Our Years at Mortimer's
O’Hagan, Helen. Our Years at Mortimer’s with Glenn Bernbaum. Privately Printed. 1998. Spiral-bound softcover. Book is in very good minus condition. Foreword by Dominick Dunne.
When Glenn Bernbaum opened Mortimers on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 1976, he had no idea it would become the zeitgeist-defining restaurant of 1980s Nouvelle Society. Friends like Jerry Zipkin and Bill Blass helped launch it by escorting their society lady friends there. But long-term it was a hit, because Bernbaum understand that the rich and celebrated enjoy feeling cozy just as must as the rest of us. They also like a bargain, which Mortimer’s was—providing one could secure a table. This book mixes social history, photographs, and recipes to recapture the Mortimer’s experience, without the risk of being directed to an obscure table wedged underneath the coatrack. Rare.
“Glenn always had a very clear picture of the sort of restaurant he wanted to have and the kind of people he wanted to have in it, and if a few people got miffed along the way because they couldn’t get a table so be it.”
--Dominick Dunne