Eldergays, tell me about the Windows On The World restaurant at the World Trade Center

A recent, now-closed thread.

I accidentally got fucked in there once.

I went twice with my parents, in '99 and in July of '01. The food wasn't all that great, but the views were incredible. I thought the whole place looked very dated and "80s," and needed a thorough makeover.

This was how it looked in 1999

[quote] I thought the whole place looked very dated and "80s," and needed a thorough makeover.

Well it certainly got one!

[quote]I accidentally got fucked in there once.

Surprise anal?

R3 can you explain in more detail?

I used to work at WTC in 1993, and would eat there occasionally for lunch or dinner after work. I loved it, and it was fun to have friends visit and take them up there.

They called it the restaurant of dreams, OP.

And it was. It really was.

Watch “Dressed to Kill”….a great scene in there.

R9 do you remember what kind of food you had there?

Went there for Easter brunch. Trip to the Easter Parade and then to Windows.

R12, I always loved the club sandwich for lunch. The occasional dinner could be pretty fabulous, with the upscale seafood dishes over the sunset.

I had my senior prom there in 1990!! Still have the commemorative mug they gave us too.

I had a bunch of business lunches/breakfasts there. Food wasn't bad, but neither was it remarkable. The views WERE remarkable. It was petty tough on a clear day to pay attention to some middle-aged balding banker droning on about debt to cashflow or reinsurance rates when you could see 75 miles out the windows. And I always tried to sit by the windows.

Meh food.

R15 cool venue for prom, for sure!

How many gay restaurant workers died during 9/11?

But "Dressed to kill" is transphobic and therefore CANCELLED R11.

My ex-partner worked there in the late 90s-2000, leaving less than a year before 9/11. I had dinner there about eight times, mostly because he could get a 50% discount for up to two diners for a certain number of times per year. The food was fine but again nothing creative or spectacular. The wine list, on the other hand, was renowned as one of the better in NYC. He worked in the wine program and snuck me a tiny taste of an 1834 Madeira once. Sigh. We attended the Windows on the World memorial service at St. John the Divine Cathedral a month or so after 9/11. We all cried like babies.

Probably all that wine.

No-one went there because of the food, OP...it was mediocre, at best, and sometimes, borderline inedible. I often took clients visiting NYC there for lunch, not for the food, but because of the view. Cuisine-wise, no-one misses it.

You like hyphens, don’t you?

Meh, it had nothing on The Penthouse at 432 Park Avenue!

Who likes hyphens? Are you lost, R24?

I had brunch there in the early to mid 1980s. I remember it had levels like in the picture above. The food was nothing to speak of - we just went there cause of the anticipated views which really didn't interest me. I do remember the air smelled like I was on an airplane.

[quote] I do remember the air smelled like I was on an airplane.

How very apt given that in its final moments it literally smelled like airplane fuel.

No, r26, not lost.

No one does not use a hyphen.

Oh, I see. Well, I like colons.

That’s cute. And I mean really. I’m genuinely not being snarky.

I like people with a sense of humor.

was the restaurant basically the same throughout the 80s and 90s? Or did it change?

[quote]Who likes hyphens? Are you lost, [R24]?

I prefer hyphens to hymens.

[quote] I prefer hyphens to hymens.

He was my favorite character in The Godfather Part II.

Was there a "peak era"? Was it more or less popular in its early years vs. late 90s/00?

[quote]I used to work at WTC in 1993

Do you remember when the truck in the basement exploded R9?

I ate there once in the 1980s. If you didn't look out the window, it could have been any of thousands of restaurants; nothing special at all.

Never went because I heard the food wasn’t good and what you were paying for was the view. I had a friend who worked as a legal librarian at a law firm at the top of one of the towers in the late 80s and I had been up to visit him a bunch of times so I had seen the view already in all its splendor and never bothered with WOTW.

In hindsight I wish I had. The story of the man and his two boys is one of the saddest things ever.

It was no Top of the Rockies.

It was a great place to go for drinks after work. Very New York Fabulous. But never known for the food.

I went there once in 1999 or 2000. My then partner thought it would be a treat. I'm afraid of heights so the elevator rides up and down were pretty traumatic and I couldn't really enjoy the view once we were seated.

Yes, great place for drinks & ambiance All about the view..

