opinion
Life Lessons
The owner of the Upper West Side Manhattan institution Hi-Life writes about the challenges of running a restaurant during a pandemic and what the new normal will look like.
Earl Geer is the founder/owner/operator of Hi-Life Restaurants and formerly Sullivan's Restaurant & Broadcast Lounge, at the Ed Sullivan Theater. Earl began his entrepreneurial career in high school with “Gourmet Trucking,” a hot dog and taco truck he started with a great friend, and then after numerous sales jobs (selling encyclopedias, hot tubs, the first cell phones, satellite TV systems and starting a small real estate business) he opened Hi-Life Bar & Grill in 1991, Hi-Life Restaurant & Lounge in 1993 and Sullivan’s in 1996.
The art-deco Hi-Life Restaurant & Lounge fell victim to high-rise building construction after 22 years on the Upper East Side, but Geer’s original Hi-Life Bar & Grill on the Upper West Side has remained open since its inception without fail, including during the New York blackout of 2003, on 9/11, during Hurricane Sandy and on half a dozen times the city was crippled by blizzards. It has remained open for pick-up and delivery, since NYC’s mandatory stay-at-home orders were issued in March, 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic puts Hi-Life’s future in jeopardy, as it does many other independent restaurants.
Hi-Life and Sullivan’s were the result of Geer’s affection for restaurants and lounges that flourished in the 1930, ’40s and ’50s whose art-deco designs featured channel letter stainless steel and neon signs, dark mahogany bars, upholstered booth and banquet seating, the “perfect” Martini and a great meal at a smart price.
Earl is married to Sara Geer, and father of 16-year-old Lucy Geer, and lives on the Upper West Side.
Kitchen Confidential
On the second anniversary of Anthony Bourdain’s untimely death, Earl Geer remembers their time running Sullivan’s Restaurant together.