Jeffrey Chodorow

Early life and education

Jeffrey Chodorow was born in the Bronx, but his father died the year he was born, so he and his mother moved to Miami, Florida in 1950 to live with Chodorow's mother's sister. His mother and aunt were both manicurists in a Cuban barbershop. He grew up in Miami Beach. Chodorow grew up very poor in a very wealthy Miami area.

Chodorow graduated magna cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 with a degree in economics. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1975 as a juris doctor. He was a lawyer in Pennsylvania and Florida.

Career

In the 1970s, Chodorow developed shopping centers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1987, he opened a Bojangles' restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In June, 1988, BIA-COR Holdings, headed by Chodorow, purchased Braniff, Inc., the 1984 successor to Braniff International Airways and Braniff International Corporation, that was owned by Hyatt Corporation. Braniff, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in September, 1989, and ceased scheduled operations in November. The carrier operated a limited Boeing 727 charter operation during December and ceased all operations at the end of the month. Chodorow's group purchased the assets of Braniff, Inc., at auction and used the assets to form another Braniff named airline.

In 1991, Chodorow resurrected the defunct Braniff, Inc. and named it Braniff International Airlines, Inc. after the original Braniff Airways. The reborn airline lasted for one year and operated Douglas DC-9 twinjet and Boeing 727-200 trijet airliners operating out of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas. Chodorow was convicted in 1994 of obstructing a pending proceeding of and defrauding the U.S. Department of Transportation. In return for his guilty plea to these charges, the government dropped additional charges that Chodorow committed bankruptcy fraud and fraudulently concealed assets from creditors. Chodorow was sent to jail for one year. During this time, Jack Polsenberg and Neil Faggen kept the restaurants open and ran them until Chodorow was released from jail.

Chodorow was involved with the program The Restaurant, a reality TV show that aired on NBC in 2003, with a second season broadcasting in 2004. The show was produced by Mark Burnett and starred celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito. The show portrayed the opening and running of a Manhattan restaurant as well as ongoing conflicts between DiSpirito and Chodorow, usually revolving around the lack of the restaurant's profitability. The show was canceled and DiSpirito was successfully sued by Chodorow, the restaurant's financier, to have the restaurant shut down and DiSpirito banned from entering the premises.

Chodorow opened the Asia de Cuba restaurant at the Schrager Morgans Hotel, and subsequently was the financier for the restaurant in the reality TV show The Restaurant He also owns China Grill Management, a collection of restaurants, a number of which are also in Schrager hotels.

In a full page ad taken out in the February 21, 2007 dining section of the New York Times, Chodorow declared figurative war on critic Frank Bruni for giving him a poor review. The ad said the review was a personal attack and that he would follow up Bruni's reviews with visits to the restaurant himself, with his own review to follow on his blog.

On February 15, 2011, Sam Sifton of The New York Times reviewed Chodorow's newest restaurant Bar Basque, giving high marks to the food and trashing the decor and ambiance.