The Four Seasons: A History of America's Premier Restaurant

Mariani, Esquire's restaurant critic, and von Bidder, the general manager of Four Seasons, are so extolling of the splendors and cuisine of this midtown Manhattan institution that their book reads like a press release. Not that their praise is pure hyperbole, only excessively self-promoting, for the longevity of this 30-year-old eatery (which was decreed a landmark historical site in 1989) wasn't achieved by serving curdled Bearnaise. The authors describe at length the environs: the Mies van der Rohe-designed Seagram building (and how it was built) housing Four Seasons; the 20-foot-square, white Carrara marble pool in the restaurant's Pool Room; the draperies of anodized aluminum chains on the windows of the Grill Room; the lunch bunch-lauded here as the ``most productive members of society''-that includes publishing folk Mort Janklow, Michael Korda and Betty Prashker. A few years ago when New York magazine tested the noise in Manhattan restaurants, Four Seasons was found to have the lowest decibel level-the same, though, can't be said for its book. Photos. (Oct.)