The tips of the socialite’s skirts had barely dried from getting photographed in the Four Seasons pool, the checks had barely cleared on its big ticket auction and the plans for a coveted new restaurant were already being challenged. The Four Seasons restaurant, the ultimate Power Lunch locale, hadn’t even been closed a month. But there was a hole in its habitués hearts. To fill it, Oreya Restaurant’s Paul Michael had an idea. Or was it Four Seasons regular Joanna Fisher’s? Invite Four Seasons owners Julian Niccolini and Alex von Bidder to do a pop up night at Oreya at the Capri Hotel in Southampton. They loved the idea. Michael opened his restaurant on Thursday, August 11th. Fisher filled it.
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Joanna Fisher. (Photo: Rob Rich/SocietyAllure.com) |
It was the hottest dinner ticket in the Hamptons, selling out solely by word of mouth. The beautiful people spilled out of the Capri Hotel’s long restaurant into its large outdoor space. We were getting one more taste of the Four Seasons’ specialties, prepared by Oreya owner/chef Greg Grossman and served on replicas of Four Season plates.
Cole Rumbaugh serenaded guests with his repertoire of jazz and cabaret standards.
Many of the famed shuttered eatery’s regulars showed up, including Lucia Hwong Gordon, Patty Raynes, Jennifer Oz LeRoy, Lisa Niccolini, ABT’s Ashley Bouder, Felicia Taylor, Ray and Veronica Kelly, Marina Albright, Bonnie Pfeifer, Donald Marron, Dolly Lenz, and Jean Shafiroff who told us her husband proposed to her in the Four Seasons Pool Room.
Ah yes, the Pool Room. In its final months, there was much ado about that pool. In the winter, Joanna Fisher made news when she jumped into it when her mink and python jacket caught fire. In its closing weeks, everyone decided it was the thing to do. A new social divide developed: Those who thought one must jump in, those who thought one mustn’t. We even heard grumblings that it should be done at dinner not lunch. Where did Niccolini weigh in? “Jump in any time!” he laughed. The best news? These glam Four Seasons pop-up nights might become a regular occurrence in the Hamptons.
