Born in Manhasset, on Long Island's North Shore, Dean Poll is the second of three sons of Alexandra and Dimitri Poll. He played center on the Paul D. Schreiber High School basketball team in Port Washington. On weekends and during school breaks he worked as a “water boy” in Pappas Restaurant, his family's high-volume, 250-seat seafood restaurant in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Poll started working full-time after high school when he became the purchasing manager for the family's newest property, a 14,000 sq ft. food complex in Midtown Manhattan's Time & Life Building. It comprised Dawson's Pub, La Petite Brassiere, Bon Jour coffee shop and Southampton Caterers that served the office building-dense Rockefeller Center neighborhood. Diving into the restaurant's back-of-house trenches, Poll excelled at inspecting seafood in the legendary Fulton Fish Market, negotiating with meat brokers in Manhattan's once-gritty Meatpacking District, and sourcing vegetables in the South Bronx's Hunts Point, the largest produce market in the world.
In 1980, Dean Poll and his brothers, Gillis and George, recreated Pappas Restaurant in Williston Park, renaming it Riverbay Seafood Bar & Grill in 1989. In 1986, they opened Bryant & Cooper Steak House and butcher shop in Roslyn. By 1997, The New York Times called Bryant & Cooper “arguably the best steakhouse on Long Island” and Riverbay, “Nassau-Suffolk's No. 1 seafood restaurant.”
Entering Manhattan market
Interested in expanding into Manhattan, Dean Poll dissolved his partnership with his brothers in 1998-1999. Dividing the assets, he retained ownership of Riverbay, while setting his sights on the Central Park Boathouse, a city-owned concession that was requesting proposals.
In June 2000, New York City's Department of Parks and Recreation awarded Dean Poll the concession for the Loeb Boathouse property, one of only two restaurants in Manhattan's Central Park. It consists of a lakeside fine dining restaurant, a fast casual café and an event space. Poll transformed the Boathouse into “a must-have NYC experience" and "a proven money-maker, too." Of the Parks Department's 1,800 concessions, the Boathouse is a significant contributor to the city's coffers, second only to the parking facilities at Shea Stadium. In 2016, the city renewed the Boathouse's 15-year lease.
In August 2009, the Parks Department granted Dean Poll the concession for Tavern on the Green, the second of two restaurants in Manhattan's iconic Central Park. A major labor dispute erupted between Dean Poll and the union representing Tavern workers. The dispute resulted in Poll backing out of the deal and the union organizing a 44-day strike at the Boathouse. Ultimately the two sides came to terms. Today they enjoy an exceptionally good relationship.
Gallagher's Steakhouse
In January 2013, Dean Poll bought legendary Gallaghers Steakhouse from longtime owner Marlene Brody. Rescuing the 200-seat, Prohibition-era restaurant 14 days before it was scheduled to close, Poll began a strategic 7-month renovation that the New York Post's Steve Cuozzo likened to “stirring the resurrection of a classic.” In February 2011, Gallaghers reopened to rave reviews that celebrated Poll's success restoring its vintage horseshoe bar, iconic glass-encased meat locker. On November 14, 2017, Gallagher's hosted its 90th birthday with a cocktail party that attracted 600 colorful Broadway stars, sports icons, business moguls and socialites. In December 2017, Poll's resurrection of Gallagher's was the subject of a New York Times article by James Barron.