Once had a gig helping to decorate for Christmas. They really went all out, so they needed a few extra hands. Loads of trees, beautifully decorated. Magical. The guy who I worked for said when it all went boom he felt strange. Part of his grief was for the room. He said he could close his eyes and still feel where his little nails were set to hold various decors. Said it rally stayed with him. He felt like a weirdo to say he was grieving WTOW as well as the people.

Those towers were iconic. I rode up to the top once with some friends

R38 what's the story about the man and his 2 kids?

I love everyone acts as if they just ran in and out for lunch-on-the-go without mentioning the oversized utility service elevator with forty-person size capacity, transferring to another service elevator, several escalators, weights-n-pulleys, which floor is it? ears popping all the way up

Great view = Lousy food.

R36, I had actually just stopped working there. I worked at a contract job from summer 92 to early February 93.

I was at a different job uptown when the truck explosion happened and my mother completely freaked out and called me. When she couldn't reach me, she called the police to see if I was on the list of the dead. I was so embarrassed and annoyed. I got home to Brooklyn and my answering machine had a lot of chaos on it.

Oh, and maybe I'm the only one here, but I really liked the food there. I recall assuming the food would be bad because you are there for the view, but was pleasantly surprised. And yes, had many a nice glass of wine there too.

R 45..Stop raining on people's parade. You a misery guts we get it. Ok it wasn't fun for you..oooh those awful elevators. For some of us it was fun.. Half the fun was the tourists. Lots of them were like little kids in their enjoyment & excitement to be at WOTW!!So glad I lived through that time. Sad I lived through 9/11. Sad a dear friend was vaporized.

I was a kid when the towers opened and my mom won a work contest - dinner for 2 at WOTW around '79 or so. I think the price at the time was about 100 bucks. I though it was the most glamorous place in the world, and we probably still have the matchbook somewhere. When I moved back to the city after school in the 90's it was seen as a passe disco era relic. I believe they renovated the room and brought in a new chef sometime towards the end of the decade, the bar became hip for awhile and friends went to a wedding there in 99 - they said it was nice. I do regret never going.

"Dressed to Kill" is fucking awesome...so Fuck the trans!Don't force your

After the post bombing renovation

post 9/11 cultural piece

fake tranny bullshit beliefs on me. You would have never survived in East Falls in Philly.

Dressed To Kill was a fabulous movie, it really captured the sleaze factor of that era. And yes, it could never get made today.

My college classmate was in it at the time of the attack :-(

One could feel the building sway in wind while at WOTW.

Probably absolute horror to see the first plane flying into the tower from up there. All the panic trying to get down, into the elevator, the long ride down, the chaos on the street. Horrible, I still remember seeing people waving from the windows hoping somebody rescues them.

R44. A father and his two young sons were having breakfast there on 9/11 and died. Someone wrote a book about the final hour of their lives.

R57 is a not-quite-committed death porn queen.

Keep trying, honey.

"9/11 firefighter who found own brother in rubble dies of related illness"

So many sad stories around the WTC attack. 😞

The Blue Plate Special was SO *blue* that day!

The Glass Tower had better entertainment.

Nice story, r49!

Thanks for sharing that.

Remember when revolving restaurants were a big deal? There seemed to be at least one in most major cities in the '70s and '80s. Are they still a thing?

Tourists went there, for mediocre, overpriced meals.

Still a thing R64 , still serving “meh” food:

I worked at the WTC from 1980 - 1984. Was never interested in eating at WOtW as all of my co-workers said it wasn't worth the money. There was, however, a great little diner/restaurant in the lower level mall that had the best breakfasts downtown. Usually sat outside in the plaza for lunch. If I could find a seat.

I had to attend a corporate dinner there. All I recall was having to change elevators to get to the top. I do remember the clouds were beneath us that day. All very unsettling.

By the way, I’ve had many great restaurant and hotel experiences ruined by the stress of business activities.

R39 says it was no "Top of the Rockies."

I'm here to tell you, it was no "Windows 7"

R68 what year did you go?

[quote]By the way, I’ve had many great restaurant and hotel experiences ruined by the stress of business activities.

This! You don't really get to enjoy the experience.

Remember when Joan Rivers called one of her pals on 9/12/01 and asked if they wanted to meet her for lunch at “Windows On The Ground”?

R70, it must have been the mid-1980’s when I was there. Other than the great height, it was not memorable.

