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Tribeca Grill will close on March 1
I know I have said this before but this time I really mean it: it’s the end of an era. A distinctly Tribeca one.
Tribeca Grill, which Drew Nieporent and Robert De Niro opened here in 1990, will close on March 1. Not only has it commandeered one of the most prominent corners in the neighborhood for those three and a half decades, it has also molded the spirit of the place: it helped cement Tribeca as a destination not just for dining but for everything else.
“It’s half my lifetime. It’s pretty amazing,” Drew said this afternoon. “Truthfully the covid thing really kicked our butt. The opening and closing and the uncertainty – it’s hard to get back on your feet.
“But in a way, I lived for this moment. As a young restaurateur, you thought, if only I can have a restaurant 30 years from now, it would be fabulous. It’s an institution. And it’s best to go out on top.”
The Brothers Nieporent — Drew’s partner for decades has been his brother, Tracy, and Marty Shapiro, all above (and note that original partners at Tribeca Grill included Bill Murray, Sean Penn, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Christopher Walken, Ed Harris and Lou Diamond Phillips — are hardly out of business. Their Myriad Restaurant Group also has Nobu in Fidi and on 57th Street, the Daily Burger at MSG and Crush Wine & Spirits. But it is, along with Bâtard nee Montrachet, their baby.
“Every train gets to its destination,” Tracy said. (I will update this post when I speak to Drew.) “The place has been doing a great job but its been 34 years — really 35 if you don’t subtract for covid — there are not that many restaurants that get to operate for that long and get to be part of a community like this one.
“I go downstairs and look at these plaques and see that the decades that have gone by. All those little league teams we sponsored – those kids have kids of their own now.”
“We have a wonderful staff in the dining room and the kitchen, led by chef Stephane Motir, who have maintained high standards throughout our history,” Marty Shapiro said in the restaurant’s formal announcement. “We’ve given it our best, but the economics following the pandemic never really rebounded for us.”
Just about everybody has walked up that loading dock. Just to name a few: Muhammad Ali (who did magic tricks), Bill and Hillary Clinton, Sugar Ray Leonard and Joe Frazier, John Kerry, a good part of the ’69 Mets roster. Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, The Rascals and Jackson Browne have played there. Nelson Mandela was there during his first visit to New York. “It’s a holy place,” Tracy said.
When they named the restaurant Tribeca Grill, the neighborhood didn’t really have any reputation or cache — it didn’t connote anything at the time. “It was just a leap of faith,” Tracy said. “And one restaurant can’t make a neighborhood but I think it contributed. From being off the beaten path we became the path.”
The brothers are also getting older — Drew was born in 1955 — and we all know the restaurant world is not exactly an easy one, especially in these days of crazy overhead. They gave up their office on West Broadway recently.
“As Drew said, even Phantom of the Opera closed eventually,” Tracy said. “Life goes on. It’s been a wonderful run. It’s a heart and soul place. We can feel some sadness but we cant complain.”
Below, an interview I did with Drew as Bâtard closed in 2023:
It’s hard to overestimate the effect that Drew Nieporent and his restaurants have had on the neighborhood’s dining scene over the past four decades (Montrachet, Corton, Bâtard, Tribeca Grill and of course Nobu) and his influence goes well beyond our little enclave. The restaurateur, who will close Bâtard, the third iteration he has run out of 239 West Broadway, on Saturday, redefined fine dining here in the city by absorbing the Downtown vibe and melding it to what had been, until Montrachet opened in April 1985, a decidedly uptown scene.
There’s so much to say about these restaurants, and a lot of folks have — Montrachet was the first restaurant Eric Asimov at The Times ever reviewed, for instance, and years later, it still moved him. Drew and his brother Tracy, who works on the communications side of Myriad Restaurants and for years ran NYC Restaurant Week, first invited me to Tribeca Grill to mark its 30th anniversary — that was February 2020. Then you-know-what happened, and here we are now, with a second conversation about the closing of Bâtard, which will serve its last meal tonight.
The brothers grew up in Peter Cooper Village — their father worked on Chambers and Broadway — and they both loved food from a young age. Before he opened Montrachet, Drew worked in the city’s best French restaurants: La Régence, La Réserve, La Périgord, La Grenouille. But he created something entirely new here — no “La”! — in a spot that was unexplored by the majority of citygoers.
In 1990 he opened Tribeca Grill with Robert De Niro, whose influence here is profound as well. And four years later they tapped LA chef Nobu Matsuhisa to open Nobu on Hudson and Franklin, and not long after, the more casual version — Nobu Next Door. He brought chef David Bouley east from California to Montrachet, and Bouley would go on to create his own Tribeca institutions. So really, it all started with Drew and 239 West Broadway.
How did you end up way down here?
