Rudy Giuliani was once warmly embraced on New York’s glamorous Upper East Side, mingling with press and public alike in its upmarket neighbourhood haunts.
He was a regular at Tony’s Di Napoli, a cavernous Italian restaurant just a few minutes from his apartment. Twenty years ago he was swarmed by reporters as he walked his mistress home from a meal there.
Now mentions of Mr Giuliani draw blank stares and quizzical looks from its waiting staff, who are otherwise happy to name-drop their celebrity regulars.
A waiter shook his head at a mention of the former New York mayor. “Giuliani?” he laughed and walked off. “I don’t like him.”
The reaction would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. Mr Giuliani burnished his reputation in the city, taking on the mafia as US attorney, tackling spiralling crime rates as mayor and racing for the World Trade Center when it was hit by the first plane on Sept 11 2001.