When Jeffrey Epstein needed his favourite Zweigle’s Pop Open sizzling canines ferried from his townhouse on the Higher East Facet of Manhattan to his sprawling Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, he did what any exceedingly wealthy particular person would possibly.
He had his workers attain out to an in depth buddy with a non-public jet. Stephen Hanson, then head of a Manhattan restaurant empire that at its peak served greater than 20,000 individuals a day at 25 theatrical, high-volume eating places like Blue Water Grill, Dos Caminos and Ruby Foo’s, was blissful to make the supply himself.
“Within the white freezer in downstairs kitchen of 71st avenue there are packages of frozen sizzling canines,” Mr. Epstein’s personal chef emailed an assistant. “JE want to have sizzling canines for lunch tmrw and these are the brand new canines he likes.”
There was one different favor Mr. Epstein needed on that August weekend in 2012. He requested Mr. Hanson to make room for a lady who could be bringing a pockets he’d left behind, in line with paperwork the Division of Justice collected because it investigated Mr. Epstein. She was later paid settlements from funds established for Mr. Epstein’s victims.
The Justice Division recordsdata attest to Mr. Epstein’s transactional relationships with many highly effective males. Billionaires just like the Victoria’s Secret magnate Les Wexner and the personal fairness investor Leon Black helped construct his fortune. Boldfaced names like Woody Allen and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the previous British prince, offered cachet and social entry.
What Mr. Hanson supplied, a overview of the hundreds of emails and texts the 2 males exchanged over a decade reveals, was entry to the world of meals and hospitality — in addition to a wingman who loved the corporate of enticing ladies, and had the means to assist handle and entertain them.
Mr. Hanson obtained the younger ladies tables in his eating rooms. He organized cooking courses for them. When Mr. Epstein requested him to assist ladies land visas or discover jobs in his eating places, the reply was nearly all the time sure.
Throughout their lengthy friendship, Mr. Hanson turned some of the highly effective individuals within the restaurant enterprise. In 2003, Bon Appétit journal named him restaurateur of the yr, and he expanded his attain to Las Vegas. By 2007, his firm, BR Visitor Hospitality, was valued at $300 million.
Mr. Hanson nonetheless discovered time, the recordsdata present, to help his buddy in every kind of the way. He recruited individuals to handle Mr. Epstein’s personal Caribbean island compound and arrange tastings to assist him rent the right personal chef. No errand was too small. When the meat jerky that fueled certainly one of Mr. Epstein’s odd dietary binges didn’t style fairly proper, Mr. Hanson labored on the recipe. He even had his govt assistant ship a pattern to a laboratory to check its dietary worth.
Nothing within the recordsdata or different public information signifies that Mr. Hanson had intercourse with minors, as Mr. Epstein did. In a video interview in 2021, a sufferer of Mr. Epstein’s advised the F.B.I. {that a} decade earlier, when she was in her early 20s, Mr. Epstein had despatched the restaurateur to her New York Metropolis residence, the place Mr. Hanson paid her for oral intercourse at the least a dozen occasions.
The girl, who first met Mr. Epstein when she was 17, mentioned she had turn into depending on Mr. Epstein and did no matter he requested. Her identify was redacted within the recordsdata, and her lawyer, Gloria Allred, declined to remark. A Justice Division spokeswoman wouldn’t say whether or not the company had investigated additional, however Mr. Hanson has by no means been charged with against the law.
In response to questions for this text, Mr. Hanson didn’t deal with the girl’s allegations, however issued a short assertion by means of his lawyer, Gerald B. Lefcourt, a former lawyer for Mr. Epstein. “Mr. Epstein knew and relied upon Mr. Hanson for recommendation on sure issues given Mr. Hanson’s hospitality business expertise,” it learn partially. “Mr. Epstein was adept at deception and manipulation. He pulled the wool over the eyes of main lecturers, scientists, and titans of enterprise. The suggestion, assumption, or insinuation that there was something untoward about, in relation to, or regarding, any connection between Mr. Hanson and Mr. Epstein is unfaithful.”
The recordsdata clarify that the 2 had been tight, each earlier than and after Mr. Epstein pleaded responsible in 2008 to soliciting a baby for prostitution and spent 13 months in a Palm Seashore, Fla., jail. Mr. Hanson, whose hospitality empire is now little greater than a single, not too long ago opened restaurant in Palm Seashore, was as soon as designated as a backup executor in Mr. Epstein’s will. His identify seems on greater than 7,000 pages within the Epstein recordsdata, about as usually as Mr. Allen’s and the previous Prince Andrew’s.
Mr. Hanson and Mr. Epstein traded Valentine greetings and presents, together with a take-a-number machine that prospects in a deli would possibly use. Mr. Epstein positioned it in a outstanding spot in a room of his Higher East Facet townhouse the place individuals waited to see him.
“Don’t take this goofy however I really like you as a buddy,” Mr. Hanson wrote in certainly one of a number of affectionate messages. In one other, Mr. Epstein advised him, “There may be nonetheless little I wouldn’t do for you.”
