Giuseppe Cipriani, Hero Liberal

3.19K

Hamilton Nolan

11/02/09 11:26AM

Filed to: the rich

Giuseppe Cipriani ~~fled~~ left the country last year in the wake of a scandal over alleged shady dealings regarding a liquor license for his celebtastic restaurant. He's not "on the lam," see. He simply could not take Bush any longer.

Vanity Fair caught up with the freedom fighter himself in London:

What could happen to him if he went back today? "I don't know," he says. "There are enough lawyers working on it. So I let them work." He blames a lot of what happened to him in America on the eight George W. Bush years. "America has always been a country of dreams, and it became a country of hate."

Alberto Gonzales never could get a decent table.
[Pic: Getty]

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smithhimself Hamilton Nolan 11/02/09 11:54AM

I truly hope that he never comes back. If we're lucky, all the restaurants will be closed and the entire family will be deported.

Downtown Cipriani is the worst restaurant in New York. Loud. Crowded. Terrible service and mediocre food.

The fact that this restaurant is always crowded is proof that a certain segment of the city's wealthy are foolish, tasteless wankers. #giuseppecipriani

BettyCrocker smithhimself 11/02/09 12:02PM

@smithhimself: The food is overpriced. I actually work in the building that houses the (awesome) Midtown catering space, and it has a little attached deli that is quite the ripoff.

The catering space gets used all the time - it used to be a bank, and it's very dramatic. Maybe someone else can take it over and provide better food. #giuseppecipriani

smithhimself BettyCrocker 11/02/09 12:20PM

@BettyCrocker: Overpriced and awful.

The worst restaurants that tourists go to are an unholy three:

Tavern on The Green (although maybe that will change with new ownership)

The Rainbow Room (Once, I found a staple in my rice at this place and the waiter accused me of placing it there)

And, of course, Mamma Leone's. Eating from a can of cat food will give you a better experience.

BookishLookish smithhimself 11/02/09 12:46PM

@smithhimself: *whispers name of favorite steakhouse well off the beaten path* #giuseppecipriani

BettyCrocker smithhimself 11/02/09 12:49PM

@smithhimself: I had a good steak once at Tavern, but I was never tempted to go back. #giuseppecipriani

Tremonius Hamilton Nolan 11/02/09 11:56AM

This reminds me - as what doesn't? - of the moral relativism of Mark Twain. Remember him? He sailed to europe one year, and violated a quarantine to sneak onto the island with some other boys to observe the Pantheon. Returning, he and his henchmen would wander into fig fields to gather what they may. They began to notice shadowy figures behind them on the darkening trail back to the dock. Herders, working as guards for the figfield fiefdom. So Mark and crew hurried, whereupon the herders did likewise, and then the boys broke into a run, and so did the herders, and then the boys cast aside all their store of figs, "Not because we feared the herders, but because we had come to believe that stealing is wrong." #giuseppecipriani

Uncle_Billy_Slumming Hamilton Nolan 11/02/09 12:33PM

What's a Cipriani? Someone from Cyprus?

And speaking of tennis:

"The Cipriani boasts the only tennis courts and swimming pool in central Venice "

[www.our-hotels.com] #giuseppecipriani

TabithaIapetus Hamilton Nolan 11/02/09 12:14PM

I have been known to blame Bush for a lot of things... but this is sort of ridonculous. #giuseppecipriani