The Tribeca Grill opened in 1990 in a building partly owned by Robert De Niro and housing the Tribeca Film Center. De Niro is a partner in the restaurant with Drew Nieporent. The building was formerly a Martinson's Coffee warehouse. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
“We’ve had a terrific run,” Drew Nieporent said, reflecting proudly on Tribeca Grill’s 35 years in the neighborhood, soon to end. “You know,” he added, “Phantom of the Opera’ ran for 35 years. It’s the longest running musical.”
This week the restaurant announced it would close on March 1. Founded at the corner of Franklin and Greenwich Streets in 1990 by Nieporent and Robert De Niro, Tribeca Grill helped establish Tribeca as a restaurant destination, with a celebrity cachet that has only grown.
Nieporent, 69, said the restaurant never recovered from its Covid-related downturn, when it went from a seven-day-a-week operation to five. According to Nieporent, 80% of the staff turned over during that time.
“I’d love to run this restaurant forever,” he said in an interview. “But the reality is that it has to be profitable.”
Nieporent is no stranger to the opening and closing of restaurants in Tribeca. Three of his—Montrachet, Corton, and Bâtard, in that order—once occupied the space at 239 West Broadway.
Montrachet, the neighborhood pioneer of high-end dining, opened in 1985. It was there that he met De Niro, a regular with his then girlfriend Toukie Smith, who approached him about opening another restaurant Downtown. They settled on the former Martinson’s Coffee warehouse that De Niro had bought for his and Jane Rosenthal’s new Tribeca Film Center.
(Stan Rosenfield, De Niro’s publicist, did not respond to a request for comment.)
Nieporent remains partners with De Niro in the restaurant Nobu, which opened down the block from Tribeca Grill and is now on lower Broadway. Nieporent continues to have a burger concession at Madison Square Garden and a wine and liquor store on East 57th Street.
Nieporent complained about today’s restaurant scene. “This generation,” he said, “it’s always about the new. Everyone’s looking for the next flavor.”
“It’s a lot to process and obviously I wish we weren’t closing,” said Marty Shapiro, 69, Nieporent’s managing partner from the beginning.
“There’s so many great things that have happened here and there’s just so much history,” he recalled in an interview, noting the wide range of events at the restaurant, from a New York Rangers Stanley Cup celebration to movie premiere parties to Nelson Mandela’s visit soon after his release. “It’s kind of mind-blowing when you think about it.”
Shapiro said he takes special pride in seeing many of the staff over the years go on to succeed in other careers. “It’s a very tight group,” he said. “We’ve really been blessed.”
And, he noted, “Being part of the Tribeca community has meant so much to us. It’s something that all of us will always treasure and miss.”
The Tribeca Grill space, Nieporent said, is owned by the investors in the restaurant, which will either decide to sell or lease it. And it may not be empty for long. “There’s a lot of very interested people,” he said. “There are some who would want to buy the whole thing. And there’s some people who would want to come in and rent the space for, let’s say, 15 years.”
“It’s possible it could be a quick buyer,” he added.