Went there in 1982 as a guest. The food was not that great, as mentioned above, the prices astronomical, the service relatively elaborate, but on top of that, the head waiter put two bottles of expensive wine that we never ordered or drank on our tab. Our host was in the restaurant business and was planning a very generous tip, but that little stunt meant a much smaller gratuity. When informed about the "error", the bill was corrected, but the head waiter never returned to the table nor did he ever apologize. That made me think it was probably a common practice.

found a profile. Starts around 8:30 in the clip

another clip

Didn't Sleepless in Seattle have a scene filmed there?

I ate there once in the 80s. I still have the restaurant matchbox, including the logo and phone number.

I am petrified of heights and would never go that high.

Wow, I forgot that restaurants used to have matchbooks. Different world back then.

[quote] I accidentally got fucked in there once.

I getted fucked in there too. But it was not accident.

I have a ton of old restaurant matchbooks going back to the '60s. What to do with them?

I went to NYC with a group of friends in college and one of the school group-included activities was lunch at WoTW. My little group was trying to get to the restaurant level and took a couple of elevators switching in the sky lobbies only to reach the floor two levels down and have the security guard tell us we had to take the express elevator to reach the restaurant level. I thought he was going to strangle me when I asked if we could just use the stairs to go up the two floors. A half-hour later, we finally reached the restaurant. It was a cloudy day, so the view was just dull gray. It was definitely not worth going there for the food.

In July of 2001, my parents visited me in Boston and wanted to see NY, so we took a weekend trip to Manhattan, saw a couple of Broadway shows and had fun. They really wanted to climb the Statue of Liberty, and I have a wonderful photo of them on the pedestal observation deck with the twin towers in the background. They did not want to go to the Trade Center as my mother is afraid of heights, and as she reminds me frequently, actually said "and I'm afraid an airplane will hit the building!"

Light candles, R82.

Here's a dinner menu.

r83 it turned out your mom was right!

Good thing the Observation Deck was not yet open for the day, as there would've been hundreds of more casualties.

"Sleepless in Seattle" has a scene filmed at the observation deck of the Empire State Building, but not at the World Trade Center.

God that's a frau movie.

Yes it is R88 but I recall a scene where she's eating in NY with her boring fiancé and they were very high up near a window before her running to the Empire State Bldg.

Just think, there are now apartments in NYC that are almost up as high as Windows on the World.

At least for the initial years, lunchtime was a members-and-guests only businessmen's club. A chance to have Vitello Tonnato, which came in a flat dish brimming with sauce. Tasted better than it looked.

At night the public was let in, but there were private rooms along the NJ side for hosting closing dinners and such. And yeah, the nighttime view from up there was magically memorable. Even of New Jersey.

The same people that ran WOTW, Restaurant Associates, also ran smaller eateries tucked away in a few places in the Towers. Good food at reasonable prices.

Erp!

Nancy Allen explains transsexuality in "Dressed to Kill" (1980)

Nancy Allen. There's an actress who was once everywhere and then suddenly was just about nowhere.

Marrying a famous director can be good for an actor's career. And divorcing that director... not so good for the career.

I forgot how amateurish her acting was. That scene could have been great with a good actress. And why didn't De Palma use the setting (views) more in that scene?

For all the Negative Nellys on this thread. If it was so Meh, or bad. How come y still remember all the details?? I tend to forget the forgettable, but that's just me..or is it?

Because the restaurant was forgettable. It was a modern building with modern decor. There are lots of ways to slice and dice that, but they all end up looking the same and never is it memorable.

But the view. That was the draw. That's what was memorable.

The tourists always gave it a buzz. They were so excited to be there. Corny, but cute!

How comes no one ever talks about the notorious tea room that was on one of the lobby levels and gay boys would go to hookup with Wall Street types and blow them in the stalls? A boyfriend’s ex had an ongoing fuckbuddy in the building he would meet up with there and who a decade on was still in a funk because he most likely died.

Tea room at Windows on the World? Nice. I never heard of that before and I lived in NYC for decades.

Now the tea room far underground at the PATH train station was the biggest and busiest tea room I ever saw. OMG. It was huge and you could easily find 20 guys in there cruising for dick. When the first plane hit the towers, my thoughts went right away to those guys. I hope they all got out. But if they cruising was good that morning, i think they would have stayed.

I was there for an evening benefit party in 2000, where I got to meet Tom Wolfe. A cherished memory of my time living in New York.

It was a big deal going to WOTW. Usually a special event of some sort. Of course you remember. Like a trip to Disneyland.

Nothing wrong with the food. Just with the buildup some people expected something truly spectacular. It's also no doubt true that as with so many places the early years were better than the later.

