By that point, Hospitality Holdings had expanded to include its first restaurant, Madison & Vine, an American bistro and wine bar in the Library Hotel on Madison Avenue at East 41st Street, as well as Bookmarks, a rooftop lounge at the hotel. The company was bringing in $20 million a year, according to an article in 2010 on the trade site BizBash.
In 2016, he opened the Empire Rooftop, a lounge atop the Empire Hotel across from Lincoln Center.
The same year, Mr. Grossich lost the lease of the Campbell Apartment when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the terminal, signed Gerber Group, a New York hospitality company, to operate the space at a higher rent. (Mr. Grossich’s company was unsuccessful in a lawsuit that argued that the bidding process had been unfair.) The company renamed it the Campbell Bar, abandoned its dress code and traded the air of insider exclusivity for a more commuter-friendly appeal. “Before, it might have been on the stuffier side,” Scott Gerber, the chief executive of the group, said in an interview with The Times.
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Grossich is survived by his brother, Keith, and a granddaughter. His marriage, to Elizabeth McGehee, ended in divorce in 2012.
Over the years, he held fast to his vision, whatever hurdles stood in his way. After the city enacted its smoking ban, he applied for a special license that allowed unrestricted puffing at the Carnegie Club, as a large percentage of the venue’s sales came from tobacco products. It remained a mecca for those who could discern the subtlest notes of a fine Cohiba.
Sure, patrons could bring their own cigars instead of choosing from the club’s carefully curated selection. But as Mr. Grossich said in an interview with The Times in 2014, he did not encourage the practice: “That’s a little like bringing your own eggs to a diner.”
