In the Magazine

A Look Back at Windows on the World; Three NYC Favorites Expand

A view from the top; the 107th floor, that is.
A view from the top; the 107th floor, that is. Photo: Ezra Stoller/Esto

Ten years after, this week’s magazine is all about September 11. “The Encyclopedia of 9/11” is an A-to-Z rundown of many topics, including World Trade Center restaurant Windows on the World. Ruth Reichl looks back at the 107th-floor restaurant, presided over by the tireless Joe Baum, and recalls that “From up [the city] it was a toy village.” Though “critics carped” about the food, at Windows, “you ordered like a Master of the Universe: oysters heaped with pearls of caviar, whole lobes of foie gras in Sauternes, burnished ducks and butter-braised lobsters.” In the end, “it was never about the food. It was about ambition and dreams. It was a temple of New York magic.”

Meanwhile, Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite notice that with the crop of Labor Day restaurant openings, expansion is the word. Mexicue, Fatty ‘Cue, and the has-nothing-to-do-with-’cue Terroir all have plans to roll out second locations this coming weekend. So direct your envy at your friends in the Lower East Side, West Village, and Murray Hill.

A Look Back at Windows on the World; Three NYC Favorites Expand