Famed Restaurateur Recalls a Career on the Front Lines of Fine Dining

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By Beth Saulnier

For the record: Drew Nieporent ’77 did not come up with the title of his memoir—but, grudgingly and with a bit of a rueful chuckle, he’ll acknowledge that maybe it’s apropos.

The book, released in September 2025, is called I’m Not Trying to Be Difficult: Stories from the Restaurant Trenches. In it, he recalls some four decades as one of the nation’s leading restaurateurs—a creative force behind such storied, critically acclaimed NYC eateries as Montrachet, Tribeca Grill, and Nobu.

“My partners were difficult—but guess what? They saw me as difficult. I wasn’t trying to be difficult, but that’s the way they saw me. So that’s the way it was. I got into these situations because I have a big mouth.”

Nieporent’s memoir—penned by Jamie Feldmar, an L.A.-based ghostwriter who has worked on several chefs’ cookbooks—opens with a 9-year-old Drew glued to the radio during the 1964 World Heavyweight Championship bout between Sonny Liston and an up-and-comer called Cassius Clay.

Nieporent chronicles not only stunning successes, fully booked dining rooms, and three-star New York Times reviews, but dust-ups with chefs, partners, staff, and even the occasional customer.

Clay, of course, will win the fight and go on to change his name to Muhammad Ali. And for Nieporent, Ali will become a lifelong idol—one whom he’ll actually meet one day, when the champ, by then suffering from Parkinson’s disease, dines at Nobu.

“He was this amazing figure in the ’60s; he was extremely charismatic and very articulate, and he backed up everything he said,” Nieporent observes. “In life, you have certain dreams and aspirations, but sometimes you can’t meet them. In his case, he met the moment, and that was a standard for me. He said, ‘I am the greatest’; I wanted to be the greatest at what I did.”

Nieporent grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in a large middle-class apartment complex near the river. His mom had been a child actress who later became a casting director for a major ad agency, his dad worked for the New York State Liquor Authority—and both their careers would shape their son’s aspirations.

Part of his father’s job involved granting liquor licenses, Nieporent explains, and sometimes he’d move one restaurant or the other to the “top of the pile.” Their grateful owners would wine and dine him, with a young Drew often tagging along.

[Muhammad Ali] met the moment, and that was a standard for me. He said, ‘I am the greatest’; I wanted to be the greatest at what I did.

That sparked a lifelong love of food in general, and of fine dining in particular. Add to that his mother’s bent for the theatrical, and Nieporent became fixated on emulating the stylishly clad men he saw presiding over establishments where eating is both art and entertainment.

“My dad would take me around, and say, ‘My son is interested in the restaurant business,’” Nieporent recalls. “And the restaurateurs would always say, ‘You’re crazy. It’s the worst business.’ But they weren’t going to dissuade me. The more they talked against it, the more positive I was that it was what I was going to do.”

His first employer: McDonald’s, where he manned the grill during the debut of the Quarter Pounder—and, he says, learned a lot about the importance of cleanliness and organization.

(Nieporent has come full-circle on the burger front: for the past 12 years, his Myriad Restaurant Group has held the hamburger concession at Madison Square Garden.)

Having earned terrible grades, Nieporent admits to being shocked he got into the Hotel School; when he arrived, then aiming to be a chef, he was deflated to realize it didn’t offer a culinary education.

But he eventually thrived on the Hill—becoming a leader of Hotel Ezra Cornell, joining the prestigious Quill & Dagger Society, and savoring innumerable Sui sandwiches from the Hot Truck.

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He also faked his way into a recurring job as a waiter on luxury cruise ships during breaks, fibbing that he was adept at ultra-formal dining service—a trial by fire that he calls “easily the most important single experience I’ve had in food.”

Restaurateurs would always say, ‘You’re crazy. It’s the worst business.’ But they weren’t going to dissuade me. The more they talked against it, the more positive I was that it was what I was going to do.

After graduation, Nieporent landed management positions at established NYC eateries like Maxwell’s Plum, Tavern on the Green, and La Grenouille. He was only in his late 20s when he and chef David Bouley opened Montrachet in 1985, on a then-unfashionable block in Manhattan’s emerging Tribeca neighborhood.

The restaurant would earn a coveted three stars from the New York Times its first year—and hold on to them for more than two decades.

Other Nieporent projects were similarly acclaimed, particularly the wildly popular Tribeca Grill—in which De Niro and other celebrities were investors—and Nobu, which brought the legendary L.A. sushi chef Nobu Matsuhisa to NYC.

(Nieporent, De Niro, and Matsuhisa also opened a successful Nobu in London—but as Nieporent chronicles in the book, although he remains a partner in the first two, he was excluded from the brand’s further expansion, which now numbers more than 50 outposts worldwide.)

Nieporent calls working as a waiter on luxury cruise ships “easily the most important single experience I’ve had in food.”

All told, over the course of four decades in the business, Nieporent opened 40 restaurants, on both U.S. coasts and elsewhere.

The book, understandably, takes a deep dive into a half dozen and skims over most—offering tantalizing anecdotes from the industry’s front lines at every stage of his career.

“Nieporent revels in the world he details,” says a New York Times review. “There’s the headwaiter who ‘accidentally’ drops palmed bills from reservation-less customers to deftly calculate how good a table he should give them, and the old-school chef who drinks too much and sends out platters of strip loin that’s ‘borderline mooing’ to a corporate lunch.”

Throughout the ups and downs—including more than one chef who leaves to open his own place once Nieporent has made him famous—he retains his love of fine dining.

“You go to a restaurant in this realm, and you’re entertained,” he says. “The food seems to magically come out. You eat like a king. You pay at the end, but it usually doesn’t cost as much per person as a Broadway show, a major sporting event, or a concert. It’s the best form of entertainment, and it’s very cinematic. The whole experience still thrills me.”

It’s the best form of entertainment, and it’s very cinematic. The whole experience still thrills me.

But as Nieporent acknowledges, his workaholic tendencies and constant exposure to some of the world’s tastiest food took their toll. While he was fit enough to run the New York Marathon in his 20s, he has battled a serious weight problem for much of his life.

“I used to joke that I gained 50 pounds for every restaurant I opened,” says Nieporent, who has recently achieved a healthier weight on the drug Zepbound.

In 2017, he suffered a pair of serious health crises: first a stroke—“I came home one day and keeled over like a candlestick”—and then kidney cancer. Happily, he has recovered well from both.

Now 70, he’s focused on promoting his book, with appearances in major media like CNN, the “Today” show, and the New York Times (which covered him under the headline “The Incurable Confidence of the Man Who Made Nobu”).

“It’s kind of an obsession that will carry me to the end of the year,” he says of spreading the word about the memoir. “And then, maybe I’ll open another restaurant. Who knows?”

Top: Nieporent in his longtime "office"—a table outside Tribeca Grill on Greenwich Street. (All images provided.)

Published November 24, 2025

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