Observer: PR Power List Honor Roll 2024
To succeed at the highest level of hospitality in 2024 means being always on—and the PR firms driving the conversations about nightlife and dining have adapted to this new landscape.
“I started the company in 1996, and it has been all hospitality all the time,” Steven Hall tells Observer. “I never veered from my path of being a restaurant person. It’s not exactly the most profitable PR client to have because the operating costs are so extreme. So I always tell everybody, ‘If you want to make great money in PR, go work for pharmaceutical companies. But if you love hospitality, then come and work for me.’”
Hall is a publicist who instills loyalty. Prolific restaurateur Simon Oren has been with Hall PR from the start, and Hall has repped Alicart’s Jeffrey Bank at restaurants, including Carmine’s, for over 25 years.
After a lunch meeting in early 2011 with David Bouley that took an entire afternoon, Hall struck a deal to do PR for the pioneering chef’s Brushstroke. The success of that omakase destination, which opened later that year, helped Hall PR become the agency of choice for prominent Japanese restaurants in New York. (Hall also became known as the “Bouley whisperer.”)
Hall, who has an office in Tokyo, reps two Michelin-starred Sushi Noz (expanding to Los Angeles) and spearheaded deals for the New York debuts of Tempura Matsui, Harbs and E.A.K. Ramen. At the same time, Hall PR continues to impact many facets of NYC dining with clients like Roni Mazumdar and Chintan Pandya’s empire-building Unapologetic Foods.
“I never went on a traditional route,” Hall says. “I didn't represent a lot of Food Network chefs. I didn't represent a lot of French chefs. I represented a lot of people that had unique stories to tell.”
Hall is grateful for relationships that have opened doors. He says his career wouldn’t be where it is without the mentorship of Oren. He credits chef Pichet Ong for introducing him to Mazumdar before the birth of Unapologetic Foods.
“The messaging of Unapologetic has just skyrocketed,” Hall says of a restaurant group that’s been celebrated for its focus on uncompromising cooking and untold stories. “Now, every time I see the word unapologetic being used to describe a television show or a fashion brand, I pat myself on the back just a little bit. I really think that we had a hand in doing that, in that word having that kind of a meaning.”