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| Visions & Revisions |
A Protégé No More
Jennifer Oz LeRoy
02/01/2007
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Jennifer Oz LeRoy comes from a dramatic family. Her middle name
is a nod to her grandfather, Mervyn LeRoy, who produced The Wizard of Oz.
Her grandmother, Doris Warner, was the daughter of a Warner Bros. founder. Their
son (Jennifer’s father), Warner LeRoy, gets credit for creating the concept of
showy, theatrical restaurants as the owner of New York’s legendary Maxwell’s
Plum, Tavern on the Green and the Russian Tea Room.
 LeRoy discovered she would take charge of Tavern on the Green
and the Russian Tea Room in early 2001, at the tender age of 22, during the
reading of her father’s will, which named her, the youngest of four siblings,
CEO of LeRoy Adventures.
Although she had worked in the restaurants, only then did she
learn of the Russian Tea Room’s mountainous debt. She eventually sold that
restaurant, but invested in Tavern, and today the business is stable and poised
for expansion. LeRoy spoke with features editor Emily DeNitto about extending
the family’s franchise.
How did you first get involved in the
business?
I started working at Tavern in 1998 when I
was 18. My dad had always wanted me to work in the business. I said I would work
at the restaurant only if I could do something different. I didn’t want to work
at the front desk. So I worked for the pastry chef, who had been there three
days. He was a really nice guy, and I thought, "Gee, I wouldn’t expect someone
who worked at Tavern to be this cheerful." It’s usually a very high-stress
situation. I walked past the hot line, and I was immediately sure that that was
the place I wanted to be—where all the action was.
Your dad could be difficult and intense, and yet you were attracted to exactly that element in the
restaurant.
Yes, and I don’t think he expected me to
say I wanted to work in the main kitchen. He was very proud of that. I think he
thought I would dabble in the pastry kitchen and then go to the front, but I
fell in love with it.
When he bought the Tea Room, he said he wanted me to work on
the opening team, and I said, "No, Tavern needs me, the kitchen needs me." But
then I talked to a very wise chef, and he said there’s nothing like working on
the opening of a restaurant—especially a restaurant of this caliber.
My dad marched me over to Armani, bought me a black suit, and I
was miserable. I wanted to be in my whites. In the meantime, I was enrolled at
Fordham University. I did my first year there while I was working at Tavern. The
second year, my dad was diagnosed with cancer, and that’s when he said to me, "I
don’t want to make you choose, but it seems like you really love working in the
business, and maybe you should give it a shot." He gave me the option.
How important is it to give children that
choice?
I definitely think it is important. There
can be real problems with some children from privileged backgrounds having a
work ethic at all. The way that my dad believed in me—that I was 20 years old
and he was asking me to be a part of what he did, but not demanding it—there was
just no question of what I would do.
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