The pandemic is wreaking havoc on Wall Street’s watering holes and high-end eateries – and sparking a feted Swiss chef to rethink who he is serving.
Eleven Madison Park may shut down permanently due to the global pandemic, chef-owner Daniel Humm told «Bloomberg». The 43-year-old’s restaurant, which shares an address with Credit Suisse’s Wall Street offices, is bleeding money fast.
A feted Swiss chef who began his career at Zurich’s Baur au Lac, Humm left Switzerland in 2003. Seventeen years later, he is a celebrity with three Michelin stars, restaurants in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, and five books to his name.
His star power is underscored by appearances on American late-night television (see below) and a high-wattage girlfriend, Laurene Powell Jobs (the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs).
Abutting leafy Madison Park, the Manhattan restaurant is Humm's anchor and a beloved spot for power brokers. An extensive renovation of the soaring Art Deco space three years ago added more neutral, muted colors, a lighter touch on textures – and spread tables further apart for more privacy.
Featured in «Architectural Digest» to coincide with the restaurant’s reopened, EMP represents a «cheery escape from the grim realities of GFC-cratered Wall Street,» Australian outlet «AFR» wrote at the time.
Emergency Loans
The pandemic, which is hitting New York especially hard, changed everything: Wall Street is working from home, restaurants and bars are shut for the foreseeable future. The city’s vibrant food and drink scene has been particularly assertive in asking for help with local and state officials, according to «The Wall Street Journal».
Even Humm (pictured below; Image: Eleven Madison Park) took $250,000 in emergency loans, he told «Bloomberg,» but he estimates it would cost millions to re-open once pandemic restrictions are eased. «I work with fancy equipment in a big space. I want to continue to cook with the most beautiful and precious ingredients in a creative way, but at the same time, it needs to make sense,» he said.
Unlike other restaurants catering to high-rollers, Humm has opted not to offer delivery of Eleven Madison Park’s food to its well-heeled clientele. Instead, he used the loan to convert EMP, which normally seats 80, into a commissary, turning out 3,000 meals a day for the needy. Humm called it his «biggest lightbulb moment».
Meaning, if EMP re-opens, he wants to keep feeding New York's hungry and homeless – but also Wall Streeters. «It's like a blank canvas right now, we would need to redefine what luxury means – it will also be an opportunity to continue to feed people who don’t have anything. I don’t need to only feed the 1 percent anymore.»
