Alfred Portale of Gotham, New York City

Gotham Bar and Grill first opened its doors at 12 East 12th Street, along a tree-lined stretch of the city’s fabled Greenwich Village neighborhood, in 1984. The story began when Jeff Bliss, Jerry Kretchmer, Richard Rathe, and Robert Rathe, New Yorkers from diverse professional backgrounds, decided to open the kind of restaurant they longed to dine in: a breathtakingly large (at the time) but warm and hospitable destination that matched the ambitious design with sophisticated food and service and an egalitarian spirit, with not a bad seat in the house.

After a few months, the owners enlisted chef (and, eventually, partner) Alfred Portale, then an unknown saucier who had recently returned from working in some of France’s best kitchens. The rest, as they say, is history: The chef created an audaciously original menu (though perceptive observers noted that it was firmly rooted in time-honored technique) that perfectly suited the dramatic and soaring space and the public responded with an enthusiasm that has never abated; Gotham is still one of the most popular places for New Yorkers to dine, and a perennial destination for visitors to the city.

Gotham is the only restaurant to have received four consecutive three-star reviews from the New York Times, and in 2009 was named one of the most important New York City restaurants of the past forty years by New York Magazine. Additionally, the restaurant won the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award as Outstanding Restaurant in the nation in 2002, and Chef Portale was named Outstanding Chef in the nation in 2006. The restaurant also holds one Michelin star and is perched high atop the Most Popular Restaurant List in the annual Zagat Survey, ranking in the top ten for more than a decade; in the 2009 Survey, Gotham weighed in as the fifth most popular restaurant in the City.