Who

Mega-restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow presides over more than two dozen restaurants, including China Grill and Asia de Cuba. He's also the guy who sparred with Rocco DiSpirito on TV and lashed out at Frank Bruni via a full-page ad in the Times.

Backstory

Chodorow's father died when he was a little kid and he was raised in Miami and New York by his manicurist mom, who often took him along when she went out on dates, which Chodorow says provided him with early exposure to fine dining. He later headed off to Wharton and earned a law degree from Penn before making his first fortune in real estate in the 1970s, developing shopping centers in the Philadelphia area. Chodorow soon turned his attention to the restaurant industry, opening his first eatery, China Grill, in the CBS building in 1987. Except for an ill-fated detour a year later that landed him in prison (more on that below), Chodorow has since made a mint with his ever-expanding mini-chain: China Grill now has six locations including the original (which continues to thrive, albeit with the tourist set). Then there's Asia de Cuba, which started off at the Ian Schrager-owned Morgans Hotel and now has four locations in the U.S. and one in London. Other holdings in his portfolio—which stretches from London to Mexico City—include Hudson Cafeteria, Miami's Blue Door, LA's Social Hollywood, Red Square in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, London's Suka, and Rumjungle in Las Vegas.

Of note

Chodorow's restaurants are always big box affairs, located in vast, modernist spaces, many of which have been designed by either Jeffrey Beers or Philippe Starck. His holding company, China Grill Management, is equally vast: At its peak it employed more than 3,000 people and grossed more than $250 million a year across two dozen-odd eateries. Over the past year or so, Chodorow's empire has receeded a bit. His Center Cut steak house failed to catch on. (It's been replaced by Ed's Chowder House.) The New York branch of Kobe Club, which he opened with partner Charlie Walk in the space once occupied by Mix (Chodorow's doomed collaboration with Alain Ducasse) also struggled and was eventually shuttered. Before that, there was Wild Salmon, a short-lived Pacific Northwestern restaurant that was located in the seemingly cursed space previously occupied by his English is Italian and Tuscan Steak.

On screen

Chodorow has been major figure on the dining scene for years, but he became a quasi-villainous pop culture figure in 2003 when he backed Rocco DiSpirito's restaurant Rocco's, which served as the basis of the NBC reality show The Restaurant. Chodorow and DiSpirito's relationship disintegrated as the show progressed and both the show and the restaurant were axed a few months later.

Drama

After Times dining critic Frank Bruni spanked Kobe Club with a zero-star review in early 2007, Chodorow struck back by taking out a blistering full-page ad in the Times in which he called Bruni unfit to be the Gray Lady's restaurant reviewer, demanded an apology for the "unjust" denigration, and accused Bruni and the critical establishment at large of harboring a prejudice against him. But theatrics like this are nothing new in the land of Chodorow: Over the years he's borne many a grudge, a number of which have resulted in lawsuits. He famously sued Rocco over the demise of their restaurant. (Rocco countersued.) And he also went after chef Matthew Kenney, alleging that Kenney had poached his employees. Chodorow's been on the receiving end of a number of lawsuits, too. John McDonald sued him after Chodorow suggested on The Restaurant that one of McDonald's restaurants—Canteen, now Lure Fishbar—had shuttered.

Crime file

In 1989, Chodorow took over the distressed discount airline Braniff and recruited a pal—a convicted felon named Scot Spencer—to run the company. When the feds instructed him to remove Spencer from his post due to his shady past, Chodorow ignored the directive, secretly funneling money to Spencer to manage the operation. Ignoring a federal order is never a good idea and when Braniff went bankrupt, Chodorow's scheme was revealed. He later pleaded guilty to two counts of obstructing justice, forked over $1.25 million in restitution, paid a $40,000 fine, and spent four months in the clink in 1996. He would have been in prison for longer but he managed to convince the court that his 10-year-old son's medical condition (Tourette's) required him to be at home.

On the side

In the late 1980s, Chodorow purchased the Madame Alexander Doll Company. (The company later went bankrupt and now has a new owner.) Right around the same time, he came within a hair of purchasing the New England Patriots. (The Pats' board ultimately rejected his bid, fearing he'd relocate the team outside Massachusetts.) More recently, he was a partner in a Manhattan strip joint that, according to the Daily News, "offered escort services, among other attractions." (It was later shut down by the city.) Chodorow also profits from several department store leases that he owns.

Personal

The bearded Chodorow is married to his second wife, Linda, whom he married the day after he divorced his first wife, Hope Gruber, in 1982. (Gruber is now a dermatologist in North Carolina.) He has two sons, Zach and Max. The couple live in Trump Tower on Madison Avenue—Chodorow purchased three apartments in the building and combined them into one. His neighbors in the building include fellow flamboyant spirits Donald Trump and Tamir Sapir. Chodorow also owns houses in Water Mill and Bucks County, Penn., and a condo in Aventura, Florida designed by Jeffrey Beers. He keeps his yacht docked at his Florida residence, and has a private jet to ferry him from home to home.