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Jim Apteker at his new State Room. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky |
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Heredity and environment conspired to set Jim Apteker’s career path. When his father was a chef in a Boston restaurant, young Jim hung out there. Then the family opened Veronique in nearby Brookline, and Apteker helped out, learning the restaurant business by osmosis. That pathway continued through four years in BU’s young School of Hospitality Administration, where class work was augmented with visits to local restaurants and hotels. “That was the best part: association with the Boston industry,” he says. Thanks to an interview with Ed Fuller (SMG’68), now president and managing director of Marriott Lodging International, Apteker (SHA’88) began working for Marriott. “After two years I found out that wasn’t for me: I’m not a corporate person,” he says. “I wanted to be independent. So Dad said, ‘Let’s open a restaurant.’”
Back to family business. In 1990, Veronique, briefly closed, reopened in Longwood Towers, a 1920s Tudor-style building complete with gargoyles and a ballroom for special events. Before long, “the ballroom was making all the money, so we closed the restaurant to have two large events spaces.” The family firm had evolved into Longwood Events Corporation.
True to his roots, Apteker is still in the Boston-area restaurant business, and then some. The focus of his expertise and enthusiasm has shifted downtown, to the State Room, recently added to Longwood Events. On the thirty-third and thirty-fourth floors of 60 State Street, with sweeping views of the harbor and the city, the State Room accommodates events for more than 1,000. It also includes the new Boston University Club, a members-only lunch dining room with membership also open to non-alumni—“all college clubs do that,” Apteker explains. With 12,000 BU alumni working in downtown Boston, he expects membership to reach its 1,000 maximum soon.
Three years after he graduated, Apteker joined the SHA Advisory Board, its youngest member and first alumnus. He was also the founding president of the SHA Alumni Association and the first recipient of the SHA Alumni Award. He stays close to the school, giving lectures, advising the dean and faculty, and employing students and graduates. “Jim is a wonderful board member and friend and a generous supporter,” says Dean Jim Stamas.
Apteker’s next gift will be $250,000, which he has pledged to SHA’s new home: three spacious floors at 930 Commonwealth Avenue, just across from the Student Village. Stamas expects them to be fully renovated and ready for occupation next fall. “But then, I’m always an optimist,” he adds. Apteker’s gift will name the dean’s suite, which will include a large conference room for faculty meeting and space to confer with industry leaders and with prospective students and their families. Stamas calls it “a very important, working area.”
—Natalie Jacobson McCracken |