The problem with the food is, it took so long to get to the top, it spoiled a little on the way up.

My first job in advertising, in 1976, was to write part of a brochure for Windows on the World, the section on the wine room. I was there the same year for a Bar Mitzvah. I remember the view, of course, but also that the space was divided by short walls, over which you could see, that were made of a pale, salmon-colored marble. (Or did those exist only in my imagination?)

I don't remember the food, didn't like the ride up in the elevator, and am too acrophobic to really have enjoyed the view, so I didn't go there any more than I had to. I preferred eating in Little Italy, which I could walk to from the Village, so why go all the way downtown?

That Day, all I could think of were the people working in the restaurant.

Their resident wine expert seems to be still with us.

He may be with you, he’s not with me.

“With us”? WTF?

The shrimp and Cobb salad were delicious.

Who was the shrimp?

I can't imagine cruising for dick in the morning...just give me coffee and leave me alone.

I remember dining there simply because it was what it was. It was a unique venue. And like all such unique venues, there was another else to recommend it.

Not "another"..."nothing." Goddam spell-check!

[quote] I thought the whole place looked very dated and "80s," and needed a thorough makeover. Well it certainly got one!

That’s a good one, that’s funny

[quote] I can't imagine cruising for dick in the morning...just give me coffee and leave me alone.

Jizz in the morning was always tasty. Like the literal icing on the cake.

When my ex-wife was in the mood for it, we’d take the subway from Brooklyn Heights, and go up to WOTW, just for her favorite dessert, the Blackout Cake. This was a rich concoction, with a thick center like a kind of dark chocolate mousse, covered with a crusty layer of dark chocolate, not quite as solid as a candy bar. She loved it.

I was my then usual morose self, ruminating on hating myself for really being gay, but too scared to come out. (I never lied to her about this; it hung over our 15 year relationship like the later pall of smoke over lower Manhattan.) I also drank too much. So, while she would indulge in dessert, I’d have a quadruple Grand Marnier.

We’d sit in the central area, apart from the windows. Since we only did this at night, what we could see of the glittering view around us was always lovely. I can remember us doing this at least twice, maybe more. The latter days of our marriage had already begun to blur.

Even though she had had a high-power job in commodities in one of the smaller buildings at the WTC, by 9/11 neither one of us was any longer in New York. By then, I was out and sober and a psych nurse in San Diego, and she was with her much older second husband in Hilton Head.

They never updated their decor, it was like walking into the disco era. A real time warp. You half-expected to see Liza doing lines of coke at one of the tables. This was in the late 90s. My parents liked it, though.

did celebs go to the restaurant?

Windows On the World did a lot of private parties that were full of celebs, but I don't think celebs (at least not the big-name stars) just popped in for lunch or dinner during normal business hours.

In the series finales of THE NANNY (1999), Fran went into labor while stuck in the WTC/Windows Of The World express elevator.

I'd completely forgotten that until recently. (thanks HBO max)

Dude! Spoiler alert!

[quote]for her favorite dessert, the Blackout Cake.

Mmmmmm hmmmmm.

I’ve got my eye on you.

I should have added this was in the early 80’s. She and I divorced by 1986.

And the Blackout Cake wasn’t my favorite dessert. By late 1985, I was subsisting on straight bourbon.

I guess my favorite dessert back then, if any, was the Charlotte Russe which my then wife’s sister-in-law would bring to gatherings. Never had a lighter, tastier dessert!

And exactly what does SJW mean? I’ve never understood that.

It stands for Social Justice Warrior. It’s someone who’s actively on the lookout for things to be offended by, regardless of whether they’re actually offensive or not.

(It’s a joke.)

Thank you for the clarification.

[quote]They never updated their decor

That's not true. There was a total renovation in the mid 90s.

It still looked 70s.

[quote] There was a total renovation in the mid 90s.

And again in ‘01.

The architectural design of WOTW was such that interior tables were located on a level higher than those on the perimeter next to the windows. Entry was on the same level as the interior tables, and the ones next to the windows were reached by going down short sets of stairs. In this way, every diner had access to that stupendous view.

Though I don’t recall ramps or such for the disabled. This was built long before legislation enforced disability access, in 1990.

the restaurant was on 2 floors? What was the difference between the 2 floors? Or was the setting the same on both levels?

r114 You should sell the movie rights to your story.

[quote]He may be with you, he’s not with me. “With us”? WTF?

Is English not your first language? "With us" is a very common idiomatic expression.

