Since Bruce Snyder came to New York from the tiny town of Covington, Oklahoma, 38 years ago, he has spent upwards of 12 hours of every day on his feet, catering to the culinary and libationary needs of Wall Street titans, heads of state and movie stars. After next month, however, the longtime restaurant manager of the world-famous 21 Club will say good-bye, retiring to a farmhouse he and his wife are building in Williamsburg, Virginia.
“I figured if I’m ever going to see the light of day, I should get out now,” jokes the dapper 66-year-old during a break between the lunch and dinner rushes in 21’s dusky, oak-paneled dining room. Snyder typically arrives at work by 11 a.m. and often toils through midnight.
In his time, Snyder hosted the likes of Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart and Richard Nixon, who was such a fixture that there’s a plaque on the wall honoring him. More recently, the city’s financial kingpins have become the core of 21’s clientele. Among the Wall Street regulars: Lazard CEO Bruce Wasserstein, J.P. Morgan Chase chairman Bill Harrison, AXA Financial CEO Kip Condron and Citigroup chairman Sandy Weill and CEO Chuck Prince.
Snyder occasionally sees Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O’Neal, though not as often as his predecessors, Dave Komansky and Dan Tully. Fellow Oklahoma natives Henry Kravis, the leveraged buyout pioneer, and Ace Greenberg, chairman of Bear Stearns’ executive committee, have been coming to 21 for decades. SEC chairman Bill Donaldson dropped by with his wife on Valentine’s Day.
The restaurant’s private rooms have become favorite sites for deal-closing parties. On a snowy Thursday afternoon last month, Snyder looked through an event roster and rattled off the names of institutions throwing such soirées: Morgan Stanley, UBS, GE Capital, WR Hambrecht and Deutsche Bank, which was sponsoring four separate events that day alone.
On February 15 it was Snyder’s turn to be the guest of honor when a group of Oklahoma natives including Greenberg and 1980s corporate-raider-turned-commodity-fund-manager Boone Pickens threw him an intimate farewell party -- at 21, of course. A bigger, more official retirement bash is set for April 17.
“Bruce is a real pleasure to be with,” says Greenberg, who has known Snyder for three decades. “He’ll be missed.”
