Morgan Stanley bankers may be banned from taking business lunches at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone in Times Square, but real estate players are still reserving tables.
A number of financial firms — including Lehman Brothers and Smith Barney — have recently closed off the restaurant to their executives’ expense accounts because of the scantily clad bikini-wearing wait staff. The policy is an extension of internal industry reforms that curbed Wall Streeters’ practice of expensing visits to strip clubs as “client entertainment.”
But for a party held last month, commercial real estate brokerage Besen & Associates’ Platinum Team brought more than 250 industry folks to the Midtown spot, known as much for its swimwear-clad servers as its gourmet grill menu.
“It’s a nice venue, and the entertainment added another dimension to just talking about real estate,” said Adelaide Polsinelli, senior executive broker at Besen. “It has a lot of energy while still an elegant restaurant. It’s a worthy business lunch venue.”
More real estate players are becoming fans of celebrity chef David Burke’s middlebrow eatery. Real estate investment trust SL Green is making plans to have its holiday party at the restaurant’s 729 Seventh Avenue location for a second year in a row.
That sits well with the restaurant’s owners, who, spurned by finance, are planning to aim more for the real estate world. They say the restaurant is misunderstood, with people often assuming it is an adult establishment — and not simply a restaurant.
“We’re marketing more to the real estate industry,” said restaurateur Dennis Riese, chairman and CEO of the Riese Organization. “They are the primary movers and shakers in our city.”