Drew Nieporent May Be the Last Old-School Restaurateur Standing

Even as a kid, he didn’t eat like one. For sure, at 5 or 6 he’d kick his older brother, Tracy, under the table whenever his parents took the family to restaurants, but mostly he was paying attention, learning about the food of a time in Manhattan when the top restaurants served German, Swiss or other cuisines that are infrequently celebrated these days.

Drew Nieporent was born in 1955 and was obsessed with food by the early 1960s, before New York diners and newspaper critics became infatuated with everything French. “I had amazing exposure to restaurants of the ‘60s that nobody around today visited except my brother and me,” he recalled. “I had to parlay it into something.”

He forgot nothing, exquisite training for a child who would grow up to become one of New York’s pre-eminent front-of-the-house men and surely the most singular. Say what you will about his fellow empire builders like Danny Meyer, Keith McNally and Nick Valenti: As influential and successful as they have been as hosts, money assemblers and deal makers, none are still patrolling their restaurants with the same passion as Mr. Nieporent has.

In an age when marquee restaurants are often defined by their celebrity chefs, he may be the last of the great meet-and-greet men, a breed of owners who reigned over their personal dominions, the seemingly insignificant space between dining room and front door.