When the Equitable Tower opened just north of Times Square in 1986, Seventh Avenue was still the Wild West for commercial real estate so the developers knew they would have to offer a lot of amenities to justify the Park Avenue rents they wanted to charge.

Part of the added-value came in the form of art—an enormous Roy Lichtenstein painting in the lobby, the very famous Tomas Hart Benton Depression-era mural “America Today” (since removed) on a side wall, giant Sol LeWitt murals on the east wall of the building facing a delightful, little pedestrian alleyway bordered by British sculptor Barry Flanagan’s sculptures of an elephant with a monkey on his back on the 52nd Street side and a spaced-out rabbit on the 51st Street entrance.

Perhaps, most uniquely, the sponsors set out to create three “instant” world-class restaurants within a few yards of each other on the property by offering long-term sweetheart leases to some already successful restaurateurs. Most prominent of these
were Gilbert and Maguy Le Coze, a then young brother and sister team from Brittany who had taken toute le Paris by storm with their magic with fish at a restaurant called Le Bernardin. Gilbert was essentially self-taught although he was encouraged by the man, himself, Joel Robuchon I had dinner at the original Bernardin in 1984 and if my memory serves, it was then located on Bd Haussman, in the Seventh arrondisement or perhaps lower Eighth. Anyway, it was five minute or so taxi ride from the Hotel Raphael at 22 Avenue Kleber.

I recall a memorable Dover Sole and Puligny Montrechet, with my friend Madame Tourvel and a school chum of hers named Matthew Gaddis, whose father, William, was perhaps America’s most famous unknown novelist in those circles where Saul Bellow and Philip Roth are considered top of the line. Matthew was then working for Louis Malle and Candice Bergen and I remember him saying that they were so in love that romantic music spontaneously surged into rooms when they walked in. But, I digress. The Le Cozes moved to New York and within a year or so had made the NY version of Le Bernardin one of the best restaurants in town and it remains so to this day although Gilbert died several years ago, quite young.

Louis Malle and William Gaddis are dead, too.

http://www.newmusicbox.org/chatter/chatter.nmbx?id=4897

As for the the conversation in the previous post, Harry, in the first line of Gaddis’ *Frolic* says -

“Justice? – You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.”

Ha! I dig.

“An artist is usually a damned liar, but his art, if it be art, will tell you the truth of his day.” – DH Lawrence

Composers should consider including more lies in their music.