Michael Lomonaco is revisiting the restaurant that defined his life through a new documentary streaming now.
The veteran chef, who spent 25 years running Windows on the World, told The Post that the project has forced him to confront emotions that never fully settled after September 11, 2001. “Windows on the World is something I’ve always carried with me,” Lomonaco said. That morning, a routine trip to LensCrafters in the Trade Center concourse to fix his reading glasses kept him from his usual 8:00 a.m. Arrival on the 106th floor of the North Tower.
By the time his vision was corrected, his world had collapsed. American Airlines Flight 11 struck at 8:46 a.m. As Lomonaco finished at the eyeglass shop. He felt the building shake, watched lights flicker off and on, and was evacuated onto Liberty Street. There he saw office paper falling on pedestrians like “confetti” and spotted aircraft fuselage on the road. When he tried to rush back to help his staff working upstairs, the second plane hit. “I heard the whining of the engines of the second plane and I saw the fireball of the second impact,” the stricken chef recalled. “It was shocking.” Seventy-nine of his colleagues died.
The restaurant Lomonaco had rescued from oblivion was gone. Windows on the World first opened in 1976, a 50,000-square-foot operation spanning two floors created by renegade restaurateur Joseph Baum. It pioneered gourmet international fusion and turned the Twin Towers into a social hub for power players and tourists alike. Kevin Zraly, the restaurant’s longtime cellar master, described it as a “theater” for dining. By the late 1980s, however, the establishment had faded, even losing its two-star the outlet rating in 1990.
The 1993 truck bomb attack beneath the World Trade Center, which killed six people, forced a three-year closure that proved unexpectedly transformative. When Windows reopened in 1996, Lomonaco was brought in to overhaul the menu completely. The chef, who had trained with Daniel Boulud at Le Cirque and revitalized the 21 Club with bold American cuisine, was told to abandon the old approach entirely.
Lomonaco became an early champion of farm-to-table dining, a movement now standard across New York. From the 106th floor, he noted, “we could see the farms where our food would come from.” The international canapés disappeared, replaced by grilled Hudson Valley venison chops, Montauk lobster, and herbs from the World Trade Center’s own farmer’s market. The strategy worked: visitor counts doubled, and by 2000 the restaurant was earning approximately $37 million annually, making it the highest-grossing restaurant in the country. Critic Ruth Reichl restored its two stars with a headline praising “food that’s nearly worthy of the view.”
The staff reflected the city’s diversity. “It was like the UN,” Lomonaco said. “We had 65 different languages spoken there. I mean, people came from all over the world and this was a job that people wanted.” Tony Bennett, Bruce Springsteen, and the cast of “The Sopranos” all passed through. “People began using the restaurant as a destination that happened to have a great view,” Lomonaco said. “It was truly beloved.”
The aftermath tested his resilience. Lomonaco did not cook again until Thanksgiving 2001. The following year, he opened Noche in midtown with sixty Windows alumni. He consulted for celebrities and luxury hotels, and fielded executive chef offers worldwide. “I couldn’t leave New York,” he told The Post. In 2006 he opened Porter House Bar & Grill at the Time Warner Center, installing former Windows colleague Michael Ammirati as chef de cuisine and maintaining the accessible approach he had pioneered—lunch specials and smaller dishes that let tourists dine beside CEOs. Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Mayor Michael Bloomberg became regulars. Porter House operated until its lease expired in September 2025.
Now leading Brasserie Cognac Américain in Midtown with several longtime team members, Lomonaco says he balances survivor’s guilt with a drive to excel in honor of those lost. “It’s been my personal mantra to do the work my colleagues were doing when they lost their lives,” he said. The day after the attacks, over one hundred friends and regular patrons gathered uptown to track the missing, eventually launching the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, which raised more than $20 million for victims’ families.
For Lomonaco, the legacy transcends the food. “I think it was a real lesson at Windows in respecting our coworkers, respecting them for their contribution no matter what their job was,” he told The Post. “Everyone contributes equally what they do to a restaurant’s success in caring for the guest. I think that was very evident at Windows and it’s something I’ve always carried with me… We share a tragedy, but we also share a love of hospitality. I’ll always be part of the Windows on the World community.”
“Top Of The World” is currently streaming on the CNN app.