In 1979, Tim and Nina Zagat, both lawyers at the time, decided to create the Zagat Survey to collect friends’ reviews of Manhattan restaurants. In the following years, the couple began publishing print editions of their restaurant guide, which quickly expanded and gained popularity beyond their social circle.
Tim quit the corporate counsel firm Gulf & Western Inc. to pursue the restaurant guides business full-time in 1986, at age 46, while Nina continued working as a lawyer until she was 49, as reported by Bloomberg in 1991.
In 2000, when the two were 60 and 58, respectively, the Zagat Survey finally found investors to back the reviews business, per AARP.
The Zagat Survey eventually became one of the most respected measures of customer satisfaction in the culinary world, and the company was acquired by Google for $151 million in 2011, per Forbes.
Today, the brand is owned by the JP Morgan Chase-owned restaurant discovery website The Infatuation.
