Nina Zagat, along with her husband Tim Zagat (Eugene Zagat) (b. 1940, New York City), (pronounced /zəˈɡæt/, rhymes with "the cat") are the co-founders and publishers of Zagat Restaurant Surveys, since 1982. They met in law school at Yale, and were both practicing attorneys when they founded Zagat Surveys.[1][2]
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The Zagats got married during law school, graduated in 1966, and moved to New York where they became corporate lawyers.[3] She was an associate with the Wall Street white shoe firm Shearman & Sterling[4] and was most notable for her role in the administration of the Seward Johnson estate. Later they both got jobs in Paris, he at office of the Hughes Hubbard law firm and she at the Shearman & Sterling office. While there, they started compiling their own list of Parisian restaurants, of what they liked and didn’t like, and conceived the idea for a new type of restaurant ratings guide.
When they returned to New York, they solicited the opinions of friends about New York restaurants, and the resulting compilation eventually became Zagat.[2] The couple published their first guide in 1982. It was for New York City and it sold 7,500 copies in local bookstores.[3] Two years later, it was selling at 40,000 copies per year and they quit their jobs as corporate lawyers to devote full-time to the enterprise.[3]
One reviewer described the methodology: "The philosophy behind the Zagat Survey is that instead of one lengthy critical review of a restaurant, the eating public is better served by a rating based on hundreds of responses. By tabulating the responses to detailed surveys, the Zagat Survey rates restaurants on a 30-point scale in the categories of food, décor, service and cost. It also provides price estimates and a pithy, paragraph-sized description."[1]
The company expanded to include other cities and market segments such as hotels, stores and clubs; in early 2008, the couple tried to sell the company for $200 million, but then withdrew the sale when they could not find prospective buyers at that price.[2] One reviewer wrote: "The Zagat Survey was once the sine qua non of restaurant guidebooks. Aside from a review in the paper, the survey's 30-point scale for food, service, and décor—and its quirky comments submitted by readers—was pretty much all that mattered to restaurateurs. While the book's ratings are still highly influential—and while the company remains highly profitable—the guide is no longer the indispensable possession it once was and it's clear that its influence has waned in recent years."[3] The relative decline has been attributed to the company's "online strategy" which makes the guide only available to paying subscribers.[3]
Zagat has been described as the "rumpled survey king" and has been criticized for "taking full advantage of his status at the top of the dining food chain, often stopping off sans reservation at the city's most popular restaurants, where, much to the chagrin of owners, he expects to be seated immediately and greeted personally by the chef."[3]
The couple have two sons, Ted and John,[1] and live on the Upper West Side.[5] They have also reportedly named each other as their favorite New Yorkers.[5]
On November 15, 1990, Tim Zagat was sitting alone in the subterranean Loews movie theater at 61st and Broadway in New York City to watch the picture Dances With Wolves.[6] Seated in the same row to his left, there was a deranged man who had been making loud obscene comments before the movie began. During the middle of the picture, the deranged man walked right, and for reasons unknown, began stabbing Zagat,[6] but an anonymous moviegoer pulled the attacker off of Zagat. The attacker fled out a side exit but was apprehended by police a few days later. Zagat, bleeding from superficial wounds, was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, and survived.[3]