{{Short description|Restaurant surveys publishers}} [[File:Tim and Nina Zagat on RealTVfilms.jpg|right|thumb|Left to right: Tim and Nina Zagat at the 2009 premiere of ''Julie & Julia'']]
'''Nina S. Zagat''' ({{née|Safronoff}}) and her husband, '''Eugene Henry "Tim" Zagat, Jr.''' ({{IPAc-en|z|ə|ˈ|ɡ|æ|t}}; born 1940, New York City) are the founders and publishers of Zagat Restaurant Surveys. They met at Yale Law School and were both practicing attorneys when they founded Zagat Surveys.<ref name="bio">{{cite web|title=Tim and Nina Zagat Biography|publisher=bio|year=2002|url=http://www.biography.com/articles/Tim-and-Nina-Zagat-9542482|access-date=2009-10-20|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091213180237/http://www.biography.com/articles/Tim-and-Nina-Zagat-9542482|archive-date=2009-12-13}}</ref><ref name="bosApr09">{{cite news|author=Sheryl Julian|title=Critic of All He Surveys|publisher=The Boston Globe. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company.|date=April 22, 2009|url=http://archive.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2009/04/22/critic_of_all_he_surveys/|access-date=2009-11-03}}</ref>
==Law careers== Nina Zagat was an associate with the Wall Street white shoe firm Shearman & Sterling,<ref>[{{cite web|url=http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1991/b323746.arc.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111105224616/http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1991/b323746.arc.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 5, 2011|title=Tim and Nina Zagat: Move Over, Michelin|work=Business Week|date=October 28, 1991}}</ref> where she gained notability acting as Seward Johnson's attorney and author and executor of his 1983 will. She represented his widow, Barbara "Basia" Piasecka Johnson, while the will was contested by his children; ''The Washington Post'' quotes an affidavit by the children's attorney that described her relationship to her client as "a contemporary, traveling companion and close personal friend whose recompense for loyalty to and support of Basia was the extraordinary compensation." Zagat maintained that "she acted according to Seward's instructions" and the suit was settled out of court.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1986/03/13/nina-zagat-and-a-500-million-battle-of-wills/ea974a89-65ec-486c-a75e-fe4310d4d542/|title=Nina Zagat and a $500 Million Battle of Wills|author=Paula Span|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=March 13, 1986|access-date=June 12, 2019}}</ref>
Both were employed in Paris—he at office of the Hughes Hubbard law firm, and she with Shearman & Sterling. While there, they started compiling their own list of Parisian restaurants, of what they liked and didn't like, and conceived the idea for a new type of restaurant ratings guide.{{cn|date=March 2022}}
==Zagat Survey== {{main|Zagat}} When the Zagats returned to New York, they solicited the opinions of friends about New York restaurants; the resulting compilation eventually became ''Zagat''.<ref name="bosApr09" />
One reviewer described the methodology: "The philosophy behind the Zagat Survey is that instead of one lengthy critical review of a restaurant, the eating public is better served by a rating based on hundreds of responses. By tabulating the responses to detailed surveys, the Zagat Survey rates restaurants on a 30-point scale in the categories of food, décor, service and cost. It also provides price estimates and a pithy, paragraph-sized description."<ref name="bio" />
The company expanded to include other cities and market segments such as hotels, stores and clubs; in early 2008, the couple tried to sell the company for $200 million, but then withdrew the sale when they could not find prospective buyers at that price.<ref name="bosApr09" /> The survey was eventually sold to Google, and later to The Infatuation.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/business/dealbook/zagat-google-infatuation.html | title=Google to Sell Zagat to the Infatuation, an Upstart Review Site | work=The New York Times | date=5 March 2018 }}</ref>
==Awards== {| class="wikitable" ! Year !! Awarding body !! Award !! Reference |- | 1994 || James Beard Foundation || Who's Who in Food and Beverage | style="text-align: center;" | <ref name="atlanticbio">{{cite news |title=Tim Zagat |website=The Atlantic |publisher=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/author/tim-zagat/ |access-date=2025-04-06}}</ref> |- | 1995|| Nation's Restaurant News|| Profile of Power || {{n/a}} |- | 1997|| Crain’s Magazine || One of 100 Leaders of NY Economy | style="text-align: center;" | <ref name="huffpostzagat">{{cite news |title=Tim Zagat and Nina Zagat |website=HuffPost |publisher=HuffPost |url=https://www.huffpost.com/author/tim-zagat-and-nina-zagat |access-date=2025-04-06}}</ref> |- | rowspan=2 | 2000 || Ernst & Young|| Entrepreneurs of the Year | style="text-align: center;" | <ref name="uhzagat">{{cite news |title=Tim & Nina Zagat |website=University of Houston Hilton College |publisher=University of Houston |url=https://uh.edu/hilton-college/about/hospitality-industry-hall-of-honor/inductees/tim-nina-zagat-/ |access-date=2025-04-06}}</ref> |- | Harvard Business School || Entrepreneur of the Year | style="text-align: center;" | <ref name="legionofhonor">{{cite news |title=Nina Zagat Bestowed of the Insignia of Officer of the Legion of Honor |website=Consulate General of France in New York |publisher=Consulate General of France in New York |url=https://newyork.consulfrance.org/Nina-Zagat-Bestowed-of-the |access-date=2025-04-06}}</ref> |}
== Personal life == The Jewish-American couple have two sons, Ted and John,<ref name="bio" /> and live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York.<ref name="nymag0309">{{cite news|author=Vanita Salisbury|title = Nina and Tim Zagat's Favorite New Yorkers Are Each Other|publisher=New York Magazine|date=March 10, 2009|url=http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/03/nina_and_tim_zagat.html|access-date=2009-11-03}}</ref> The pair were acquainted with Jeffrey Epstein and flew on his private plane dubbed the Lolita Express.<ref>{{cite news|title=Who Was Jeffrey Epstein Calling?|publisher=New York Magazine|date=July 22, 2019|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/jeffrey-epstein-high-society-contacts.html|access-date=2021-05-12}}</ref>
===Stabbing incident=== On November 15, 1990, Tim Zagat was watching ''Dances With Wolves'' at a Loews movie theater in New York City. An "apparently deranged" man, seated in the same row, made loud, obscene comments to others before the movie began. During the film, the man stabbed Zagat until an anonymous moviegoer pulled the attacker off of Zagat.<ref>{{cite news|title=Publisher Is Stabbed In a Sudden Attack In a Movie Theater|work=The New York Times|date=November 15, 1990|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/15/nyregion/publisher-is-stabbed-in-a-sudden-attack-in-a-movie-theater.html|access-date=2009-10-20}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|2527494|Nina Zagat}} *{{IMDb name|1426425|Tim Zagat}} *{{NYTtopic|people/z/tim_zagat|Tim Zagat}} * [http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/03/nina_and_tim_zagat.html Photo of Tim and Nina Zagat]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zagat}} Category:Market researchers Category:Yale Law School alumni Category:New York (state) lawyers Category:Living people Category:20th-century American Jews Category:Corporate lawyers Category:People associated with Shearman & Sterling Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:American restaurant critics Category:Married couples