I’ll Have the Crab Cakes With a Side of Four Seasons Nostalgia

The first person I recognized, as he strode to his table, was Donald Marron, the private equity investor, art collector and former chairman of Paine Webber. Then came former presidential candidate and Forbes Media chairman Steve Forbes. Ian Bremmer, the founder of the political consulting firm Eurasia Group, sat at the table next to mine, his brow perpetually furrowed as he discussed America’s deteriorating relationship with China. Marie-Josée Kravis, wife of Henry and New York power player in her own right, sat two tables over. Lynn Nesbit, literary agent to the stars, was in the house. So was the investment banker Paul Taubman, and the business consultant Bill White, and … and … .

Which is to say, three weeks after the reopening of the Four Seasons restaurant, it seemed at first glance as if nothing had changed. New York’s power brokers, after having to fend for themselves the past two years, were returning, oh-so-happily, to their cafeteria, the midtown Manhattan restaurant where the power lunch had practically been invented, a place where the $65 crab cake and the $75 Dover sole was comfort food.