobs as possible eventually tipped the balance.
”Whatever the problems, the most important thing is to have work,” Emil said, admitting that putting together Noche had been a personally stressful if partially therapeutic experience.
”I am happy with the outcome, but it was never easy.
”Any restaurant project is difficult, but it was especially hard this time around to dredge up the level of excitement and creativity needed to make it successful.”
Emil was in his apartment when the passenger planes were flown into the World Trade Center and he watched the two towers collapse on television as he tried vainly to call Windows staff.
In the wake of the tragedy, Emil co-founded a charity, Windows of Hope, which has so far raised $18-million to benefit the families of food-service workers killed in both the twin towers.
The charity’s policy of disbursing funds only to the relatives of those who died has been criticised by those who survived and now find themselves without a job and in dire financial straits.
”I can understand that response but the feeling was that we had to take care of the families who lost their main breadwinners,” Emil said.
”The ones who can’t find work are in a bad situation, but at least they have the chance of a job in the future.
”Those who died were often on very low salaries and had no life insurance, so their dependents are desperate.”
So far $6-million has been handed out in direct financial relief, while $5-million has gone towards providing health insurance and the rest has been allocated for scholarships for the children of the victims.
The original Windows on the World was created by the late New York restaurant owner Jim Baum in 1976.
It closed after the World Trade Centre bombing in 1993, but was relaunched three years later with a new capital investment of $26-million and Emil as part of the management team.
When Baum died in 1998, his share was brought out by the Emil family and David Emil found himself in charge of a cash cow with serious cachet and a lease that extended to 2022.
Now nothing remains except the memories and a bitter legal wrangle between Emil and his insurers over the compensation claim. – Sapa-AFP