Chipotle, based in Denver, was already a successful chain before it opened its first Manhattan location in 2003.
In 2001, before it opened its first cafe in New York, ING Direct successfully petitioned the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for permission to open cafes as "agency offices" rather than branches, effectively exempting them from Community Reinvestment Act regulations.
It sold 40,000 tickets before it opened, the second highest pre-sales after last year's Hockney, which ended up having 600,989 visitors.
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani was invited to address the Assembly before it opened its debate, the first mayor of New York to do so since 1952.
Written in real time over the course of the US election year, each play is updated just before it opens; the first, Hungry, took place during the primary elections; the second, What Do You Expect, premiered just before the first debate; and the third, Women of a Certain Age, opens in New York on election night.
Mr. Rushdie's plans to attend the festival, above, stirred controversy before it opened, and he said on the first day that he would not attend, citing a risk to his safety.
Writer Bryony Lavery's drama about aspiring boxers was dealt a blow before it opened, because the Royal Court Theatre got in first with Roy Williams's Sucker Punch (reviewed in June).
Two or three seconds passed before it opened, slowly, and out of it emerged three tank-sized types in pinstripe suits with bulges under their armpits similar to mine.
Klein and Rosseland produced the Institute's first paper even before it opened.
A teachers' union has said it questioned the design of a school where a 12-year-old boy fell from a fourth floor stairwell, before it opened.
