Restaurant Associates' Sirhal Responds to Conde Nast Café Dis

Last week a reporter from the New York Daily News gave a not-so-glowing review of the new Conde Nast cafeteria at One World Trade Center. The café is managed by Restaurant Associates.

Earlier this week, Restaurant Associates’ President, and this year’s B&I Silver Plate winner, Ed Sirhal reached out to Food Management to offer his take on the Daily News’ report and how the new Conde Nast café is really doing. Here’s what Sirhal had to say:

“We were deeply disappointed to read the reprint of the “Anonymously” written NY Daily News article about the recently opened Conde Nast café at the World Trade Center in NYC in Food Management. As President of Restaurant Associates, and one who was intimately involved in developing both the original Frank Gehry designed café as well as the new WTC Café, I would like to bring to your attention that the vast majority of the Conde Nast staffers absolutely love their new café, as indicated by the results comparing the Gehry café to the WTC café: WTC customer counts are up 32% and WTC check average is up 13%.

"The new Conde Nast café is one of the most beautiful and most successful new dining venues in NYC and both Conde Nast and Restaurant Associates are very proud of it. I would challenge anyone to compare the guest experience at Conde Nast’s new café to the guest experience at any staff cafe anywhere.

"It is abundantly clear that the Conde Nast staffers are extremely happy with their new café—and I am not writing this anonymously!”

FM is taking Sirhal up on his offer to check out the Conde Nast café, so be on the lookout for additional coverage in the weeks to come.