Co-Owner/Managing Partner, Gotham Restaurant, New York, NY
Bret Csencsitz has more than 20 years of experience in the New York City restaurant industry. He launched his career under Daniel Boulud at Restaurant Daniel and Cafe Boulud before becoming the General Manager at Gotham Bar and Grill. With an industry focused on finding its new normal, we went looking for a story that reflects that challenge.
At the top of that list is Gotham. It is the story of a restaurant that was long associated Pre-Pandemic with an iconic chef: Alfred Portale. With Bret Csencsitz and his new partners at the helm, they are writing the restaurant’s next chapter. Gotham is seeking its new identity as it cultivates its loyal base of neighborhood customers that have called it their home away from home for the past three decades.
With that in mind, Total Food Service sought out Csencsitz to share his vision as life returns to normal. Bret and Gotham’s story also frame the strategies of what it takes to overcome the challenges that the last two years have brought our industry.
For over three decades Gotham has had a role in defining New York City cuisine. Can you share a bit about Gotham’s history?
It was a seminal period of time in American cooking when [Gotham] opened in 1984. The restaurant struggled, the whole industry of restaurants struggled that year. People loved it, but the kitchen struggled and the contemplation was, well should we close the restaurant? Should we sell the restaurant? And the original owners decided they would take a final shot on a young chef, and that was Alfred Portale. Alfred came in and revamped the kitchen and started cooking in that style that became known as the new American cuisine — fresh ingredients with French technique. Alfred had a great flair and so that just sort of launched the restaurant into a whole new chapter of success. So that was the history for 35 years until Alfred finally decided that he wanted to go do his own thing.
I came [to Gotham] in 2007 and it was my first ‘top dog’ restaurant. It was a very exciting opportunity for me, and [the owners] put a lot of trust in me. I got to put my stamp on the service, front-of-house, design tweaks here and there, and menu evolution. To be honest, I was not prepared. I didn’t have the skill set — but I definitely learned.
What did you see when you joined Gotham in 2007 and what changes did you make to revamp the restaurant?
What I saw, and I don’t want to be too pejorative, was it was slightly stale. One of the things that I did immediately was change the service system. So, instead of it being a waiter and a busser, I created teams and we went to a pooled environment. Everybody was working together and it wasn’t just the waiters making the money and giving a little bit to the busboys. It was the team collecting the gratuities and then sharing that. Employee morale was cynical. I worked very hard to turn that around, but that takes time. That’s the one thing about changing the culture, changing an attitude, is it takes time.
The biggest thing is showing up, being there, and being a person of character. I formed genuine relationships with all the employees. I know everybody’s name. I say hello to everybody. I say goodbye to everybody, all kinds of little touches that make people feel like they’re people
As a restaurant of its caliber and significance, how does Gotham relate to its neighborhood?
First of all, we’re in an amazing neighborhood, the heart of the village. It’s truly a magical place to be, but it comes with challenges. Holidays and slow periods of the year probably affect us greater than other places. We don’t have Midtown office buildings or the theater to rely on. But, what we do have is a lot of notable people, a lot of writers in this area, a lot of artists, and a lot of businesspeople live down here too. We get this incredibly complex and mixed clientele. The neighborhood is eclectic, but it’s at the same time sophisticated. So, we’ve always tailored our service and our environment to the people that come in and how they want to be treated.
Many of [our patrons] are here once a week, every other week. There’s a genuine sense of community, and the bar is even better for that. One thought when I was reopening Gotham was, we’ve always been associated with the city of New York. So we really thought about what that association means and the importance of what this city means to us — me and my partners but also to all the people who live here and come here to visit.
When you renovated, revamped, and prepared to reopen Gotham, you actually brought back the original architect Jim Biber. What was that relationship like?
I called him and I said, Jim, I’m thinking about making some renovations when we reopen, and I’d like your blessing. He said, great. So he came down and we walked through. At the end of the meeting, he goes, you know what? I like your ideas. Good luck, and he left. And then three days later, he called me and he says, I’ve been thinking. I want to do it. And he goes, but you can’t afford me. So I’ll work for food. So, he did it all, and it was a really magical experience to work with.
What was your vision for “modernizing” Gotham?
Well, obviously, I don’t think like an architect. So, it was great to have Jim. He said time to take [Gotham] from the postmodern period and take it into the modern period. He came in and elevated the columns a little bit, changed all the moldings, and reworked the entrance to make it very transparent. Now you can see all the way through the restaurant, from the street. It looks very wonderful.
One of the things we wanted to do is make the main dining room a little bit more special for people, and so Jim put these dramatic green leather couches in instead of a banquette. So now we have these really lovely tables that are very comfortable.
