Description:
In its heyday--the mid-1980s--the Russian Tea Room was a celebrity force field, known more for its clientele than its food. Frequented by the likes of Jackie O., Rudolph Nureyev, and Leonard Bernstein, it had mutated over the years from a homey refuge for expatriate Russians, musicians, and not-always-solvent artists to a big-deal lunch-spot in the swollen New York tradition. Faith Stewart-Gordon, the Tea Room's owner from 1967 until its 1996 sale, saw it all and has put much of it down in the inevitably named The Russian Tea Room: A Love Story. Part autobiography, part real-estate memoir, all celebrity roll call, the book provides a decent share of the titillation it promises, a diverting bang for the buck. Tracing her life from her early days as a would-be actress, Stewart-Gordon recounts her marriage to Sidney Kaye, from whom she inherited the restaurant; motherhood (a troubled daughter); intermittent affairs (glancingly depicted); a second marriage (ending in divorce); Tea Room stewardship (resistance from the staff at first then respect and triumph); and the final decision to sell the store ("to find closure" and "begin a new life")--and more. Stewart-Gordon does best when recounting the real-estate wars and other nitty-gritty matters that beset the Tea Room, which is situated on very valuable land, indeed. She is, however, hampered by her use of a circular narrative, which anticipates many events, leaving these touched-upon but frustratingly unexplored. (We learn, for example, of her first husband's death in passing--chapters before we get to the actual details.) It's a parenthetical approach that dissipates what narrative steam the author manages to generate. In the end, though, it's Woody, Dustin, and Andy we've come to see, and see them we do. And that's what the Tea Room was about for us outsiders who followed it--a chance to feel closer to the buzz. This book promises, and largely delivers, another way in. --Arthur Boehm
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