Industry Insiders: Mark Grossich, Uptown Gentleman

Mark Grossich is the refined CEO of Hospitality Holdings, owner of elegant haunts like the World Bar, the Campbell Apartment, Bookmarks and Madison & Vine at the Library Hotel, and the Carnegie Club. He tells us of his mission to bring the sophisticated dram back to New York, holds forth on coke spoon hijinx, and caps off the night with a Shirley Temple.

Point of Origin: I'm from the Midwest, raised in Chicago. I did a lot of things before I came into the hospitality business, like washing the pots and pans in my family's neighborhood restaurants when I was about 12 -- casual places, the names of which I can't even remember. My background is in marketing, and I have a masters degree from Northwestern, which is how I got into the business. I owned an advertising agency, a modeling agency, and a public relations agency, another owner of which wanted to partner up for a cocktail lounge; he found the location, and I founded what would become Hudson Bar and Books. It was such a success that I transitioned out of the PR business and into upscale cocktail lounges full time.

You also transitioned out of Chicago and into New York. Where I’ve been into it for quite a while now, like 15 years, and have done some interesting things. I built places I’m comfortable going to; it’s nice to have an elegant lounge to go to. They were absent from the New York scene for decades until we brought them back. Lounges then became a part of things here. Hudson Bar and Books was unique 10 years ago ... we put sofas where barstools used to be. We had a dress code, so the clientele tended to be better dressed, more sophisticated—and they wanted a more sophisticated experience than dribbling beer on their running shoes. Not only did people read the books—they wanted to buy them! Someone would arrive, pick up a book or one of the newspapers, and read while waiting to meet somebody. Afterwards we created Beekman Bar and Books (that became the first Cigar Bar) and Carnegie Club.

But at the World Bar (in the Trump World Towers, opposite the United Nations), the barstools are so high you have to have hiking equipment to reach them. The Brazilian designer envisioned a stand-up bar, but women don’t’ want to climb the heights. My Portuguese and his English resulted in a particularly high bar, but that’s on our list to change. We did the Patio on East 47th Street, where the initial operators had a coffee bar. We served Moet, instead. The community approached me about taking it over, so I bought the license and got a liquor license. The park district assured us that we were a shoe-in to re-operate there, but we lost the space to operators whose only experience was failure. I have a penchant for the city’s landmarks, so when I was approached by the MTA (the landlord for Grand Central Station) to resurrect the Campbell Apartment, I took a look. We had the right concept for the place, but you should have seen it! The first thing I wanted to do was restore the space, bring it back to the 1920s. (Campbell was one of the money men for Commodore Vanderbilt’s terminus: he took the “corner office” on 42nd and Vanderbilt as repayment). The concept resonated with them, and with the hundreds of millions they were spending restoring Grand Central, another mil was a drop in the bucket. Now, people look at it and say “Wow!”, but the place was a wreck. The leaded glass windows were boarded up; the massive ductwork was hanging from what had been an elegant ceiling; there were workers’ cubicles all over the place. We hired the guys who paint federal buildings here and put them to work as if they were painting the Sistine Chapel, on their backs. We asked Mina Campbell (no relation to the original Campbell) who worked with Mark Birley on his clubs in London to do the restoration we wanted. We matched the colors and patterns of the original room to create an elegant space with the best of service, a quiet space inside city-within-a-city that is Grand Central Station. We attracted a significant destination crowd who wanted to take a train back in time.

Bet you wish you could get your hands on the Cloud Club. I wish. I was up in the Chrysler Building years ago where the Cloud Club was (railroad magnates made an exclusive club at the top of the building where Phillip Johnson’s architectural office is now), but the closest thing we could create in the neighborhood was the Bookmarks rooftop lounge in the Library Hotel at 41st and Madison. We were so successful at it that the owner asked us to take over the restaurant, so now we’re doing Madison & Vine. We’ve resurrected the wine bar, much as we brought back the upscale cocktail lounge. Now it’s time for a renaissance for the wine bar.

Any non-industry projects in the works? We do a lot of charity events, and I’m on the board of the Vanderbilt YMCA and the Grand Central Partnership. The hospitality business is an excellent conduit to all kinds of other businesses because it’s not just a business, but a lifestyle. Because of the World Bar’s proximity to the UN, there are a lot of charity events there. In fact [an artist] has a kind of melt-down fundraiser there, usually on the first Tuesday of the month where she melts weapons into works of art. It’s not like the old days when you were constantly out at every venue. Fortunately, we have 100 employees now, and longstanding people in senior management, so there’s more time to devote to good causes. There’s nothing like starting something, but now it’s exciting in a more businesslike way. Now, it’s a significant entity, so priorities change. We’re always looking for the next great space.

Favorite Hangs: My places, of course! I’m having dinner tonight at Madison & Vine for business, and pleasure, and I’m talking to somebody about a new space over drinks at the Campbell Apartment. But I don’t really drink; it’s business.

Who are your industry icons? The late Mark Birley in England with a long track record of Annabelle’s and the Carlton Club and, of course, Mark’s club. I have tremendous respect for Ian Schraeger—not only has he been a visionary, but he has exhibited impeccable taste.

Um, like the “Man-in-the-Moon” with a tasteful coke spoon at Studio 54? It was a great idea at the time, of course both he and Steve Rubell went to jail.

And it’s rumored that he met his next partner, Jeffrey Chodorow, in prison, no? My antennae went up on that one. It’s a rumor everybody’s heard, but Schraeger has transitioned from the hottest place in town to soignee hotels and residential real estate.

Who are some of the people you’re likely to be seen with? Out and about with my gorgeous wife, Elizabeth, and our teenage daughter, Katherine, who is not old enough to drink anything but Shirley Temples. I suppose that having a parent in this business is either a deterrent or an encouragement. Her classmates think it’s cool that we had her Sweet 16 party at the Campbell Apartment.

Projections: More and more we’re actively looking for the next great space, the next best place for an upscale cocktail lounge, the next wine bar. We’d like to strike more management deals with hotels to operate their lounges, and we’re looking through the softening economy to buy existing property that needs help. We’ve become pretty good at this business through the years, and businesses with a lot of vitality that have potential, but are badly run or have cash flow issues, are really attractive to us. I’m living my dream. I love coming to work because I love what I do. My staff is exceptional ... I have busboys who have worked with me for 10 years. It’s nice to be able to offer good people opportunities they couldn’t find elsewhere.

What are you doing tonight? Meeting a new possible landlord for cocktails and meeting a possible business situation for dinner. And because my wife and daughter are in Spring Lake, New Jersey for the summer, and as I’m not much of a drinker, I’ll cap off the night with ... a Shirley Temple.