When it comes to Boulud's
attention to the details
of his empire, there appears to be no hierarchy
of importance: The invite list to the upcoming soft opening in Vegas; the
amount of cream in the pâté grand - mère used in a banh mi at the Épicerie; a visit to actor Bryan Cranston lunching at Bar Boulud; a call to a high - profile pediatrician on behalf
of two married employees
with a constipated infant; what to do
with a shipment
of fresh herring; the placement
of speakers in a corner
of the dining room at DBGB; the lighting
of a photo shoot for a cookbook he's contributed to — all things big and small are apparently in Boulud's portfolio, and everything receives an
equal share
of energy and time.
While Mohammed Rauf's Islamic Society
of New York quickly became an epicenter
of Islamic life on the Upper East Side when it opened in 1991, Rauf's son Feisal Abdul Rauf is drawing an
equal amount of attention with his own proposed Islamic Community Center, the Park51 project, decried by opponents as the «Ground Zero mosque.»