[Prudence Solomon, Guest:] Ahead on BUSINESS UNUSUAL, Drew Nieporent, the entrepreneur without an office. He holds some of New York's most successful businesses in the palm of his hand. Once a regular on the "Carol Burnett Show," today Lyle Waggoner is making a name by putting rolling roofs over the heads of Hollywood stars. And speaking of rolling, you'll soon meet little Jeff, who rolled off the assembly line and into the surgical suite where he now helps save lives every day. That's all ahead on BUSINESS UNUSUAL. Welcome to BUSINESS UNUSUAL. I'm Prudence Solomon in for Rhonda Schaffler. He began at McDonald's flipping burgers. Then he got a degree in hotel and restaurant management from Cornell University. And after stints at Tavern on the Green and Maxwell's Plum in Manhattan, Drew Nieporent set out on his own, opening Montrachet in 1985. Seven weeks later, it received three stars from the "New York Times" and has kept that rating ever since. Today, he's got a full repertoire of restaurants in his Myriad Restaurant Group. And as Allan Dodds Frank reports, he manages all of them without an office.
[Drew Nieporent, President, The Myriad Restaurant Group:] Headquarters, can I help you?
[Allan Dodds Frank, Cnn Correspondent:] Drew Nieporent runs a $45 million restaurant group without a desk, a file cabinet, or even a calendar.
[Nieporent:] Is today Thursday or Friday? All day?
[Dodds Frank:] His company, the Myriad Restaurant Group, owns and has consulting contracts with some of New York City's top destination restaurants it the Lower East Side neighborhood of Tribeca. The Myriad Group's portfolio of owned and operated restaurants: The Tribeca Grill where Robert DeNiro is a partner, Tri Bakery just next to Tribeca Grill, Montrachet, and Layla located just around the corner. And there's Rubicon in San Francisco where Francis Ford Coppolla and Robin Williams are partners. As for the Myriad consulting contracts, Japanese hotspot and Nobu and Nobu Next door, as well as Nobu London and Heartbeat to name a few. Wherever there's a table and chair, Drew conducts business.
[Nieporent:] Why don't we talk at 3:00 and make a judgment call?
[Dodds Frank:] Table and chair and cell phone, that is.
[Nieporent:] I would tell you without that cell phone where I'm able to conduct my business in the car as it would be an office enables me to do what I do. Without that cell phone, without that fax machine, I doubt very highly I'd have a multi-restaurant group.
[Dodds Frank:] Nieporent is a child of the '60s. The motto of the time: "Don't sell out." It's something he's been struggling with his whole life.
[Nieporent:] You're looking at somebody who used to go to the Fillmore East and grew up on a big diet of anti-establishment rhetoric, music, whether it was The Doors or The Who or Bob Dylan or whoever. Bottom line is I'm trying to keep one foot in and one foot out. We realize we're part of the new establishment. But we just don't want to sell out yet. The thing with the office is that I've worked in enough establishments as an employee where the managers hide in the office.
[Dodds Frank:] And none of the Myriad partners do any hiding out, be it Michael Bonadies or Marty Shapiro, both seen here grabbing a meeting with Drew outside Tri Bakery, or Drew's brother Tracy Nieporent who heads up the marketing department.
[Tracy Nieporent, Partner, The Myriad Restaurant Group:] Our meetings are wherever Drew wants to have a meeting. We don't tend to do things in a very, very corporate way. But we do have disciplines. And we have our own personal integrity and standards. So we get the job done. But we don't do it in probably the most normal procedures.
[Dodds Frank:] Nieporent's style, normal or not, has generated a cult following of talented people who want to work with him.
[David Rockwell, President, The Rockwell Group:] As an architect designing restaurants, you're only as good as the restaurateur. And I found Drew's approach was so committed to service and so committed to food quality and so different. Each one of his projects I knew about I knew Montrachet and I knew Tribeca Grill and I thought those each offered their own unique perspectives. So I thought it would be a great next step for me creatively to work with someone who would challenge us.
[Michael Batterberry, Editor In Chief, "food Arts" Magazine:] Well, I think it's interesting that Drew doesn't see himself as a specialist in money raising. And that demands a little study when you think what a fortunate position he found himself in to be able to say that, that people want to be associated with him, or people want to raise money for him.
[D. Nieporent:] Good morning, everybody.
[Dodds Frank:] Nieporent has a unique kinship with his employees. He says hello to everyone and has the uncanny ability of remembering names.
[D. Nieporent:] I work hard to remember people's names. Good morning, Puffy. I also still have the mentality of an employee, which is good because I want to treat everybody the way I myself would want to be treated. And I try that a lot.
[Dodds Frank:] And his social conscience does not end with his employees.
[Unidentified Female:] The 2000 James Beard Foundation humanitarian of the year...
[Dodds Frank:] Nieporent has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation, which named him humanitarian of the year for 2000.
[D. Nieporent:] Things that are personal to me, that touch me, the American Heart Association, I'm a walking poster boy for heart problems if I don't take care of my health soon. I try to involve myself with things that I know are significant. And I think we've touched on probably at least 40, 50 charities over just the last few years.
[Dodds Frank:] He's a master showman and a three-ring circus of food, stars, and entertainment, and remains dedicated to his patrons, even if that means going against some of his most basic principles about dining out.
[D. Nieporent:] And I see it in all of our restaurants Icon, Heartbeat a whole new group of diners young, hip, affluent, interested. But there's just one thing lacking. They're not that interested about the food. It's more the environment, the experience, and sort of being in the cool, hip place. So the food has taken a little bit of a dumbing-down process just because that's just the way it is.
[Dodds Frank:] With Montrachet, his first success, now 15 years old, and Tribeca Grill 10 years old, one wonders what is next.
[Clark Wolf, New York Based Food And Restaurant Consultant:] For a guy like Drew, he needs to break his own box a little bit. He needs to say, "OK, I've been doing this this way really successfully for X amount of years. What am I going to hold on to? And what am I going to take the top of my head off with and do in a different way than I've ever done before?"
[D. Nieporent:] There's two things you've got to know. Professional knowledge and the confidence in what you know, because if you speak confidently and you know what you're saying is factual, accurate, people will follow you. If you speak with forked tongue, people will know that you're BSing them. And in the restaurant business, there's no one bible. There's a lot of ways to do this. But you need professional knowledge.
[Dodds Frank:] For BUSINESS UNUSUAL, Allan Dodds Frank, CNN Financial News, New York.
[Solomon:] Just ahead, meet the man who's putting a roof over the heads of some of today's biggest stars next on BUSINESS UNUSUAL.