Early in the morning, limousines and big black town cars line up on Park Avenue, causing a bottleneck on the northbound side of the street. They are depositing, waiting for, or retrieving their rich and/or powerful charges, who are having breakfast at the Regency Hotel....naturally.

After stepping out of the car, three long strides puts these breakfast-goers in the restaurant's ante room, where they join the end of a long line into the dining room. No one accustomed to breakfasting at the Regency steps to the front of the line. No matter how rich or how powerful they may be, they wait their turn. If someone were to break rank and march up to the front, folded $20 bill in hand, they would kindly but firmly be put in their place by the woman in charge, Marie Hallas, the Maitre d', manager, and mother hen of the power breakfast.

In any case, the line moves quickly. Marie makes eye contact with her guests, greets them by name, and ushers them to whatever table she sees fit to give them. No matter how they would act in a regular restaurant upon being given a table that may not be their first choice, under Marie's care, they sit like lambs.

She seats me and my companion, unknown to her but for a phone call, at a small table in the back, where we would have had ample opportunity for spying and eavesdropping had the tables not been so far apart. We scan the menu and choose a $17.00 bagel and lox (Ruth Messinger's favorite), and a $6.00 slice of melon (Ed Koch's standby). Other choices include oatmeal ($10.50; City Speaker Peter Vallone's choice), and stewed prunes, ($4.75, and un-named by any luminaries).

As we look around the plush room, we see tables of men in suits, eating dry toast, drinking black coffee, and possibly conducting Very Important Business. At the end of the room, the dowdy floral-patterned carpet stops abruptly, and polished wood floors lead into a room furnished with deep soft couches and velvet-covered easy chairs. The room is called the Library, and it tends to be favored by what Marie calls, "California types." It is a democratic place, where a volume of Emily Bronte rubs covers with Joan River. It is much more relaxed and informal than the main room. And it is where Marie and I talk, after 9:30, when most of the powerful have brushed the toast crumbs from their laps and started off on their days.

Q: You've been working here for 15 years. How has the power breakfast scene changed?

A: When I first started, the power breakfast was already established (it's been going on since the 70s), but we would do maybe 70 covers. Now we do 250. It's really grown, and people keep coming back. In fifteen years I haven't lost any customers that I know of.

Q: How do you manage to juggle all those tables without upsetting the powerful?

A: I find that being at the front, you have to be in complete control. You can't show that you are intimidated...you have to let them know that in here, you are in charge. Then you walk them over to a table with the walk that says yes, this is really your table, and they respect that. Seating here is like expediting, you have to get people seated quickly because sometimes they might be having several meetings in the same morning. Some people stay here for hours...then they ask if they owe me any rent.

Q: New York Newsday called you the most powerful woman in New York City from 7:00 to 9:00 am. What do you think accounts for that power?

A: Well, I think it comes from the situation, I mean, look who I work with... I have the most powerful people in New York and in the country, here, and I'm honored that I'm able to converse with them. And they've become actual friends.

Q: Who are some of your regulars?

A: There are certain names I am not supposed to mention, and I don't because I respect people's privacy, but I can mention the former Mayors including Beame, Koch, and Dinkins, former Governor Hugh Carey, Ruth Messinger, Henry Kissinger, Steve Guttenburg, Tom Bosley, who used to play the father on Happy Days...Clint Eastwood was here...he's tall, very tall. I could go on and on and on.

Q: I notice that there are only a few women breakfasting today. Is that normally the case?

A: It used to be when I first started here, but I've tried hard to get more women involved. I thought, this is a powerful place filled with powerful men, why not get some powerful women to come in? So I called editors of magazines and invited them into breakfast, and it started to catch on. I think that it helps having a woman as the manager. And women know that I'm not going to give them a tiny table in the back, that everyone here is treated like equals. I think women make up about 40% of our customers on most days.

Q: You get up at 4:30 am, leave home by 5:15, and get here by 6:00. Do you ever want to just say the heck with it and work, say, lunches or dinners?

A: Oh no, absolutely not. I've been here 15 years. This is my second family, and I feel as though this is my home, and that people are entering my home. I feel like they are all my friends, and I truly care about them. If I don't see someone for a while, I send them a little note to see what happened. And they do they same for me. I can't see leaving.