Why Dine at the RH Restaurant, From the Brand Formerly Called Restoration Hardware? We’ll Find Out: Is It Just Too Clean?
When the restaurant-restaurant industry started talking about its future, a former longtime employer of restauranteurs came to the fore: Restoration Hardware, once the brand formerly known as Restoration Hardware.
The restaurateur, Jerry Seinfeld, had spent years looking for his next business and finally settled on Restoration Hardware, with an owner he had met while working as a customer service representative at a used furniture store in the early 1980s. He decided to open a restaurant based on the experience he had gained there.
“I figured I could open this in about 15 minutes. I’d have a line and we’d get out there and the first thing you know,” he recalled. “People would be yelling, ‘Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!’ and I figured, ‘Okay. I know how to run a restaurant.’”
Restoration Hardware Restaurant
Restoration Hardware opened a restaurant in 1980 on West 54th Street and Park Avenue South.
“It was an instant hit. Every day, more people came in,” Seinfeld said. “We started working in here and it was just the people who are kind of loud and the people who are kind of quiet. But the people who are both who are really into the experience, they get into it. They have a good time.”
One of those people was Tom Schlesinger. His family had been restaurateurs at the same restaurant for generations. After seeing Restoration Hardware in action, he decided he had to try out the menu.
“I’d like to be able to say, ‘I’m sure going to have a great time’ and I’d like to say that on my 50th birthday, but I