Long before he became the internationally known mayor of New York City, Eric Adams had a favorite saying about haters and waiters. Sometimes it’s used for inspiration, like in 2018, when he told Brooklyn College graduates, “Let your haters be your waiters!” In other cases, it’s a kind of rebuke, a cautionary tale for those who doubt him. “As a little boy, as a police officer, as a state senator, as the borough president, as the mayor, all I know is, all my haters become my waiters when I sit down at the table of success,” Adams told a heckler in 2023.

Adams’s haters have been easy enough to spot. But who are the other people seated at Adams’s table? What did they know that the haters and waiters didn’t? The Table of Success is Hell Gate’s attempt to give readers insight into who was in Adams’s orbit, how they’re related, and why it matters.

We chose these table members using our own proprietary alchemy, not unlike a certain members-only nightclub frequented by the mayor—loyalty, power, visibility, personal relations, business dealings, and synergy with the brand of Adams’s New York all played a role in their selection. Some members of the table have analogues in every mayoral administration—real estate barons, party machers, and police chiefs have always enjoyed a seat at this table, no matter who is at the head. Others feel more unique to this moment of extreme precarity and inequality—Instagram clout-chasers, crypto-evangelists, and federally indicted clergymen.

In response to multiple requests for comment for this project, a spokesperson for the mayor emailed us a statement: “As Mayor Adams often says, our administration has the best, most dedicated team. The mayor expects everyone working in city government to give their best every day to make the city work better for working-class New Yorkers, and our senior leadership and those who have worked with the mayor for a long time exemplify that. We will continue to follow the guidance he gives often: ‘Stay focused, no distractions, and grind.’”

The Table of Success was created and updated during the Adams mayoralty. As his time in office draws to a close, we hope it can continue to serve as a readable resource for New Yorkers trying to make sense of the Adams era.

Hell Gate is Adlan Jackson, Christopher Robbins, Esther Wang, Jessy Edwards, Katie Way, Max Rivlin-Nadler, and Nick Pinto. Its operations and finance manager is Nadia Tykulsker. Rick Paulas is its marketing and external relations manager.

Funding from the Wayne Barrett Project at Type Investigations helped make the original Table of Success possible, with editing by Maha Ahmed, Cassi Feldman, and Aviva Shen and research by Iqra Salah and Nina Zweig. Our fact-checkers were Alma Beauvais, Jael Goldfine, Kadal Jesuthasan, Paige Oamek, and Iqra Salah. Fact-checking for the Table of Success: The Last Supper was led by Alex Nguyen.

Design, development, and illustration by Partner & Partners.

Photo Credits: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office (various city officials, Schneps-Yunis); Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office (various city officials); Caroline Willis/Mayoral Photo Office (various city officials); Gordon Donovan/NurPhoto via AP (Cohen); AP Photo/Mary Altaffer (Ulrich); AP Photo/Kevin Hagen (Bernard Adams); Sipa via AP Images (Whitehead); Photo by David Warren/Sipa USA (Sipa via AP Images) (Pierce); Lev Radin/Sipa USA (Sipa via AP Images) (Maroko); Photo by Lev Radin/Sipa USA (Sipa via AP Images) (Holliday); AP Photo/Gary He (Durst); Raymond Hall/GC Images (Srugo); Johnny Nunez/WireImage (Pitta); Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images (Suggs); Barry Williams/Hell Gate (Mazzio); WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo (Petrosyants); Erik Pendzich / Alamy Stock Photo (Coleman); Steve Mack/Alamy Stock Photo (Montomgery); a katz / Shutterstock (Argento); Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Haute Living (Sartiano); Ronzoni/Wikicommons (Koo); Short/Hell Gate (Thies); Jefferson Siegel/Hell Gate (various city officials); Katie Honan (Polatseck); Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office (Ray); Official White House Photo of Dr. Phil by Joyce Boghosian.