When I walk into Lilia, the industrial-style dining room is almost empty except for a few staff milling about — I can hear my boot heels hitting the stone floor. It’s a distinctly weird vibe for a buzzy Italian that has been one of Brooklyn’s hardest to score tables since it opened in 2016.
There is no time to ponder. Hedge fund magnate Boaz Weinstein is rising from the only occupied table to greet me. A rumpled-looking 51-year-old clad in a casual navy crewneck sweater over a T-shirt, he seems more like an average dad on the school run (as a separated father of three, he often does drop-offs and occasional pick-ups) than a feared Wall Street raider.
But his three-month-old campaign to shake up the UK investment trust industry has made him the City of London’s public enemy number one. The Guardian, the Telegraph and the Daily Mail have closed ranks against him, describing him as a “blackjack raider”, a “greedy intruder” and a “vulture”.