Randy restaurateur Julian “Naughty” Niccolini just served his last “power lunch.”
The legendary Four Seasons front man, who gave “hands-on” management a new meaning, was axed on Monday from the fabled dining temple, which reopened last summer at 280 Park Ave., a few blocks south of its original Seagram Building home.
The eatery’s major owners blamed Niccolini for not living up to an agreement he made in 2016 “to seek help and change his behavior” during the two years the new place was under construction.
“It had become clear that he had not honored that commitment,” the restaurant said in a statement.
One source said that Niccolini’s longtime partner Alex von Bidder was “the driver” behind his ouster.
“He got the other investors on board to believe that the new Four Seasons, which cost $30 million to open, couldn’t make it as long as Julian was around,” the insider said.
The ax fell seven months after a column in The Post first raised the question, “Can Julian Niccolini survive the #MeToo era” — which started with Harvey Weinstein and brought down rock-star restaurateurs Mario Batali and Spotted Pig owner Ken Friedman.
Numerous women complained over the years of Niccolini’s “notoriously handsy” behavior, as Eater.com called it. The site’s editor-in-chief, Amanda Kludt, wrote that he made her squirm when he referred to the site as “Eater? Eat-her?”
The Four Seasons — a favorite of Big Apple movers and shakers since 1959 — settled at least two lawsuits filed by former employees on Niccolini’s watch. In 1991, a waitress claimed that he’d sexually harassed her for years. A former manager claimed in 2014 that Niccolini and others at the restaurant harassed her when she returned from maternity leave, then fired her and replaced her with a man.
Niccolini, now 64, pleaded guilty in 2016 to third-degree misdemeanor assault after he was charged with felony sexual assault for groping a 28-year-old woman’s breasts and buttocks, leaving bruises. A felony conviction could have sent him to the clink for seven years.
New York Times critic Pete Wells last week wrote, “There is a good case to be made for not reviewing” the new Four Seasons at all due to Niccolini’s record — but reviewed it anyway and gave it a miserly one star.
Niccolini couldn’t be reached for comment. Sources said he had only a “single-digit” minority stake in the Four Seasons, which is backed by more than 40 different investors.
Loyal customers are still coming. Lunch customers on Monday included media-mogul Barry Diller, real-estate developers Bill Rudin and David W. Levinson, and financial chiefs Steve Schwarzman and Steve Rattner. Hollywood’s Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones were expected Monday night.