To many New York City restaurateurs, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, as that business keeps growing despite tight corporate travel budgets. Many business travelers, cognizant of the high price of dinner in the city, have shifted meetings to breakfast to save costs, and hoteliers meet that demand with new restaurants and innovative food.
Rae Bianco, manager of The Regency Hotel—one of the most storied locales for "power breakfasts" in New York from as far back as the 1970s—said morning business has only increased since corporate travel budgets were tightened following Sept. 11, 2001.
She said that lesser corporate spending had, for a while, made a difference in lunch and dinner spending. Not only did breakfast not suffer, however, "we noticed a slight increase. All of a sudden, family become more important, and [people] took a look at what really had meaning," she said. "Instead of staying out and having drinks with clients, they went home to their families. [Breakfast meetings] became a better opportunity to get stuff done in the mornings."
Plus, she said, breakfast meetings are more conducive to tighter budgets because the meal typically is the day's cheapest. "Smaller budgets totally embraced business people entertaining clients in the morning," she said. "If anything, our business has continued to increase."
According to BTN's 2005 Corporate Travel Index, an average New York City breakfast of two eggs with meat, toast, orange juice and coffee costs $12.66 in all restaurants—not necessarily those in hotels—far less than average lunch or dinner costs
(BTN, Feb. 21)."We get more business breakfasts than business lunches," said Nicholas Spurgeon of Mark's Restaurant, located in The Mark Hotel on the Upper East Side. "There was an incredible tightening of budgets after 9/11. Now, if it's good, people will come."
"The restaurant just celebrated its 7th birthday on June 1, and every year [our breakfast business] has grown," said Steven Pipes, general manager at the Parker Meridian hotel. "Demand just continues to rise." The Parker Meridian houses Norma's, an extremely popular breakfast locale, but Pipes' sentiments widely are echoed.
Like most cities, nearly all New York hotels offer some sort of breakfast option. At the low end, there are slices of melon and a croissant. Like most things in New York, however, the high end goes through the roof. Competition among hotel restaurants to serve buzz-worthy breakfasts is fierce. While this often can mean higher prices for the first meal of the day, it also can mean an experience far beyond what other cities offer.
"You have to have the usual brunchy-type stuff" to keep crowds happy, Spurgeon said, "but the key is innovation." On Mark's breakfast menu, next to the homemade granola with yogurt is a sour-cream-and-caviar omelette. For brunch, a gazpacho andalusian with brioche croutons and lemon mosto oil is available. With the search for a new chef nearly complete, further innovations are likely.
The champion of innovative breakfast food, however, could well be Norma's. "They're definitely the act to follow," conceded Spurgeon.
Norma's Pipes explained why. "We really took breakfast seriously as a real meal," he said. "A lot of restaurants in hotels will have one or two dishes that are a little bit unusual. We've tried to do that with about 60 of them."
At Norma's, French toast becomes foie gras brioche French toast with asparagus and mushrooms and Eggs benedict is served on a buttermilk pancake layered with Canadian bacon and grilled asparagus.
Such delicacies don't come cheap. Hardly any item on the menu can be had for less than $15. A glass of orange juice costs $7; a French press of coffee is $5 per person.
Travelers still turn out in droves. The same is true at the Regency, The Mark, Fifty Seven Fifty Seven in the Four Seasons, Blue Fin in the Times Square W; the Asiate in the Upper West Side's Mandarin Oriental hotel and Atelier, in the new Ritz-Carlton hotel on Central Park South.
As such, business travelers need to plan ahead. In New York City, having a hotel room key does not mean you'll have a table.
"I feel very sorry for hotel guests when they come down and see how crowded we are by 9 a.m.," said the Regency's Bianco. "You can see by the looks on their faces—'A reservation for breakfast? We just woke up!' "
Norma's doesn't take reservations, which can lead to long waits. The restaurant isn't known for speedy service, either. Pipes claimed it still serves plenty of corporate customers in the morning.
"We do a tremendous amount of business breakfasts," Norma's Pipes said. "A lot of media people come in, a lot of magazine people, TV people, celebrities, you name it."
Not all breakfasts need happen inside a hotel. If your travels take you through Grand Central, Pershing Square offers convenience and consistency. Located just outside the station on 42nd St., the eatery provides everything from standards like corned beef hash to such inventive fare as duck eggs with sweet chili sauce.
Sarabeth's just opened what may be its most business-friendly outpost, located on Central Park South between 5th and 6th Aves. The new restaurant is convenient to most Midtown businesses and hotels. Its casual approach to breakfast makes it a favorite of anyone looking for an unassuming place to conduct morning business. The chef and proprietor, Sarabeth Levine, is renown for her well-stuffed omelettes, sticky buns and a wide variety of scones.
For a real New York breakfast, one can always skip the restaurants and grab a bagel from the famous H&H Bagels, located on the far West Side, just north of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum is available if you're on the go. Its bagels also are shipped fresh to delis and restaurants throughout the city.