The Four Seasons to Resume “Power Breakfast” Tomorrow

The Four Seasons dining room before (above) and after (below) the renovation.

The Four Seasons Hotel will reopen Seasons restaurant Wednesday, February 8, returning the city’s top “power breakfast” to its long-time home. The estimated $1 million renovation’s primary result is that the dining room, once mostly golden and beige and relatively old-school, now appears more modernistic, in shades of mostly gray, with artwork that is similarly muted in tone, nearly white on white. The new theme is in keeping with the sleek look of the hotel’s upstairs lobby.

Will the power brokers who frequent the room for breakfast care much about—or even notice—the decor upgrade? Probably not, as long as the tables are still well spaced apart and each regular still has his or her preferred table. Vernon Jordan likes to be center stage. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and George Will—not necessarily together—prefer to be a little more to the side, slightly hidden. The new room will be larger, so there will be more options for “power” seating.

The Four Seasons breakfast scene is about food, yes, but it’s even more about seeing and being seen with a little bit of table hopping. While patrons enjoy the high visibility, they want their conversations kept private.

The dining room closed in mid-December. During the renovation, breakfast service was relocated to the hotel’s ground-level Bourbon Steak restaurant. Back at the start of Seasons’ renovation, the hotel’s public relations director, Liliana Baldassari, said, “All the people who love it will still love it.”

We’ll be heading there on Thursday to find out for ourselves. Somebody has to do the tough assignments around here.

Carol Ross Joynt