NEW YORK—Since 1972, Jean Denoyer has launched 24 restaurants, including three nightclubs throughout the Unites States. Each restaurant group has its own beauty, charm, and subtle personality, with similar menus and staffed with some of the most talented chefs.
From New York to California and places in between, Denoyer has left his mark in the restaurant business. In New York, people can enjoy dining at La Goulue, Le Colonial, Brasserie Ruhlmann, Orsay, Japonais and when you are in Greenwich, Connecticut, L’Escale. He was among the first to bring the French brasserie to New York and has established many of the most beautiful and refined French-influenced dining places in the United States. Many others have since followed his lead.
Born and raised in Paris, Denoyer lived in a hotel and had an extremely strict upbringing. “My father decided that I would be a farmer. We had a farm about 25 miles east of Paris and my father decided that I would be the farmer of the family.”
Denoyer worked the farm for three years, and when he was 23, told his father he was leaving for New York because his father had worked at the Waldorf there for three and half years and Jean thought that it would put his father at ease since he would be close to father’s friends. He arrived in New York in 1965 and worked for a friend of his father’s where, according to him, he “dusted pans at the hotel.”
His life took a different turn when he signed on as an agent for a French photographer and also managed a nightclub. At the nightclub, guests would ask if they could buy his jacket. At that time, according to Denoyer, in New York, most people wore polyester and there was no fashion. His clothes were European and fashionable. Denoyer realized there was a market for European fashion. He opened a shop called “Denoyer” on a shoestring budget on 60th between Second and Third Avenues. It was an immediate success. He started with men’s clothing and later expanded to ladies fashion. He got out of the fashion business because years later when Madison Avenue became packed with European clothing stores.
He first opened the renowned bistro, La Goulue. La Goulue, “The Glutton,” the name perhaps a reflection of its times, was started with money made from his successful clothing business. According to Denoyer it was the first French bistro to open in New York City. He worked and managed both businesses for a while. The restaurant became a success and was frequented by the rich and famous.
We met at one of his beautiful Upper East Side establishments, the majestic French brasserie, Orsay. At a corner table near the balcony overlooking 75th Street, restaurateur Jean Denoyer leaned toward me. “I am not a traditionalist. I like to put a restaurant together. I like to find a site that appeals to me, then rebuild, open, launch it, and go on to another one,” he said with a warm smile.
He pointed to the restaurant’s glorious interior, “this restaurant is full of French details from the 1900s,” he said. “The ceiling was recast in France, and shipped over in crates and put together by four expert plasterers brought over from France.” While talking about the hand-made, pewter topped 27-foot long bar, also assembled in France, he recounted with a smile that while putting the bar together, the war ended in Europe because they ran out pewter to make the bullets. He pointed to the exquisite floor, made with Italian tiles looking like waves of fan pattern, which was also assembled in Paris. The light fixtures he found years before at a Parisian auction house were designed by Louis Majorelle.
He commissioned skilled bronze casters to create the lamps that hang from the ceiling and on all side walls. The glass lamp shades were made in Brooklyn by a friend in the glass business, according to Denoyer, “the way dome glass was originally done in ancient Rome.”
As we were counting the number of restaurants he launched, I asked him what he would recommend to aspiring restaurateurs. This is a tough business, he said and he does not recommend it to anyone. Some of his restaurants did not succeed, and a quite a few were sold but he is still partner in 10 restaurants. He said that New York and San Francisco diners have similar taste while in Los Angeles diners have a mind of their own. He had opened two restaurants in Los Angeles but quickly sold them. According to Denoyer, it is good to fail because it is a proof that you are working. He keeps discouraging his own daughter from following in his footsteps.
Denoyer surrounds himself with the best managers and chefs, giving them the support, freedom to express, and the opportunity to make it. Denoyer is co-owner in most of these restaurants. He finds the talent, launches the restaurants, then offers them a partnership in the enterprise. “We are dealt one hand and we all have to make the best out of it. I cannot be in the same place all the time, it is not the way I function. I am a detail freak. I do everything with my eyes,” he said.
Denoyer works with many partners with whom he maintains strong ties. “I like to give young talent an opportunity to make it. I have very good chefs and front of the house people. I want them to stay with me and have a career with me. It is not a job, it is a career,” he says. One of his consultant and executive chefs, Mrs. Xuan Pham, refers to him as her idol because Denoyer is an innovative visionary with astonishing taste in art deco, and who faces adversity with an elegant smile.
His love of Ruhlmann’s work resulted in Brasserie Ruhlmann at Rockefeller Center, New York. The restaurant is furnished with copies of Ruhlmann’s work. He told me that because he knew Ruhlmann personally, he was hesitant to name the restaurant after the designer but changed his mind after its completion. Le Colonial, inspired by two films, Indochine” and the “Lover,” was frequented by actress Catherine Deneuve, who played the lead in “Indochine.”
A perfectionist attitude with passion, along with a strong belief in himself, appears to come naturally to him, although one can sense that he still thrives on new ideas and is willing to explore them. Denoyer has everything built in Paris by the best craftsmen to install in his restaurants. No expense is spared. Pointing to his heart, Denoyer said, “To be successful and to produce beauty, it has to come from deep down in your heart. It has to come from the heart.” Denoyer is now casting about the city for two other locations and expects to sign a lease to reopen La Goulue.
