Julian Niccolini is an Italian-American

restaurateur A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspe ...

who co-owned the now defunct

Four Seasons Restaurant The Four Seasons Restaurant (known colloquially as the Four Seasons) was a New American cuisine restaurant in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City from 1959 to 2019. The Four Seasons operated within the Seagram Building at 99 E ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Early life

Niccolini was born in

Lucca, Italy Città di Lucca ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its Province of Lucca, province has a population of 383,9 ...

. One of his early jobs was at the

Hôtel de Paris The Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo is a luxury hotel that is located at Place du Casino in Monte Carlo, Monaco. It was opened in 1864 as part of the development of Monaco by the Société des Bains de Mer de Monaco, Société des Bains de Mer. In M ...

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

. Niccolini moved to New York City in 1975.

Career

Niccolini joined the Four Seasons Restaurant in 1977 and quickly became its public face. In 1994, he and Alex von Bidder became its primary operating partners. Niccolini created a club-like dining room at the restaurant named the "Grill Room", where patrons conducted business during lunch, although he remarked that "everybody n the roomclaims to be serious, but they are actually having fun." Niccolini was forced to resign from the Four Seasons Restaurant in December 2018 over accusations of sexual misconduct. Niccolini has been nominated for seven

James Beard Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awar ...

s, winning three. He has also had parts in several movies, including ''

Inside Man ''Inside Man'' is a 2006 American crime thriller film directed by Spike Lee and written by Russell Gewirtz. It centers on an elaborate bank heist-turned-hostage situation on Wall Street. The film stars Denzel Washington as Detective Keith Fr ...

'' (2006), ''

Arbitrage Arbitrage (, ) is the practice of taking advantage of a difference in prices in two or more marketsstriking a combination of matching deals to capitalize on the difference, the profit being the difference between the market prices at which th ...

'' (2012) and ''

Self/less ''Self/less'' is a 2015 American science fiction action thriller film directed by Tarsem Singh, produced by Ram Bergman and James D. Stern and written by Alex and David Pastor. The film tells the story of a business tycoon and billionaire diag ...

'' (2015).

Personal life

Niccolini is an avid cyclist and dog lover. He practiced

beekeeping Beekeeping (or apiculture, from ) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in artificial beehives. Honey bees in the genus '' Apis'' are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such as '' Melipona'' stingless bees are ...

at his home in Bedford, New York. In June 2015, Niccolini was charged with the

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...

of a 28-year-old woman at the Four Seasons Restaurant. In March 2016, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor

assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...

, admitting that he had "put his hands on the woman, causing scratches and bruises to her hip and thigh".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Niccolini, Julian American restaurateurs Italian restaurateurs Living people People from Lucca Year of birth missing (living people)