In 1989, a chic Basque-inspired eatery opened up in downtown Manhattan.
With plush, azure-blue banquettes lining the walls, candle lit tables for two, and soft, seductive jazz, Alison on Dominick Street soon earned the moniker New York’s most romantic restaurant, and a highly coveted spot in Gourmet magazine’s Top Twenty Restaurants in New York feature. Success seemed in the bag for owner Alison Price Becker who opened the doors of her intimate 52-seat eatery before she’d even hit thirty.
Price Becker had equipped herself as best she could to ensure her $325,000 investment would take off without a hitch. A New York native, she put in the hours to learn the restaurant business inside out. First she answered phones for acclaimed restaurateur Jonathon Waxman(contestant in Top Chef Masters, Season 2, and owner of Barbuto in Manhattan’s West Village), then she charmed celebrities and obsessive foodies alike as the assistant manager at Gotham Bar and Grill before commanding the helm at Thomas Keller’s Rakel, as manager. “Starting at the bottom I learnt from the best. I did everything: inventory, event planning, I waited tables, I even worked in a kitchen,” says Price Becker. “I absorbed everything like a sponge. It was an excellent base for me.”
Clark Wolf, a notable restaurant consultant and thirty-year veteran of the food industry would agree. “Don’t think that just because you go out a lot you know how to run a restaurant,” says Wolf, “You don’t. You need to understand a little of every aspect of the business, especially since you’ll be surrounded by people who know much, much more than you do.”
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