Michael Lomonaco escaped with his life on Sept. 11, 2001 — all because of an unexpectedly easy commute to work and a pair of busted reading glasses.
On that day, the New York City chef was headed to his job as culinary director of Windows on the World, the famed World Trade Center dining space. He took the position in 1997 after an already impressive career that included stints at such iconic Big Apple eateries as Le Cirque and the 21 Club.
But Windows represented a towering next step, literally and figuratively. The high-profile restaurant was situated near the top of one of the World Trade Center’s twin towers.
It was also an extremely demanding job — the restaurant, spread across the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower, was actually several dining and drinking spots rolled into one and served as many as 1,000 customers a day. That meant Lomonaco typically put in long hours, arriving at 8:30 a.m. and working through dinner. It also meant he had little time to attend to personal errands.
“‘I could see people waving tablecloths out the windows of what I took to be the restaurant.’”
So Lomonaco took advantage of whatever free moments fell his way. And on the morning of Sept. 11, he used one such moment to get his glasses fixed, after his wife pushed him to make an appointment ahead of an Italian vacation the couple was taking the following week. He was at a LensCrafters store in the World Trade Center’s shopping concourse when the first plane hit.
MarketWatch spoke with the chef, who now heads another New York City restaurant, Porter House Bar and Grill, to talk about what happened that day and how he has since moved on with his life.
8:46 a.m.: The first plane hits the North Tower
Lomonaco was originally scheduled to visit the LensCrafters store at noon on Sept. 11, 2001. But because he was running ahead of schedule due to a lighter-than-normal commute, he decided to stop in early that morning when he had a chance — “What chef doesn’t want to save time?” he noted — with the hope that he could be accommodated. “I thought, ‘Let me see if I can do this now,’” he said. The store indeed had an opening.
When the first plane hit at 8:46 a.m., Lomonaco was still at LensCrafters. “We were minutes away from being finished. … They were probably about to sell me new frames,” he said. Suddenly, he was jolted by the crash. “I just thought, ‘Could that be the subway?’ It turns out it was the impact of the first plane.” The lights flickered and then went out in the store. And within a minute or two, the building’s security team arrived and said that the concourse was being evacuated.
When Lomonaco got to the street, he saw that “the sky was littered with paper, like confetti. That was all from the offices.” He also saw “smoldering, burning debris” on the ground. “I took it to be a small car,” he said, but later realized it was probably part of the plane’s fuselage.
He headed away to use a pay phone, because his cell service was out. He reached his wife — “I said, ‘I don’t know what’s happened. I just want you to know I’m outside’” — and the owners of Windows on the World. He started thinking about his employees at the restaurant. “I was trying to make a mental list of who was working,” he said, and he decided to return to the World Trade Center. “If I can help in any way, I thought, ‘Let me go help.’ It was not logical. It was emotional.”
9:03 a.m.: The second plane hits the South Tower
But Lomonaco didn’t make it back to the scene. Instead, he was one of many bewildered New Yorkers on the street when the second plane hit at 9:03 a.m. “I heard the roar of the jet engines. I looked up at the moment of impact,” Lomonaco recalled. And then he realized the full gravity of the situation: “This is an attack. We’re under attack.” Someone grabbed his arm and tried to pull him into a building. “They offered me safety,” he said, but he walked north.
Eventually, he stopped to view the damage. “It was terrifying and shocking all at once,” he said. “I could see people waving tablecloths out the windows of what I took to be the restaurant. I imagined they broke the windows. I imagined the space was filled with smoke.” At 9:59 am., the South Tower collapsed, followed by the North Tower at 10:28 a.m. The Twin Towers were gone, but Lomonaco was safe.
The aftermath
Lomonaco said that 79 people who worked at Windows on the World lost their lives that day. So did 91 restaurant guests — the dining spot had its morning regulars and was also hosting a conference that day. The restaurant staff was a diverse, international group, with the team referring to itself as the “little UN.”
In the aftermath of 9/11, Lomonaco helped set up the Windows of Hope fund to support the families of Windows employees and of other World Trade Center food-service workers who died.
“These are people who could be easily forgotten, overlooked and neglected, the people [often] at the lowest strata of the economic pay scale,” he said. As of 2021, the fund had raised $22 million.
A new chapter in New York
After 9/11, Lomonaco held various restaurant and consulting positions and had some choice opportunities to work in Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas and elsewhere. But he never considered leaving the city after 9/11: “I’m a native New Yorker, and I was never going to move after this.”
Eventually, he was able to realize a dream and open his own restaurant, the Porter House Bar and Grill, a steakhouse with an upscale, gourmet-centric approach. In many ways, the Midtown establishment is a continuation of Windows on the World, with Lomonaco continuing with some culinary ideas he had begun exploring at Wild Blue, the restaurant-within-a-restaurant at the World Trade Center dining spot. Lomonaco also brought aboard some key staff people he had worked with at Windows.
“‘I’m a native New Yorker, and I was never going to move after this.’”
Lomonaco recalled how people were hesitant to return to restaurants in New York after 9/11. The same was true during the recovery from the pandemic, albeit for different reasons. But Lomonaco remains bullish on the city and its dining scene.
Lomonaco noted that he was not the only one to cheat death on 9/11. Indeed, some customers left Windows as late as 8:44 a.m., according to one report.
“Many people survived that day in other ways, too,” Lomonaco said, but added that he considers himself “among the fortunate.” And ever since 9/11, he has aimed to look forward. “I’ve tried to balance my life by never taking life for granted.”
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in September 2021 and has been republished for the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
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