The Four Seasons Restaurant

The Four Seasons Restaurant

The Four Seasons is a New American cuisine restaurant in New York City located at 99 East 52nd Street, in the Seagram Building in Midtown Manhattan.

Opened in 1959, the Four Seasons is associated with a number of milestone firsts in the hospitality industry. The Four Seasons is credited with introducing the idea of seasonally-changing menus to America. It was the first destination restaurant to print its menus in English. It was the first US restaurant (outside of California) to serve American wine. The Four Seasons was also the first restaurant in the US to cook using fresh, wild mushrooms rather than the dried offerings that were more common in the 1950s.

The restaurant's interior, which was designed by the building's architects Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, has remained almost unchanged since construction in 1959. The restaurant was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as an interior landmark in 1989.

The restaurant itself has been widely praised, winning the James Beard Award in 1999. The restaurant is known as much for its clientele as its food, with its Midtown location making it convenient for power lunches.

Over a hundred items of serviceware were designed by Garth and Ada Louise Huxtable, everything from champagne glasses to bread trays. Today they and all of the Four Seasons Restaurant's furniture are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

The restaurant is owned by the Bronfman family, Alex von Bidder, and Julian Niccolini and, in 2009, has been the subject of a mockumentary and a children's book due out in August.

For the celebration of the restaurant's 50th anniversary, The Four Seasons has hired Manhattan Architect Belmont Freeman FAIA for a full restoration of the ladies lounge.