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Tavern on the Green

Coordinates: 40°46′20″N 73°58′40″W / 40.7723°N 73.9778°W / 40.7723; -73.9778
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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 75.85.7.106 (talk) at 05:46, 3 February 2013 (→‎Broadway: added reference to Prince of Central Park). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

40°46′20″N 73°58′40″W / 40.7723°N 73.9778°W / 40.7723; -73.9778

Tavern on the Green
Main entrance of Tavern on the Green, November 2008
Map
Restaurant information
EstablishedOctober 1934
ClosedDecember 31, 2009
Head chefBrian Young
Street addressCentral Park West and West 66th Street – Manhattan
CityNew York City
StateNew York
CountryUnited States

Tavern on the Green was an American cuisine restaurant located in Central Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in New York City. It remained in operation from 1934 to 2009 under various owners. As of October 15, 2010, the building is a public visitors center and gift shop run by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, retaining the name Tavern on the Green.

The restaurant in 2007 had gross revenues of $38 million, from more than 500,000 visitors, making it the second-highest-grossing independent restaurant in the United States (behind The Venetian's Tao restaurant in Las Vegas, at $67 million).[1][2] Of the several dining rooms, the most famous was the Crystal Room, which features windows overlooking the restaurant's adjacent garden in Central Park.[3]

History and location

Original sheepfold and barn, 1899

The restaurant was located in New York City's Central Park off Central Park West at West 67th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side. It was originally the sheepfold that housed the sheep that grazed Sheep Meadow, built to a design by Calvert Vaux in 1870. It became a restaurant as part of a 1934 renovation of the park under Robert Moses, New York City's Commissioner of Parks.

From 1934, the landmark restaurant was managed by restaurateurs licensed by the City of New York's Park Department. In 1943 Arnold Schleifer and his nephews, Arthur Schleifer and Julius Berman, won the contract to operate the restaurant. During their tenure, the dance floor was enlarged and nightly music was enjoyed. A large outdoor patio offered dining al fresco. Trees were first wrapped in the well-known twinkling lights around the property, and the Elm Tree Room was built to surround one of the city’s classic American elms. The menu was designed to be elegant but affordable for New Yorkers. Luncheon and dinner offerings changed regularly, and Mr. Berman would often add special desserts to celebrate family events, e.g., "Parfait Ruth" to honor the birth of his granddaughter.

The Berman-Schleifer family ran numerous restaurants they owned and other New York City concessions. Among these were the moose venues at Orchard Beach, the Claremont Inn (1934–1948) in Riverside Park, accessed from Riverside Drive, United Nations Caterers, Manny Wolf’s 49th Street Chop House on Third Avenue, and New York City's first air-conditioned restaurant, Schleifer’s Fashion Center on 7th Avenue.

In 1962, Joe Baum's Restaurant Associates purchased the Schleifer-Berman interest in the Tavern’s operation.[4]

In 1974, Warner LeRoy took over the restaurant's lease and reopened it in 1976 after $10 million in renovations including the addition of a glass enclosed Crystal Room which doubled the seating capacity to 800. According to city officials it was illegal but the city, wanting the restaurant expanded at a time when the city was having its own financial problems, did not stop the expansion.[5] Since LeRoy's death in 2001, it was managed by his daughter, Jennifer Oz LeRoy, until its closure in 2009.[6]

During the 1980s, the restaurant was periodically victimized by the disturbing wave of "wolf pack crime" that swept New York City. On at least one occasion, dozens of young hoodlums perpetrated a barrage of robbery and assaults against the Tavern and its patrons by swarming the parking lot and scaling the walls of the prestigious eatery before making off with purses and cash registers.[7]

Tavern on the Green was frequented by prominent actors, musicians, politicians, and writers. Regular patrons have included former New York City Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, actresses Grace Kelly and Fay Wray and many others.[8] Tavern on the Green has hosted the wedding receptions of several prominent Americans, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler[9] and film director Walter Hill.[10] John Lennon was a neighbor to Warner LeRoy and his son, Sean, was a playmate of Warner LeRoy's son, Max LeRoy. As a result, John and Sean celebrated numerous birthdays at Tavern on the Green during the late 1970s.[11]

In May 2008, the restaurant and the Westfield Group announced plans to open a second, 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) location in the Metreon mall in downtown San Francisco, California, in summer 2009.[12][13][14][15] The plans had not materialized as of late 2009.[16]

In June 2008, Tavern on the Green agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a sexual and racial discrimination lawsuit over claims by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of "pervasive harassment" of women and minority employees.[17]

