Page 103 - Architectural Digest - USA (March 2020)

ABOVE THE CENTURY-OLD LIMESTONE HOUSE WAS LAST RENOVATED IN THE 1950s. OPPOSITE A GUEST ROOM
FEATURES CUSTOM BUILT-IN BEDS. ON TABLE, LAMP WITH EMPIRE PAPER SHADE FROM JUST SHADES.

believe the working area should face a window, but rather and God laughs.” I think He must have gotten wind of my
face outwards to help promote engagement with people. plans because on the homestretch things started to go wrong.
Being no fan of symmetry, I like to break kitchen-counter About three quarters in, Augustine—the restaurant that,
space into sections using a different material on each surface. if well reviewed, was going to pay for the renovations—opened
At G.B.F. we made one counter out of hammered copper, another to lousy reviews. Two weeks later I had a severe stroke that
out of marble, and the third out of black granite, which was left my right side half paralyzed and my speech so badly affected
a mistake and I loathed it on sight. On every renovation there that whenever I spoke it sounded as though I were speaking
are always things I regret doing. (As in life, I wish that each underwater. But God wasn’t finished yet, because four months
renovation was a rehearsal for the real one.) The granite counter after we moved in, He delivered His punch line: My wife filed
was the one thing I regretted most at G.B.F. It reminds me for divorce.
of the type of counter one sees in a catalog of contemporary On the plus side, at least I could now change the black
kitchens. Unfortunately, it was chosen by my wife, and not granite counter. Except that since the divorce and the stroke
wishing to end up divorced I kept it. cost me an arm and a leg, I could no longer afford it.
A month after my divorce I opened yet another restaurant
THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT in all my renovations is lighting. in New York: a new Pastis. Fortunately, it’s been a success, and
Disliking overhead lighting, I use lots of wall sconces and my wobbly finances are finally stabilizing. But Pastis did more
table lamps. Because I’ve got a lorry-load of paintings, compe- than benefit me commercially. The rigors of building this 200-
tition for wall space between the paintings and the sconces seat restaurant helped me to rediscover my self-esteem, which
can be fierce. The only certainty is I’m going to regret which I’d been robbed of by both the stroke and the divorce.
of the two I cave in to. Nowadays I spend a fair bit of time in New York overseeing
Although it broke me financially (and in other ways too), Pastis and my other restaurants. But I also spend a lot of time
the house came out really well, and for once I wasn’t frustrated in the Cotswolds house, mainly because it’s still not finished:
by the end result. There’s an old Yiddish proverb, “Man plans I still have to change the black granite counter.

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