I lived in the Village and jogged down here. It was quiet and I loved it, especially on Sundays. I jogged over to West Broadway to see this space — it was 1500 square feet for $1500. I had my life savings — $50,000. And everyone said, “Who’s going to come down here? It’s the end of the earth.” We decided to draw the bees to the honey. It’s a destination — you had to travel here. And that made it special. And then we opened Tribeca Grill and Nobu. My whole career has been based down here.
It’s been a fantastic 38 years. I opened Montrachet when I was 29, now I’m 67. It helps that I have a great great landlord. It hasn’t been an easy road — when you have three stars you have to live up to that. Every time you open a restaurant you open a vein. And every night you have hundreds of interactions and hundreds of chances to make it memorable — or hundreds of opportunities to screw it up. You can’t screw it up.
What was your first vision for Montrachet? What were you trying to do?
I had gone to Paris and Joël Robuchon [the French chef whose restaurants earned 32 Michelin stars over the years] had an $185 franc luncheon — that was about $18. I figured if he could do it, I could do it. I grew up with that Crazy Eddie philosophy — the best product at the cheapest price. Montrachet turned out to be a game changer. I charged $16 for three courses. I could have filled Shea Stadium with the people who wanted to come. And even now, Bâtard is well priced compared to other three-star restaurants.
When did you meet David Bouley, your first chef at Montrachet?
In 1983, I took a trip to California for the food, and on the last day I went to a restaurant called Sutter 500, where David Bouley was the sous-chef. He cooked a meal for me, and it was the most expensive luncheon I had ever had. Bouley cooked like an angel — amazing, like amazing.
Then I took an expensive trip to Europe and went to probably 20 three-star restaurants. Back here in the States, we were doing old fashioned food at that level, and Europe was doing nouvelle cuisine. Bouley was able to extract these original dishes from that tradition. Amazing. There’s a lot of settling for less now, I’ll tell you that.
How did you know you could do that, open a restaurant, at such a young age?
Ed Bradley interviews Bob Dylan and asks him, do you ever look at your songs and wonder how you did that? And Dylan says, “I don’t know how I got to write those songs.” And that’s how I feel — I don’t know how I did it. When you’re younger, you can just walk through walls.
[The interview goes on, and Bradley says, “What do you mean, you don’t know how?” And Dylan says, “Those early songs were almost magically written. Try to sit down and write something like that… I did it at one time.” And Bradley says, “You don’t think you can do it today? Does that disappoint you?” Dylan: “You can’t do something forever and I did it once. I can do other things now, but I can’t do that.”]
What’s one way you mark your legacy?
At the holiday party every year you see what you’ve built. Our employees bring their families, their kids. You want to keep gong as long as you can. It’s not just about you.
So, what’s next?
I feel great. Keep in mind, I am a restaurateur, and this business is like the movies: all the glory goes to the actors. You only know a few of the directors. Each restaurant was an individual idea, and yes, Nobu became a huge success, but they all started here with an idea. And I feel like I’ve gone full circle. I used to work at McDonald’s and now have The Daily Burger at Madison Square Garden. And it proves this expression I used a lot — the proof’s in the pudding. The food is the thing. The food has to be good. You can work in real estate or you can sell soup. We sell soup.
So I am slowly but surely trying to phase out. Tribeca Grill is 33 — we opened it in 1990. Nobu will be 30 next year. I still have the wine store on 57th Street [Crush Wine & Spirits]. When I was a younger man, the restaurants that lasted this long were institutions. Now it’s about the next hot thing. Outside Nobu, which is an enigma in itself and always in demand, it’s hard to stay hot forever. You have to work hard at it, every day. And besides, the next new thing is an old thing — they haven’t reinvented the wheel. I would dare say that David Bouley’s food or Markus Glocker’s food is still the best there is.
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While I do appreciate the history of Tribeca Grill and what it’s meant to the neighborhood, the service/food quality has been on a steady decline over the past 3-5 years. The past couple times I’ve been with my wife on a Fri or Sat night the place was only 40-50% full.
Sad to see it go but excited to see what will come next (hopefully not another L’abeille type of restaurant)
While I agree that the quality of the food and service has been going downhill, it’s still sad to see such a place close down.
I don’t really care what opens up in its place as long as they’re good neighbors.
This is devastating. Tribeca Grill has been our “home” for three decades. We’ve celebrated so many life events here. Drew is one of those who shaped Tribeca. Losing Tribeca Grill feels like a death in the family.
My wife worked there when I first met her. She worked for Drew privately and then at Tribeca Grill. We used to celebrate her birthday every year there. By chance we were gonna go there last week after many years and now I’m sad to see that they are closing. We must go back one more time this month before they close. I met Robert DeNiro there and was taken up to the projector theater where they view their dailies when shooting in on location in NYC. I’ll be back!