On August 28, 2009, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation announced that it had declined to renew the restaurant's license, granting it instead to Dean Poll, operator of the Central Park Boathouse. The LeRoy management was required to cease operations and remove all furnishings from the location before January 1, 2010.[18]

In September 2009, the restaurant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, located in New York City, citing the 2009 national financial crisis and the August 28, 2009 loss of the restaurant's operating license.[19]

Tavern on the Green patio after reopening, December 2010

Tavern on the Green had its last seating on December 31, 2009. It auctioned off its interior decorations and closed its doors after filing for bankruptcy.[20]

On October 15, 2010, the city re-opened the building as a visitors information center with a gift shop selling city-themed t-shirts and hats and other memorabilia.[21] Street vendors sell food outside. Adrian Benepe, New York City Parks Commissioner, said at the opening ceremony that the future of the building remains open depending on how well the visitors center does.[21] The glass-enclosed Crystal Room was removed, exposing the original 19th century architecture.[21] While the original restaurant was a private establishment, the new facility is public space in a public park.[21]

Donald Trump investment

Central Park Boathouse operator Dean Poll was given rights to reopen the restaurant but could not reach an agreement with the Hotel and Motel Trades Council, affiliated with the AFL–CIO, which represents the employees of the restaurant. In January 2011, however, Donald Trump said he obtained an agreement from the union employees and that he would invest $20 million in the restaurant, including rebuilding the Crystal Room, provided he is granted a 20-year lease. He said he would keep the Tavern on the Green name. "I don't think every place needs to be called Trump," he joked.[22] Trump earlier had completed Wollman Rink (and continues to operate it) after the city for several years had been unable to repair and reopen it. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Central Park Conservancy officials have not officially taken a stance on Trump's proposal. Among the considerations is whether an upscale restaurant is needed in the park with officials praising the impact of the Shake Shack hamburger restaurant in Madison Square Park.[22]

Dispute over rights to restaurant's name

The rights to the name of the restaurant became an additional source of contention between the LeRoys and the city of New York during the bankruptcy court procedures in October 2009 after the LeRoys claimed the trademark was theirs while the city challenged them.[23] At the time the trademark was appraised at $19 million.[23] In November 2009, Poll registered a backup name with New York State: Tavern in the Park.[24]

In March 2010, Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled that the trade name was owned by the City of New York and that Warner LeRoy had trademarked the name “fraudulently” in 1981. She wrote: “Because the undisputed facts show that the city established and continuously maintained a restaurant under the name ‘Tavern on the Green’ at the same location in New York’s Central Park since 1934, the city has a protectable interest in that name.”[25][26][27][28]

Awards

Where magazine named Tavern on the Green the best restaurant on New York City's Upper West Side in 2006 and awarded it "best ambience" of any New York City restaurant four years earlier, in 2002. In 2003 and 2004, Wine Spectator named the restaurant's wine list its "Best Award of Excellence."[29]

New York City Marathon

Tavern on the Green is the finish line of the New York City Marathon. The Barilla Marathon Eve Dinner, a pre-race pasta party on the eve of the marathon for 10,000 guests (including registrants, who attend for free), took place at the Tavern.[30]

Broadway

Many Broadway shows had their opening night festivities at the restaurant.

The Broadway musical title of show includes a line in the song "Part of it All":

"Ducking out of the theatre before the show's finale to get to the opening night at Tavern on the Green!"

The 1989 Broadway musical Prince of Central Park included a production number set at the restaurant. In his negative review in the New York Times, Frank Rich wrote disparagingly:

"Prince of Central Park also has a serious obsession with Tavern on the Green, whose name is dragged into nearly every scene before and after serving as a setting for a dance number. Given the vehicle for these insistent plugs, it's hard to know whether the restaurant should consider itself the beneficiary of free advertising or the victim of a dissatisfied customer's personal vendetta." [31]

The New Yorker agreed that the show had "so many references to the Tavern on the Green that it's almost impossible to believe that the restaurant's owners haven't underwritten the show."[32] The formal opening night after-party was held at Tavern on the Green, where 600 formally attired patron's showed up to celebrate. The playwright Evan Rhodes predicted that the show would run for years,[33] but after scathing reviews were published in the morning papers, Prince of Central Park closed after only four performances.[34]

Commercial advertising

A 1970s to 1980s Folgers coffee advertising campaign capitalized on Tavern's reputation, among other locales, in variations of an ad featuring the line: "We’ve secretly replaced the fine coffee they usually serve with Folgers Crystals...Let's see if anyone can tell the difference!"[35]

