Morale was high, and at a small staff dinner before launch, publisher Neil Thackray tearfully told the assembled staff it was the most exciting thing he'd done in his professional career.
The menu, it turns out, was inspired by a family meal — the restaurant staff dinner shared before service — at MarketBar.
The former IBT editor said that while "there was absolutely no socialisation between the big shots and the staff", in 2011 a staff Christmas dinner was held at John's, an Italian restaurant near its office in Manhattan.
Often attending staff dinners and meetings, Hand became a close friend of the gifted young editor Walter Lippmann.
He eschews the raucous staff dinners and late-night strategy huddles that are a staple of campaign life.
When its executives were condemned, for example, for spending £400,000 in expenses in three years, including Yentob's claims for a £1,600 staff Christmas dinner, a £120 cake and £40 for licence-funded dry-cleaning, he declared that there was no need for a "collective mea culpa".
Levy, a staff writer, hosted a dinner party for guests including Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler.
He will receive a first-name-only invitation to have dinner at a staff table, which will then quietly appear under the door of one of the other Bobs, and no one will spot the substitution.