I’m not sure what the previous poster has against businesses in the neighborhood, but whatever restaurant comes we will support it.
Every summer when we visited the city, we had dinner at Tribeca Grill with our family. The staff is so nice and sweet, and they have some of the best dishes. When you go down the stairs, its like a hall of fame down there. Beautiful.
Indeed as mentioned above, the place was not even half full on Fri and Sat evenings.We are definitely gonna miss this restaurant and its people. Goodluck and regards from Amsterdam
Tribeca goes through change. People need to leave their homes again and get out for dinner or HH. Stop shopping at Target too much (joking) but TRUE
Very sad to hear Tribeca Grill is closing. We’ve been going there for half its life —17 years—and always found it warm, welcoming, and a consistently good value. Thanks for a great run.
Very sad! And grateful to the Nieporents et al for many decades of warm hospitality and world class dining.
Very sad! And grateful to the Nieporents et al for many decades of warm hospitality and great food.
Truly a loss for the neighborhood. Tribeca Grill has been an institution that holds several cherished memories for my family including dinners with my father, cocktails with friends at the bar, birthday parties, engagement celebrations, guys dinners and most recently the go-to neighborhood spot for dinners with my children on Friday nights.
Sad to see it go, and hoping the wonderful space is occupied in short order by another ‘neighborhood spot’ for the next 30 years.
I’m going to repeat what I just said: This is devastating. Tribeca Grill has been our “home” for three decades. We’ve celebrated so many life events here. Drew is one of those who shaped Tribeca. Losing Tribeca Grill feels like a death in the family.
The time that I worked there in the late 90’s was formative to my career. I am truly grateful to have worked for such great people. Their passion for the guest was amazing. I am very proud to have been part of the Myriad team and their legacy will live on through the people that trained there and have gone on to impact the dining industry across the Nation. Bravo Drew, Marty & Tracy.
The Myriad Group brought great food and great fame down to Tribeca. It is a HUGE loss for us not to have them in our neighborhood! Drew and Tracy not only brought us wonderful food, the brothers gave us friendship and joy. The first time I met Tracy I was asking for a small donation to fund a play of mine and he hardly knew me. But I walked away with generous dinner tickets to ;auction off. I was stunned. Over the years we became FB buddies as well and I fournd him literate, wise and fun to spar with over baseball. Tribeca Grill was my go to place for friend reunions, family dinners, “take me to a real Tribeca place” place.
Godspeed dear Nieporent family.
Fond memories over 15 or more years of being a regular patron. It will be missed. Sincerely hope something as warm and welcoming fills the space soon. These spaces sit empty for far too long when they change over.
This is heartbreaking. I hate to see all of these restaurants close. What is the solution? How do we avoid more restaurants and Tribeca institutions from closing?
The loss of lunch crowds due to remote workers has been a big hit to these restaurants. Tribeca Grill hadn’t been open on Mondays or for lunch for years now. I don’t know how places like Wolfgang’s are staying in business — and now, with another expensive Italian restaurant coming into Sarabeth’s spot, Il Giglio might suffer (their prices are already very steep, and they are empty at lunch). Not sure what is happening with Viet-Cafe’s space. It would be lovely to have a “Restaurant Row” down here. Lively, vibrant, and varied in cuisine and price.
I will truly miss this restaurant. So many dinners over the past 23 years. Christmas Eve was always so special. Working with Tracy and Drew many years on Taste of Tribeca. Always so generous to the schools. Just recently went for Restaurant Week. Pork chop was outstanding. Definitely the end of an era but thank you so much for everything you did to shape the neighborhood.
What an unfair dig at another excellent local restaurant! L’abeille has delicious and creative food, and their wine list is fantastic and very reasonable. It’s a great option in the neighborhood, and it has a lot of character—exactly the kind of place people should support if they don’t want the city to be awash in chain concepts like The Smith and whatnot.
Oh, how sad. I will miss it so much. Fabulous service, never rushed, very gracious. What a loss.
The Grill has always been my family’s favorite restaurant. It is very upsetting to see it go but I wish all the very best for the future.
This is a big one. My favorite neighborhood in New York City is changing again by Tribeca Grill saying goodbye. My heart is sad.
A familiar place for many years, and memorable times from many years ago at Tribeca Grill, discovering this very special area and this special restaurant. The people who work there are very kind and always nice to say “hello” It is a beautiful restaurant with beautiful exposed brick walls, having that downtown vibe that makes you feel like all well in the world so enjoy life! I will mourn. Sad to see you go. The best.
Christine Araman
I will never forget the delicious venison with cherries I had in the 1990s, my first. I happily lived across the street from the Tribeca Grill and it always felt like a warm and cozy club in the neighborhood. Perfectly dimmed lights, never too loud, beautifully prepared food. Tribeca was lucky to have it as its anchor restaurant, and as its steward, in a way, for so long. I will miss it as a New York institution, but the owners have that right. Thank you for creating a part of NY history. After I moved to the other coast I heard the small lot next door had been used as a triage center during 9/11, and I have no doubt they helped in any way they could.