What is important about the renovation, too, is that everything, all the materials that we used were biodegradable and also manufactured using environmentally friendly processes. Leather-making, as it turns out, is very environmentally damaging. So, we have to use a very specific Italian manufacturer who uses green chemicals.
I want this to be the most meaningful restaurant in New York City. So, everything was thought about and meant to infuse this room with meaning so that when people come here, eating at the table, they’re surrounded by inspiration.
Gotham became known, among many other reasons, for its ‘parachute’ lights. How was lighting renovated while Gotham was closed?
That was a real conundrum: what do you do with these iconic fabric creations? Even though they were somewhat dated and they were going to need to be replaced anyway, none of the replacements we drew up felt right. Thankfully Jim has a friend, David Weeks, who’s a great chandelier maker out in Brooklyn, modern gently glass structures. I was completely skeptical that David would even be interested to do the project.
First he came in, he saw this space and he was like, I love this. So he started drawing and he created these fabric framed pieces. But he said, I don’t work with fabric. So, we found a Broadway costume designer who figured out how to sew and make these wings, these fabric veils for our lights. It was really this collaborative effort that evolved into the new Gotham lighting.
With Alfred Portale’s departure, a chef woven into the Gotham brand, how did you find a way to replace him and promote Ron Paprocki to executive chef?
Ron was our head pastry chef for nearly ten years and had worked closely with Alfred. He knew the place inside and out, knew what the customer base was and what they were used to. At one point Ron told me, I’d like to be the chef. I was kind of skeptical — actually, I was very skeptical. But we kept talking and after probably a three-month process, we said, alright, let’s do this.
The decision really came down to [Ron’s] character. He’s an unbelievably responsible, considerate, and caring artist. That was the real basis for the decision. I knew that he would figure it out.
With Chef Paprocki as executive chef, tell readers about Chef Jessica Lee, who takes his place as executive pastry chef.
Chefs Jessica and Ron share a lot of sensibilities. She definitely has her own stamp. She’s making a very interesting and fully developing menu of her own. Ron kind of left her alone for a long time and let her figure things out. She would ask him for specific advice or questions, but he really believes in the idea that this is her show now. Let her do her thing. You know, it’s an ongoing dialogue, but he hired her for what he saw.
As Gotham evolves and changes, so have trends in what people like to eat. How has the menu reflected trends in taste and palette?
There were a lot of conversations about what should the menu be. Healthy and sustainable food has always mattered to me as well. So, that became part of the conversation very early on. The sourcing has got to be even better than it was under Alfred. We need to ask: Where are we? How can we buy more local food? Where is everything coming from? so that was a big part of it in the beginning?
For me, it is about sustainability and being environmentally responsible. For Ron, he just wants the best carrot I can find. Those two priorities turn out to dovetail nicely. Obviously, we want the quality and we don’t source 100% locally. That’s just what we’re working with on a daily basis, more and more, and hopefully, one day, we can get there.
From a health perspective. We do have vegan options, and that’s something that Ron intends to keep up. I’ll tell you an anecdote about that. So he was looking for a dish, an entree, that would be vegetarian. He tried all kinds of things. He tried this, that, the other thing. He landed on a roasted celery root, which is common in parts of Scotland. He took the celery root, roasted it, pan-seared it, and slices it to look almost like a steak. And he pan sears it. Then, he saw chocolate beans and he thought, what if I’d get a sauce with cocoa butter as the base. That’s what it became and now it’s this amazing vegan experience.
How does artwork contribute to the Gotham dining experience?
So, I personally love art. I moved to New York originally to pursue writing, but when I got here I quickly got involved with theater troupes and young theater artists. Then, I eventually got into independent films. The one thing about restaurants is it’s a show every day.
During the renovation, the walls were now bare. I was like what are we going to do. So, I started calling friends in the art world with the vision of an art program that rotates and moves with the times. So, we have some pieces that stay for a while, but we also have a rotating gallery that will change more often. We also support an organization called Art For Change that helps emerging artists get introduced to newer collectors, and 50% of benefits from sales support charity.
40 years ago when you reopened a restaurant like this you may have run an ad in New York Times or waited for a Zagat Review. Today, It’s all about social media. What does Gotham have planned to market this revamped experience?
My take on marketing now is I always start with, what story do we want to tell? I really look at marketing coming from the inside out instead of saying, how do we get more young people, or something like that? I go, how do we do something inside that makes people want to come here and tell others about it?
I want people to think about coming here and having a meaningful experience. I use this phrase all the time: The more meaning we can create, the more people are going to want to come. So, when we use social media to market we do a 360-degree marketing plan where we try to capture what’s unique and special about Gotham.
To learn more about Gotham restaurant and Bret Csencsitz, visit the website
