Customer Reviews

The Russian Tea Room: A Love Story

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4 star:		(1)
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Even after reading it, one wonders how a young woman could make the transition from small-town life in the South in the 1940s to the fast paced life of New York City - and still keep her wits about her. Ms. Stewart-Gordon takes a candid look at herself, her successes and her failures alike, and comes up a winner. She has seen some good times and been threatened with some bad ones, and has dug her little Southern heels in like a real trouper to come out on top. I say good for her!

Piqued by the description, I bought this book for my mom for Christmas. She read it and then lent it to me. I just read it, and am now convinced that I should buy my mom another Christmas present. How disappointing. There is a great deal of interesting content here, however the writing technique (or lack of it) becomes an obstacle to enjoying it. It's like taking a ride in a psychotic New York time machine: The book jumps from thought to thought and from era to era. The services of a ghostwriter would have improved this story immensely.

In addition, it appears that the author is making the assumption that her readers are born-and-bred New Yorkers. She has opportunities to expand on aspects of New York life that would be interesting to outsiders, but she chooses not to pursue them.

When heralding the reopening of New York City's fabled restaurant The Russian Tea Room, a glitzy magazine headlined "Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams." Its new owner, the article trumpeted, unwrapped "a fabulous Faberge' egg of a restaurant"- 37,000 square feet, six stories of opulence including Tiffany glass-made ceilings and an ice sculpted replica of the Kremlin that is replaced thrice daily.

Despite the $22 million dollar renovation it's hard to believe that this West 57th Street watering hole for the glitterati could be any more exciting today than it was during the years described by Faith Stewart-Gordon in The Russian Tea Room: A Love Story.

A Southern belle and sometime actress Ms. Stewart-Gordon was married to Sidney Kaye, an exuberant, mercurial man of Russian descent who ran the Tea Room from the mid-40's until his death in 1967, when Ms. Stewart-Gordon took over the operation.

She observed the bistro's halcyon years - days when regular patrons were theatre luminaries such as Arthur Miller, Carol Channing (who brought her own food), Paul Newman (who delighted in arriving sans reservation), , Joanne Woodward, Liza Minnelli, Sidney Portier, and countless others. That was the time when Zero Mostel convulsed diners as he pretended to be a waiter, and a staff that was used to their A-list clientele surreptitiously watched Jackie Onassis and Mike Nichols lunching in the number one booth.

Born in South Carolina, the daughter of a woman whose only contact with a kitchen occurred when she heated canned mushroom soup for their Sunday night suppers, Ms. Stewart-Gordon seemed an unlikely bride for an urbane restaurant owner 18 years her senior. She had gone to New York City in the early 1950's in search of an acting career not a husband.

But, then a friend introduced her to Sidney Kaye, a man she describes as not "conventionally handsome" but "vitally attractive." Despite her gaff of wearing a "lime green nylon wash-and-wear dress" on their first date and following a two-year "Sturm und Drang" courtship, the two were wed.

Thus began Ms. Stewart-Gordon's initiation into the New York restaurant world. This was a turf where the pecking order was set in stone, and territorial lines were not to be crossed.
She learned this lesson well when she once made the unconscionable error of seating patrons when that was clearly the bailiwick of a haughty but able seating captain.

For a time following her marriage Ms. Stewart-Gordon focused on domesticity, even taking cooking lessons from a Cordon Bleu graduate. Regrettably, after tasting her Veal Orloff, Sidney returned to the restaurant for dinner. Only a minor setback, but she then centered on The Russian Tea Room until the birth of their daughter, Ellen.

Ms. Stewart-Gordon's reminiscences of life at the RTR (as it was known to insiders) is also a chronicle of business and Big Apple history. She discusses the 1959 launching of the Diners Club and its impact on the restaurant industry, the groundbreaking for Lincoln Center, the advent of new forms of dining, and other innovations that affected both patrons and owners.

These observations are studded with remembrances of the famous who happily swung through the RTR's revolving doors. While at times the author's attention to minutia can be tedious, such as a detailed retelling of her battle with City Hall, The Russian Tea Room is light, entertaining reading - often as spicy as a good stroganoff.

- Gail Cooke

I found the book to be delightful and.beautifully written. A wonderful glimpse of the backstage at The Russisan Tea Room .

I read Ms. Stewart-Gordon's book with great interest, as I worked as a waitress at The Russian Tea Room from 1971-1976. I learned a few historical things that I didn't know, and it jogged my memory on other items of interest. I also greatly admired the author's bravery and candor in describing her relationship with her daughter Ellen. However, I found the "behind the scenes" portions not as revealing and newsy as I expected. I found the book a bit dull in many parts, and it was poorly edited. I am, however, thrilled to have this volume to pass on to my son, as an important part of his mother's history, as well as a piece of New York City's history.

For almost a century Manhattan's Russian Tea Room was a magnet for patrons of the arts, from music and drama to ballet and publishing. Here the woman who owned and ran the restaurant for almost thirty years provides a survey of its evolution, from her initial dreams of a famous New York career to her marriage into a restaurant. A lively survey of a famous establishment about to re-open.