My mother regaled me with how FABULOUS WOTW was and how one day her and my father would take me there for dinner. It sounded VERY exciting to my 12 year old self in 1978. But we never went there. In June 1979 my friends and I went to the top of the WTC and saw GREAT views from the observation deck. So I least I got to do that before the WTC was destroyed.

[R129]: WOTW wasn’t on 2 floors. It was on 2 levels. The level with the tables by the windows was about 4 feet lower than the central level. Short sets of stairs connected them. Must not have been very easy for the waiters carrying things.

Also, something else about the WTC that you don’t hear anyone mention was that there was an additional 1/2 Price TKTS. booth on the second floor. Much more accessible than the one in Times Square, and you didn’t have to wait online in uncertain weather. Also, it opened at 11 AM. The catch was that they frequently didn’t have the same shows available. And you could get there via escalator. And there was rarely much of a crowd there. I got tickets there a lot.

I had lunch there one time back in the late 70s. I ordered some sort of chicken entree, but I remember I was not impressed with it as it was overcooked and dry as a bone.

You weren’t supposed to eat the bone.

This is Data Lounge, baby. We all eat the bone!

R120 - I know you were joking, but Blackout Cake was an old school NYC dessert, still fondly remembered —especially by Brooklynites of my mom’s generation. I was a kid when the bakery that invented it, Ebinger’s, went under in 72, but can still remember eating it - people made a big deal if you brought one over. The pastry chefs at WOTW must have done there own take on the then recently extinct dessert.

r133 I used to use the WTC TKTS on my occasional trips to NY. After 9/11, they opened a new location at the Fulton St. Marketplace. So I went there. On the latest trip, I discovered there was a new one at Lincoln Center, which was much more accessible to my hotel in Times Square, so I began using that one. They all had the benefit of being open earlier in the day and usually having shorter lines than the main location.

[R137]: Thanks for the explanation. Since my ex-wife was born in Miami Beach, but spent her later childhood in Brooklyn, and even went to Erasmus Hall, she would have been familiar with Ebinger’s.

Your photo looks like the cake she coveted. But the outside crust on hers wasn’t conventional frosting, but a hard chocolate coating that could be cracked like a shell. At least that’s how I remember it. And it was more like a dark chocolate flavoring, with a slightly bitter edge.

It certainly sounds like a variation on the Ebinger’s original.

I meant to post this here but accidentally posted it in the Jumpers thread:

IIRC, WOTW was not open to the general public for breakfast but did serve it to people who worked in the complex.

As a college student studying hotel management in the early 80s, our college (Paul Smith’s) had a booth at the Hotel & Restaurant Show in NYC. I volunteered with some friends to man the booth. Afterwards, there was a party at the Copa for all PSC students (the manager was a PSC grad), but before that my friends and I rented a limo to take us around the city. One of the stops was the WTC to go have a drink at WotW. In the limo, I had taken my suit jacket off, so when we got out I just put my overcoat on and up we went.

Upon entering the restaurant, I was told “gentlemen are required to check their coats.” Since the dress code also required jacket and tie, I explained that I left my jacket downstairs. Didn’t matter; I still had to check it, but they would give me a “loaner” jacket at the coat check. I wear a 40 long. They gave me a 38 regular. I looked like an ad for a trip around the world and could not get out of there fast enough. I felt so ridiculous that I didn’t appreciate anything: the view, the drink, etc.

Long and stupid story, but this thread brought it all back!

The summer before 9/11, I went to the 103rd floor for an interview at Cantor Fitzgerald. The height scared me and it felt like the building was swaying, but I was willing to deal with it for the money (and seated away from the window). Thank God I didn't get the job (hiring freeze)! The talent agency told me that all the people who interviewed me died on 9/11.

[quote] The height scared me and it felt like the building was swaying,

It was, Techie. You want the building to sway. If it was rigid, in theory a strong wind could topple it.

[quote] Long and stupid story,

I didn’t think so. I actually enjoyed it. Little anecdotes like that are fun to read.

(Seriously.)

Thanks, r144!

R141 also a fellow hotel management undergrad. Hotel/restaurant trade shows can be so much fun. Free samples of food and booze...what's not to like. It's been exactly a year since I left the hospitality industry (20+ year career).

From all the replies before yours, it doesn't seem like you really missed much. But being stuck in an ill-fitting jacket would certainly cloud my judgment as well.

[quote]I volunteered with some friends to man the booth.

Triggered.