The Army vet who became the king of Manhattan's social scene: New book lifts the lid on man behind '70s high-society hotspot Mortimer's - and his cut-throat vetting process that welcomed rich elite like Anna Wintour and [Truncated]

Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | March 23, 2022 | Tate Delloye

[Cecily]

For 22 years, Mortimer's restaurant stood as a high-society saloon on the corner of Lexington and East 75th Street in New York City. Wedged between a Catholic church and a now-defunct gay bar, it served as a private preserve for the kiss-kiss celebrity types of café society - and a launching pad for its proprietor's swift ascent into Manhattan's beau monde.

During any given lunch or dinner, one was likely to see Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis sitting pride of place by the front window devouring three little golf-ball sized crab cakes with her posse of Fifth Avenue swans that included Gloria Vanderbilt, Nan Kemper, Carolina Herrera, Estée Lauder, C.Z. Guest, Brooke Astor, Marietta Tree, Katharine Graham and Greta Garbo.

Legendary Vogue editrice, Diana Vreeland, had a standing Sunday reservation for table 1B.

Cosseting these famously high-strung guests was Glenn Bernbaum, a jaunty retired executive for the Custom Shop Shirtmakers, with 'Ivy League style' and trademark horn-rimmed glasses. He opened Mortimer's in 1976, with no experience in hospitality, and named the socialite watering hole after his boss at the garment company, Mortimer Levitt.

[Cecily]

Cafe society and its restaurants and watering holes seem to be gone with the wind. We may not have thought much of those people, but they were stylish and interesting to watch. Present day Kardashians and people of that ilk - not so much.

[shadeaud]

Miles apart are Class and Trash

[The Fop]

Watch any old movie or TV show from the 40’s, 50’s, even the 60’s..... People talked differently back then. People were more disciplined, more respectful, yet also more innocent.

[ifinnegan]

“Cafe society and its restaurants and watering holes seem to be gone with the wind. We may not have thought much of those people, but they were stylish and interesting to watch. Present day Kardashians and people of that ilk - not so much.”

Weird to say, the Kardashians are actually better than those people.

[Jamestown1630]

To me they seemed to live in a very small world, and despite wealth, fame - and in some cases real power - they seemed very fragile.

[Vermont Lt]

And what they could say in those mediums was literally restricted by law.

Yeah, those days were the best.