Mr. Hanson was one of many final individuals Mr. Epstein texted on July 6, 2019, earlier than he boarded his Gulfstream jet in Paris and flew to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. It was his remaining day of freedom. Federal brokers had been ready, and a shocked Mr. Epstein was arrested on federal fees of trafficking minors.
Mr. Hanson had reached out to want him a contented Fourth of July. “Ive been cautious as my press has been poisonous,” Mr. Epstein texted again, explaining in his typo-laden type why he was in Paris. “No have to put you in danger. Hopefully altering soosn.”
“No completely different then earlier than,” Mr. Hanson replied. “Nyc perceive a bitch. However palm is straightforward. Get pleasure from paris.”
A Restaurateur’s Expertise
Mr. Hanson, 76, made his identify by democratizing wonderful eating in Manhattan. He knew that for each buyer in search of a three-Michelin-star expertise, there have been a thousand who simply needed a stable piece of grilled tuna and a chilly martini.
Born in New Rochelle, N.Y., to oldsters who constructed a sportswear line round his mom’s designs, Mr. Hanson obtained hooked on Manhattan hospitality within the early Nineteen Seventies, when he managed the primary TGI Friday’s, which helped begin the period’s singles-bar craze. Within the golden age of disco, he opened and managed nightclubs, then tried his hand at buying and selling commodities. His first restaurant — the Coconut Grill, on the Higher East Facet — debuted in 1987.
Michael White, the manager chef who together with Mr. Hanson owned Fiamma Osteria when it won three stars from The New York Instances in 2002, considers his former companion a pioneer. “The element and the execution and figuring out who’s in your eating room, that’s all of the stuff I discovered from Stephen,” he mentioned.
Ivy Stark, who was head chef at Mr. Hanson’s Dos Caminos eating places within the early 2000s, mentioned his techniques for managing stock and personnel had been modern, and his consideration to element unmatched. “He might stroll into one of many eating places and see a lightbulb out from 50 toes away,” she mentioned.
He had a status for barking at staff, she mentioned, but in addition a candy facet that was on full show when he would convey his two younger daughters into the kitchen. (Mr. Hanson, a bachelor into his 50s, married Deana Dibello, a former host at his Higher West Facet restaurant Isabella’s, in 2003.)
It’s unclear how Mr. Hanson met Mr. Epstein, however by the late Nineteen Nineties, their friendship had blossomed. Each had climbed excessive sufficient of their respective fields to play in a world of wealth the place being surrounded by fashions, or aspiring fashions, offered social foreign money and potential dates.
The not too long ago launched recordsdata, which embrace images, present that they shared pedicures, vacation dinners and films, and hung out collectively in Palm Seashore, the place each owned properties. Beginning at the least as early as 2012, Mr. Hanson visited Little Saint James, Mr. Epstein’s personal island within the Caribbean. A number of of Mr. Epstein’s victims have testified, in courtroom and in depositions, that they had been held captive and sexually abused on the island, some as minors, although there is no such thing as a indication that Mr. Hanson was on the island then.
There have been holidays, too. In 2013, Mr. Hanson was a part of a bunch Mr. Epstein hoped would be a part of him for a weekend in Las Vegas. When Mr. Epstein requested if he was certainly coming, Mr. Hanson texted again. “Do u like ladies. Foolish query for each. HELL YES… I wish to share a set with you. Bunk mates just like the outdated days.”
Additionally on the journey was Jean-Luc Brunel, the French modeling company proprietor who hanged himself in his Paris jail cell in 2022, whereas dealing with fees, associated to the Epstein case, that included the rape and trafficking of minors.
Like Mr. White and others who labored with Mr. Hanson in eating places over time, Ms. Stark mentioned she was shocked to be taught that he had been an in depth buddy of Mr. Epstein’s.
“I don’t assume he might have identified about any of that stuff and proceed to be mates with him,” she mentioned. “I believe it was extra like ‘I’m a giant canine. You’re a giant canine. Let’s be flying round within the personal airplane’ sort of factor. It’s all glamorous.”
Fashions and Administration
Younger ladies had been a relentless of their friendship. Mr. Epstein, who advised some victims he wanted intercourse thrice a day, used his cash and contacts to guarantee a gradual provide of ladies to fulfill him. Many had been from Russia and Jap Europe, and had come to the USA hoping to search out modeling work.
Mr. Hanson was no stranger to the world of modeling. He and Mr. Epstein shared a long-term friendship with Religion Kates, who began the powerhouse Subsequent Administration modeling and expertise company within the Eighties, when businessmen like Donald J. Trump started to frequently combine with fashions at golf equipment and events. (Mr. Trump has mentioned he knew nothing about Mr. Epstein’s abuse of women.)
Mr. Hanson had employed fashions for work occasions, and invited them to his eating places. He dated a number of of them, too, former enterprise associates and a longtime household buddy mentioned.
Together with his logistical acumen and hospitality experience, Mr. Hanson was usually dispatched to are inclined to the wants of ladies related to Mr. Epstein. A whole bunch of messages between the 2 contain plans for “the women,” a time period they usually used for whichever group of ladies then occurred to be in Mr. Epstein’s orbit, whether or not as assistants or sexual prospects.
