Windows on the Other Side of the World

Half a world away from New York City, on top of one of Asia’s tallest buildings, a small piece of the World Trade Center lives on.

A restaurant complex called Equinox, designed with help from the same team that created Windows on the World in New York, opened here six weeks after the terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center a year ago.

Equinox, a 70-story elevator ride up, with two restaurants, two bars and four private dining rooms, commands stunning views of Singapore and glimpses of neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia. It is surrounded by the floor-to-ceiling windows that defined the New York restaurant; and like Windows, it is a destination for city dwellers and tourists alike, a place to take in a sweep of twinkling skyline and urban harbor.

The designers didn’t set out to re-create Windows on the World. Equinox’s owners play down comparisons between the New York and Singapore restaurants, but the original idea was to make Equinox an Asian echo of Windows.

To some who remember the New York complex, the resemblance is striking.

Len Pickell, president of the James Beard Foundation in New York, said he had “goose bumps the size of marbles” when he walked into Equinox in April.

“Going up the elevator, the doors popped open and there was Windows,” he recalled. “I kind of froze there. It was a very eerie feeling--here’s another one, so far away from New York.”

Michael Ginor, an owner of the Hudson Valley Foie Gras purveyor in New York, said Equinox struck him as a next-generation Windows. “It definitely had similarities,” he said. “But it seemed to be more modern than Windows, also more uber-designed and highly interior decorated.”

The two restaurants shared the same design consultants--Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co. in New York--and a similar concept. Both were multistory restaurant and bar complexes on top of tall buildings and commanding panoramic views. Both had the same goal of making the food the main attraction. But managers of the Singapore complex see more differences than similarities.

“Some of the same people worked on it, but this is a unique concept in itself,” said Richard C. Helfer, chairman and chief executive of Raffles International Hotels & Resorts, which owns Equinox and the Raffles City complex where it’s located. “It’s a positive thing that part of Windows lives on, but it’s not what we set out to do.”

From New York, Michael Whiteman agreed: “It was not inspired by Windows but it has a lot in common. I think you could say there is some DNA relationship.”

After Sept. 11, Equinox chose not to emphasize the ties between the two establishments. “They downplayed the connection between Windows and this restaurant,” said Whiteman, referring to Equinox’s owners. “Originally it had been part of the marketing idea,” Whiteman said. “When the World Trade Center went down, they made the decision not to make that connection.”

Equinox is designed to appeal primarily to Asian tastes. Although it is on top of the 1,200-room Swissotel The Stamford, it aims to cater to a clientele that is 80% Singaporean. “Singapore and New York are as different as cheese and chocolate,” said Helfer, a Michigan native who has lived in Singapore for 16 years.

By and large, Singaporeans are more subdued than New Yorkers. Dissent is frowned upon, and Singaporeans keep their opinions to themselves. The city-state’s government is so strict, it has banned the import of chewing gum and requires citizens to flush public toilets or face a fine. But Singaporeans are proud of the cleanliness and efficiency of their city.

The Equinox complex fits well in that setting. Visitors first arrive at the Introbar on the ground floor where they can have a drink before taking a 45-second ride to the 70th floor in an express elevator.

Customers can then choose among the showcase Equinox restaurant, the more upscale Jaan restaurant, the intimate City Space bar, or the more hip New Asia Bar & Grill. Before its destruction, the Windows complex included the showcase Windows on the World restaurant; Wild Blue, an upscale intimate restaurant of 60 seats; and the Greatest Bar on Earth, a sprawling room anchored by a showy circular bar.

The Equinox complex extends from the 68th to 72nd stories of the Stamford tower, one of the city’s tallest buildings. Windows was on the 106th and 107th floors of the World Trade Center’s north tower.

The Equinox decor includes such features as three-story teak and rice-paper lanterns inspired by Ming dynasty designs, Murano crystal from Venice hanging from the ceilings and what the owners call the largest mother-of-pearl wall in the world.

Windows was restrained in comparison, Whiteman said, an L-shaped room with a terraced floor designed to emphasize the view.

The Equinox restaurant features separate Western and Asian menus, and the food is prepared in separate kitchens. The idea is that local Singaporeans, who can find many restaurants in the city serving good, inexpensive Asian food, will want to eat Western-style food at Equinox, while visitors from outside Singapore are more likely to want Asian food.

Equinox makes a point of serving the same item in both styles. For example, one can order grilled wild Scottish salmon with morels, leeks and peas and a lemon butter sage sauce; or oolong-tea-smoked Tasmanian salmon with Chinese cabbage, wood-ear mushrooms and a Chinese rice wine sauce.

“This is not fusion,” said Julian van den Bogaerde, Raffles’ vice president for food and beverages.

A small, semiprivate area of Equinox can be curtained off for a romantic dinner for two. In the 10 months since the restaurant has been open, the table has witnessed 42 marriage proposals, said Ronald Loges, Equinox general manager. “As far as I know, none of them have declined,” he said.

The Jaan restaurant is Raffles’ second. The first Jaan opened last year in Beverly Hills at the Raffles L’Ermitage hotel. The menu features French food with Khmer flavorings, and wine pairings that recommended a different wine by the glass for each course. A third Jaan recently opened in Montreux, Switzerland, and a fourth is scheduled to open next month in London.

At Equinox, one small touch borrowed from Windows on the World can be found in the New Asia Bar: The floor slopes downward 20 degrees to accentuate the view.

The bar, which offers dancing and stays open until 3 a.m., features “sophisticated street food” that is designed to be shared, Loges said: dim sum, sate, sushi, sashimi, crustaceans and oysters. Upstairs, regular patrons can buy a bottle of spirits and keep it there for future visits.

The Equinox complex was built in the space previously occupied by the Compass Rose restaurant and bar. Rather than having one restaurant and one bar, the new design divided the space into smaller, more intimate rooms while increasing the usable area by 32%. Kitchen size was greatly reduced, opening up new views to the east. Now, much of the food preparation is done in the basement and the ingredients are brought up by elevator.

In the months since the Sept. 11 attack, Singaporean diners have shown no trepidation about dining at the top of a skyscraper. Already, business is double that of Compass Rose.

For Ginor, Equinox felt far removed from New York. “I hate to say it, but being in Singapore, I didn’t really put one and one together,” he said.

But at least one New Yorker found the experience unsettling.

“It was exciting to see such a great spectacle, amazing to have such a beautiful view,” Pickell said. “But to be honest, I was uncomfortable the whole time.”