General
Mark Grossich, Who Opened the Campbell Apartment and Other Luxe Bars, Dies at 74
His upscale cocktail lounges in landmark Manhattan settings like Grand Central Terminal and the Empire State Building conjured the elegance of a bygone era.
Mark Grossich, a nightlife impresario who mined a lost era of New York opulence to create the Campbell Apartment at Grand Central Terminal and other upscale cocktail lounges in marquee Manhattan locations, died on Feb. 8 in Manhattan. He was 74.
His death, which was not widely reported at the time, was in a hospital, from complications of Parkinson’s disease, his daughter, Katherine McGehee, confirmed.
As the founder and chief executive of Hospitality Holdings, Mr. Grossich, a former adman, sold not just icy Gibsons and pricey cigars but a retro-tinged vision of the luxe life, starting in the 1990s, when dot-com-era riches had New York’s high rollers indulging in Roaring Twenties style (albeit with legal drinks).
His places were popular among an elite crowd, but not a trendy one. “Usually, trendy means loud and abusive and intense,” Mr. Grossich said in an interview in 1999 with The New York Times, which described him as wearing a custom double-breasted suit, an antique polka-dot pocket square and suede bench-made shoes. “We do not want to be the flavor of the month or the year. We want to be in it for the long run.”
Throughout the 1990s, Mr. Grossich and his partner, Raju Mirchandani, operated the popular Bar & Books chain of smoking lounges, with four locations in Manhattan. Riding the cigar boom of that period, these intimate spaces called to mind a Ralph Lauren fantasy of a country squire’s study, complete with moody lighting, shelves of leather-bound books and a wide array of single-malt scotches.
The pair eventually went their separate ways, dividing the properties. Mr. Grossich, who started Hospitality Holdings in 1998, kept Beekman Bar & Books near Sutton Place and Carnegie Bar & Books (now the Carnegie Club) near Carnegie Hall.