The Tribeca Citizen is a valued part of the community, and I am very appreciative of the comments made here from many of neighbors, upon learning of our impending closing after 35 years.
There have been so many noteworthy events throughout the years, but the greatest accomplishment has been the ability to create meaningful memories for our guests. We’ve always felt that some of the most important times in one’s life, are enjoying a good meal and thoughtful conversation with your family, friends and colleagues. The neighborhood and our country have certainly changed dramatically in 35 years, but within Tribeca Grill there is the timeless quest to provide a short break and bit of a vacation from the pressures of the world. Having served good vittles for three and a half decades, we’ll say hors d”oeuvres instead of au revoir.
First time I ever had soft shell crab was at Tribeca’s family lunch. I was honored to have worked in that kitchen if only for a day (they gave Joanne Weir space to prep her meal at James Beard House when she was honored there and I was one of her sous chefs); I made lemoncello ice cream and olive tapenade that day. Great memories and a wonderful memory of Drew searing steaks for dinner service. Congrats on a great run and a well deserved retirement!
Tribeca Grill has been such a lovely spot full of memories both in the restaurant (wonderful meals with colleagues, friends and family) and as a landmark (I’ve walked by at least once a day for the last 10 years). It will be missed!
I don’t know why I feel compelled to chime in on the L’Abeille commentary but just to say I do hope the neighborhood retains some unique lower key but excellent spots (nicer than Walker’s but just as local and welcoming, not scene-y or solely seeking a Michelin star). It’s such a unique spot that Tribeca Grill held in the neighborhood! Always knew an excellent meal and welcoming environment was in store whether dinning with a senior executive or a toddler on a special occasion.
L’Abeille opened something next door which is much cheaper than the original. Pretty available on walk-ins during the week too, at least the few times I’ve gone.
There’s a reason why low key, more casual spots don’t really survive in this neighborhood anymore. Exorbitant rent, wealthy neighbors who are away for months at a time, and general cost of doing business in the city.
I’m not dining at places like L’Abeille, HUSO, Jungsik, and One White Street everyday, but I’m very happy they’re in the neighborhood and trying to make something work in this area.
The space on Laight street that was supposed to be a bar/restaurant is now turning into yet another dermatologist clinic offering the same botox, face lift, or whatever else. Is that really better than a Michelin-starred restaurant?
All good points!
Its truly the end of an era. Our family has many memories here and we are heartbroken to say goodbye.
SO sad! Another Tribeca institution bites the dust.
What remains now? The Odeon. Puffy’s. Walker’s. Bubby’s. Gigino. Duane Park Patisserie. Gee Whiz. Anything else?? It seems like it’s all gone (and Bubby’s might as well be seeing how impossible it is to get a table there with all the tourists!)
Remaining TriBeCa restaurants by decade they opened to the best of my knowledge – please add to this:
Before the 1980s: Square Diner, Nancy Whiskey Pub, Mudville 9
1980s: The Odeon, Zutto, Walker’s, Gee Whiz, McDonald’s on Greenwich Street
1990s: Bubby’s, Gigino’s Trattoria, Estancia 460, Duane Park Patisserie, The Hideaway, Little Italy Pizza on Park Place
2000s: Edward’s, Mr.Chow, Nish Nush, Burrito Mariachi – there must be more from this decade so again please add
Had our wedding reception at TG. It lives on with the many experiences shared there.
My wife and I married at the Tribeca Grill after they had been open for about a year (January 1992). Truthfully, we were so involved with wedding plans and starting a life together that we didn’t realize how much of a celebrity scene it was. We only knew that the space looked great, the food was fantastic and, most importantly, the price was right! The ceremony was in the loft and then we went downstairs to the dining room for a cocktail/wine reception while the staff reset the loft for dinner and dancing. The band we hired was the Hi-Tops – a swing band in which everyone wore red Converses – and they rocked the joint (this was before the big swing revival in the late 90s). Anyway, the food and service were on point, and I can honestly say that our 200+ guests all had a great time. To this day, we have friends and family spontaneously tell us it was the most fun they have ever had at a wedding — and they really mean it! Eventually we moved uptown (and then out of town), but we would try to get back for dinner around our anniversary as many times as we could. We loved seeing the staff age gracefully and the dining room and bar develop a lived-in patina. This year we couldn’t make it back, and I just saw the notice that it closed last week. Even though we are not part of the neighborhood, there was something comforting about knowing that such a place existed in such a location for such a long time. We will miss coming back but I agree with Drew, you guys did have a great run. Wishing you all the best!