Mr. Hanson lent the ladies certainly one of his two homes in East Hampton, N.Y., for getaways, and prolonged invites to events.
There have been extra sophisticated initiatives, like recruiting a common supervisor to run the island property. Mr. Hanson was so concerned that the federal government of the U.S. Virgin Islands issued him a subpoena in 2021, asking for many years’ price of details about individuals he might have helped rent for Mr. Epstein.
In the summertime of 2013, Mr. Hanson helped coordinate renovations to a number of residences that Mr. Epstein’s brother, Mark, owned in a constructing on East 66th Road in New York, which the recordsdata present had been utilized by Mr. Brunel and numerous ladies who had been visiting town.
When ladies in Mr. Epstein’s entourage wanted a visa or a job, Mr. Hanson typically employed them as hosts, servers or, in a single case, a chef. It didn’t all the time go properly.
In 2009, shortly after Mr. Epstein had completed his jail sentence in Florida, a girl who would turn into a part of a bunch who were paid settlements after his dying wrote to him, saying she was broke and wanted cash. Mr. Epstein replied: “my buddy steve hanson, owns a buch of restaruants ,, he shall be useful,, name him straight.”
Mr. Hanson obtained her a job as a bunch at Isabella’s, which for 30 years was a mainstay of Higher West Facet eating earlier than closing in 2017. Inside three months, she was fired. Mr. Epstein requested what had occurred. “Between us,” Mr. Hanson wrote, “the woman was a nervous wreck and simply couldn’t deal with it.”
He supplied to attempt to discover her secretarial work. “No drawback,” Mr. Epstein replied. “We tried.”
‘No One Else I Would Belief’
What did Mr. Hanson get in return apart from friendship?
Mr. Epstein gave recommendation and lent him cash. In 2017, Mr. Epstein helped dealer a deal between Mr. Hanson and the developer David Mitchell to show the Midtown Manhattan constructing that when housed Life journal right into a resort and a restaurant, and assured $1 million towards the undertaking. The 2 companions fell out, and Mr. Hanson walked away from the restaurant. However Mr. Epstein continued to make use of the resort to place up ladies.
Mr. Epstein’s strategic abilities got here in significantly helpful when Mr. Hanson was negotiating a option to money out of his restaurant group.
Mr. Hanson had sold half of BR Visitor Hospitality to Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group for an estimated $150 million in 2007. Mr. Hanson stayed on as president, aiming to develop the 16-restaurant firm to as many as 80 across the nation. However by 2013, the group had added only nine new spots. Mr. Sternlicht referred to as the partnership with Mr. Hanson “among the many two worst investments of my profession,” and was trying to finish it.
Behind the scenes, the recordsdata present, Mr. Epstein helped Mr. Hanson navigate the breakup, reviewing Mr. Sternlicht’s provides and writing the responses that Mr. Hanson used to stroll away with greater than double the preliminary supply on the desk.
“Dam are u good,” Mr. Hanson emailed Mr. Epstein after the deal was carried out. “Discovered rather a lot from you.”
Mr. Epstein granted private favors, too. In 2016, Mr. Hanson invited him to his teenage daughter’s celebration, and requested if he might work along with her on themes for a highschool time period paper. Mr. Epstein’s options: “transgender? life on mars. self driving vehicles” and “gentic engieering. . residing to 120 years outdated”.
That very same yr, in line with the Justice Division recordsdata, Mr. Hanson turned to Mr. Epstein for assist in untangling himself from a girl he had met in Scottsdale, Ariz., the place years earlier he had partnered with the Equinox Health co-founder Danny Errico to open the James Resort.
The girl, Mr. Hanson wrote, was “a complete psychopath” who referred to as him nearly day by day. The 2 had made some joint investments in horses and actual property. He had additionally lent her cash and purchased a hoop she had promised to promote.
“It’s not that I wish to be along with her — however it’s that she received’t cease,” he wrote Mr. Epstein. The scenario had gotten so unhealthy, he mentioned, that he needed to dodge her when she visited mates in New York.
“I can’t have it wreck my life or my kids’s I really like them a lot as I’ve advised you usually my household means every little thing to me,” he wrote, begging Mr. Epstein to assist discover a means out. “There isn’t a one else I’d belief wit this nightmare.”
Mr. Epstein supplied a suggestion. “its a disgrace you cant ship her to a different nation the place they take care of blackmailers extra successfully. in china there are cos which are set as much as solely try this. eliminate feminine blackmailers. they transfer them to different cities international locations and attempt to discover them actual work”.
Mr. Epstein was found hanged in his New York Metropolis jail cell in 2019. In December, Mr. Hanson teamed up with Ignacio Figueras, the superstar Argentine polo participant nicknamed Nacho, to open the Polo Room in Palm Seashore.
The restaurant is a raging success, mentioned Mr. White, his former chef at Fiamma Osteria. “You possibly can’t get into it.”
Nicholas Confessore contributed reporting, and Sheelagh McNeill, Juliana Castro Varon and Jenny Vrentas contributed analysis.
