A journalist for over 20 years, Tom Roston worked at The Nation and Vanity Fair, and was a senior editor at Premiere for a decade. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Fast Company, New York Magazine, Food Republic, Salon, and more. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
The city’s premier celebration venue, deeply woven into its social,
culinary and business fabrics, deserved a proper history. Roston
delivers it with power, detail, humor and heartbreak to spare.
*New York Post*
“Within ten pages, I pushed aside everything else I was doing and
read the book for hours, because Roston has written something far
more illuminating and edifying than a chronicle of this
ridiculously audacious achievement, feeding people a quarter of a
mile in the sky. … Roston has crafted the most detailed,
all-consuming and thoroughly spellbinding portrait of my hometown
during this daunting, delirious decade that I’ve ever read. … If
you love this city (and if you don’t, better not tell me), grab
this book.”
*Hal Rubinstein, Forbes*
STARRED REVIEW “A detailed, inspiring, and horrifying account of
the restaurant that sat atop the North Tower of the World Trade
Center. Former Premiere senior editor Roston returns with a rich,
complex account of Windows on the World.”
*Kirkus Reviews*
STARRED REVIEW “Billed as a history of Windows on the World, the
107th-floor restaurant in the World Trade Center that ruled the New
York City skyline from April 1976 until September 11, 2011, this
engrossing tale delivers much more.”
*Booklist*
“The book offers a completely new perspective on the history of the
acclaimed establishment, which opened its doors in 1976.”
*Fortune Magazine*
“Much more than a history of a restaurant spectacular for its
views, Roston has woven together a riveting history of New York
City since its near collapse in the 1970s and intriguing stories
about the restaurant business. The terrible tragedy of 9/11 looms,
but there is also a heartening theme of how even the worst
architectural excrescence can be transformed by people and
imagination. The World Trade Center was cold and ugly from its
inception, but its restaurant was magical."
*author of Ten Restaurants That Changed America*
“This book, as bold and opinionated as a true New Yorker, offers a
well-documented account of what it takes to create and manage the
highest kitchen in the world. Its author is not afraid to call a
coq-au-vin a coq-au-vin and does not suffer from vertigo. Bravo,
the result has great balance, despite the strong winds of adversity
found at such altitude!”
*High Wire Artist*
“New Yorkers have seen many fine restaurants come and go, but
losing Windows on the World to the terrorism that came to NYC on
Sept 11, 2001 left a void in the city’s dining experiences that
will go unfilled. The restaurant was as iconic in its own right as
the Twin Towers. Thankfully, Tom Roston documents this
unforgettable restaurant in a book worthy of that once magical New
York destination.”
*106th Mayor, City of New York*
“With exhaustive research and crystalline writing, Tom Roston
unspools the glamorous story of a culinary temple in the sky, of
cooks and busboys proud to work amidst clouds, and of an era that
today seems romantic and innocent. The book frequently makes the
heart swell, but never more than in its account of an undocumented
immigrant who rose from stock boy to manager, and whose story (the
breathtaking end I’ll leave your heart to discover) is America’s
story. Roston’s book is a riveting account, not only of a
one-of-a-kind dining room, but of the evolution of New York City’s
restaurant business itself, a concentration of talent, industry and
imagination forever the envy of the globe.”
*Ted Allen, host of "Chopped," Food Network*
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