71 Minutes With... Andrea Catsimatidis

Lobster on the Upper East Side with the self-described “billionaire heiress, business bombshell, jet-setter, NYC native, footballer, and Manhattan Republican Party chair.”

- Olivia Nuzzi

Andrea Catsimatidis suggested we meet at Avra Madison, the clubstaurant of choice for conservatives in New York City on nights when they aren’t knocking back pineapple martinis at Del Frisco’s. My first trip to Avra Madison, in 2017, was to meet Anthony Scaramucci, who was holding court with a rogues’ gallery of political misfits connected, in one way or another, to Donald Trump: There was Kimberly Guilfoyle, South Jersey Democratic boss George Norcross, and former NYPD detective and sometime right-wing personality Bo Dietl. (Roger Stone was said to be on his way.) My second trip there was with Catsimatidis, who became the chair of the Manhattan Republican Party in 2017 and occupies a Norm-like role in the Cheers-ian universe of the Establishment. At one point during our dinner, she looked up from her lobster to squint across the football field of a dining room. “I think that’s my brother!” she said, gesturing toward a table in the distance. It was.