The Maître d’ Was God | Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
Why This Episode Matters
Michael Cecchi-Azzolina offers a front-of-house counterpart to the classic back-of-house memoir: a sharp, funny, often brutal look at how great New York City dining rooms really worked.
The episode captures a vanished New York restaurant culture in which the maître d’ controlled access and the rhythm of the room long before reservation platforms flattened the experience.
It explores how restaurants became the center of nightlife in 1980s New York, and how the city’s economic, social, and cultural shifts shaped the dining room.
Beneath the wild stories is a real…
The skinny
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