Jacket (Not) Required
As dining rooms fill with T-shirt- and Converse-clad social networkers, is dressing up the new way to stand out? from Manhattan to L.A., the majority of the iconic old-school restaurants that once mandated jackets and ties for men have replaced “required” with “requested.” At the iconic Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel—a second home to Hollywood’s elite since 1912—the once strictly enforced dress code is now “no tank-tops after 10 p.m.” “A few years ago, we had a ‘no-baseball-caps’ policy after 7 p.m.,” said a Polo Lounge manager, “but after Steven Spielberg was turned away for wearing one, we dropped the policy, like, the next day.” Other proper-attire outposts such as Houston’s Da Marco and Baltimore’s The Prime Rib have also recently replaced their jacket-and-tie requirements, with “business casual” encouraged. Some mainstays are simply opening their doors entirely to the sportswear-favoring public.
To gentlemen of certain generations and upbringings, the floodgates broke three years ago, when Manhattan’s hallowed ’21’ Club restaurant—the stiff-shirted shrine of continental dress codes, which has hosted U.S. presidents since it opened in 1922—dropped its necktie-at-dinner rule. Jackets remain required; sneakers and blue jeans are unwelcome. The results, however, are tangible: profits have increased (although a scant 20% of male ’21’ customers arrive tie-less), and its fabled wine cellar hasn’t caved.
For most formal establishments, recent apparel relaxations are a matter of economics, priorities and pragmatism. In these tight-pocketed times, restaurants don’t have the luxury of imposing rules. And, after the initial shock, it is reasoned that most fine-dining regulars who enjoyed “the rules” will come to accept the inevitable. The world isn’t their Oysters Rockefeller anymore. Old money’s out, and the Converse-sneaker-clad social networkers are in. Steve Cuozzo, the New York Post’s restaurant critic, said that many formal-attire eateries in Manhattan today “are so desperate for business they’d probably let Times Square’s Naked Cowboy in.” He added that hoteliers are partially to blame for fine dining’s messy dressers. “A driver of the slob look now is the proliferation of major restaurants housed in hotels,” he said. “Hotels won’t make demands on guests with money to spend.”
I don’t know about you but I ALWAYS LOVE A MAN IN A SUIT! I am so much more attracted to a man when he wears a tailor-made suit with just the right tie! It is sooo sexy, especially at work! Casual attire is comfortable but it really doesn’t do anything to improve the appearance of a man. The right suit does for a man what the right dress does for a woman. When a woman wears the right little black or little red dress, a man goes crazy! Trust me, I know from experience! (WINK)