The Four Seasons restaurant closes its doors. Is the power lunch dead?

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The 60-year-old high-end restaurant has not been able to retain its customer base, Four Seasons General Manager Alex von Bidder told CNN Business on Saturday. "

Forty years ago, the Four Seasons had become a must-see destination for Wall Streeters, publishers, film producers and other executives who wanted to make business deals in sumptuous surroundings and seasonal dishes. An article in Esquire magazine in 1979 used the term "energetic lunch" to describe lunchtime meetings; the phrase and its association with the Four Seasons lasted for decades.

The restaurant, however, lost its home at the Seagram Building on Manhattan's Park Avenue when its lease expired in 2016.

Investors spent more than $ 30 million relocating the facility a few blocks away, and it reopened in August, but lost much of its customer base, von Bidder said.

"We did not have time to make sure they would come back to us," von Bidder said. "People would eat [at the Four Seasons] two or three times a week. Then suddenly, it's been two years. They have fallen into disuse. "

He added that the idea of ​​a powerful lunch "has changed dramatically over time" and that the crowd that used to regularly have extravagant lunches "begins to grow".

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The number of parties and events booked at the restaurant has also decreased. And von Bidder has acknowledged that Four Seasons prices are prohibitive for many customers: his current list of entrees for lunch includes a $ 36 tuna hamburger, the cheapest option, and a $ 56 poached halibut. Dinner starts at $ 40 for mushroom ravioli.

"We have not seen a clear path with current sales," von Bidder said.

His longtime partner, Julian Niccolini, would have been forced to resign in December after being away from the company for two years as a result of allegations of sexual misconduct. Von Bidder said Saturday that Niccolini's behavior was "not acceptable" and that the Four Seasons had "no choice but to change things". He said that "everyone guesses" how much controversy could have affected the restaurant's business.

According to the Times, Niccolini pleaded guilty in March 2016 to criminal assault. He told the paper last fall: "This is the past." CNN Business has not been able to reach Niccolini for a comment on Saturday.

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