Saturday 31 January 2009

End of an era


Image from 21 Club website: www.21club.com

The last restaurant in New York that requires men to wear a tie has finally given in and changed its dress code.

Jackets are still required, but while ties are "preferred" at dinner they are no longer mandatory. A sad development -- it was nice to know that there was one last holdout against casual dress -- but I suppose it was inevitable.

Alan Flusser, quoted in the NY Times, huffed "I don't think this sends the right message to young people."

5 comments:

M.Lane said...

I was sad to see this too. The only hope is that those of us that love places like 21 are self selecting in terms of our manner of dress. And, a jacket and tie fits in so well there...

ML
mlanesepic.blogspot.com

PS Welcome back!

heavy tweed jacket said...

An unfortunate development. I was recently a guest at a university club with a tie and jacket policy, and recall seeing someone without a tie turned away. The person seemed stunned. There was a day when men always wore a tie when going out to dinner.

Brummagem Joe said...

Here Here. You have to wonder why these sort of restaurants do this damage to their brand. I was reading a piece in December's VF where some very high end London eateries like the Ivy are dropping the tie requirement. The London theater depends on the tourist trade so consequently the audiences are usually made up of people in jeans, sneakers and windbreakers. Oh yes and baseball caps.

Hollister H. Hovey said...

The local CBS affiliate ran this news at the bottom of the screen every minute for hours two Sundays ago. Big news here in NYC.

Easy and Elegant Life said...

Good God! Is nothing sacred?

Can they be hurting for business that much? I realize that times are tough, but I was under the impression that a few New Yorkers still dressed for occasions other than business. Or has that gone the way of wall Street, too?