Movies

The Tavern is featured in several movies, including An Unmarried Woman, Beaches, Edward Scissorhands, Ghostbusters, Made, Only When I Laugh, Requiem for a Dream, Stella, The Out-of-Towners and Wall Street. The film The Flintstones (1994) parodied the restaurant in one scene as "Cavern on the Green".[36]

The Tavern featured prominently in the 2011 film, Mr. Popper's Penguins, which recreated the defunct restaurant during its heyday.[37][38] Jim Carrey plays a real estate professional attempting to purchase the restaurant from its owner, played by Angela Lansbury, on behalf of owners who wish to tear it down.[39] The film references Donald Trump's later attempts to buy the restaurant in order to reopen it, and the restaurant's importance to the culture of New York City.[39]

Music

Tavern on the Green is cited in at least two popular songs. The restaurant is mentioned by the hip-hop group Nice & Smooth in the song "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow," on their album Ain't a Damn Thing Changed: "I go to Tavern on the Green and have a glass of wine..."[40] It is also mentioned by rapper Black Rob in the song "24 Hours to Live" on Mase's album Harlem World, in which Black Rob says that, if he had only 24 hours to live, he would: "Get them cats I wanted to get, since the Tavern on the Green robbery in '86."[41]

Television

The restaurant is mentioned in the television series How I Met Your Mother (Season 5, Episode 14, "The Perfect Week") when Barney Stinson says, "I was lunching at Tavern on the Green, and I started chatting up the sweetest supermodel. Next thing you know, I'm playing a day game in the back of a horse drawn carriage."

In a 30 Rock web exclusive titled "More Donaghy Secrets Uncovered", Jack Donaghy's assistant, Johnathan, reveals that Tavern on the Green calls him every night to see if he would like a reservation.[42]

An episode of Earth: Final Conflict features the protagonist realizing his memory has been tampered with to include a nonexistent girlfriend, but then finds pictures of himself celebrating a certain birthday at home with his family and remembers taking the girlfriend to Tavern on the Green.

The Tavern is parodied in two episodes of Futurama, "The Late Philip J. Fry" and "A Leela of Her Own," both which feature the "Cavern on the Green" restaurant in New New York City.

In the Seinfeld episode "The Susie", George is excited that his boss George Steinbrenner is throwing a pinstripe ball at Tavern on the Green.

The restaurant also has been featured in television shows such as elimiDATE and Live with Regis and Kelly.[3][43][44]

References

Notes
  1. ^ "Special Report: Top 100 Independents". Restaurants & Institutions.
  2. ^ Drape, Joe (July 22, 2007). "Setting Restaurant Records by Selling the Sizzle". The New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2007.
  3. ^ a b Central Park: Play: Tavern on the Green
  4. ^ "Tavern-on-the-Green Sold". The New York Times. April 5, 1962. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  5. ^ Cuozzo, Steve (January 31, 2011). "Tavern deal not Crystal Clear". New York Post. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
  6. ^ Yaniv, Oren (February 3, 2009). "Tavern on the Green in the red". Daily News. New York. Retrieved February 6, 2009.
  7. ^ Youths attack concert fans
  8. ^ "There's No Place Like Tavern on the Green", Page Six Magazine, October 12, 2008
  9. ^ Brady, Lois Smith (May 7, 1995). "WEDDINGS: VOWS; Robert O. Butler, Elizabeth Dewberry". The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  10. ^ "Hildy Gottlieb Is the Bride Of Walter Hill, a Director". The New York Times. September 8, 1986. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  11. ^ "John Lennon and Yoko Ono celebrate his and Sean's birthdays," This Day in Rock, October 9, 1979.
  12. ^ James Temple (May 6, 2008). "Tavern on the Green coming to the Metreon". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 6, 2008. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f= ignored (help)
  13. ^ Fabricant, Florence (May 7, 2008). "Off the Menu". The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  14. ^ J.K. Dineen (May 5, 2008). "N.Y.'s famed Tavern On The Green to open S.F.'s biggest restaurant".
  15. ^ "NYC's Tavern on the Green plans San Francisco outpost". Nations Restaurant News. May 7, 2008.
  16. ^ Sajid Farooq (October 14, 2009). "San Francisco's Tavern Chances Are Drying Up". NBC Bay Area.
  17. ^ Daniel Trotta (June 2, 2008). "Famed NY tavern to pay $2.2 million for discrimination". reuters.
  18. ^ Collins, Glenn (September 16, 2009). "Why Did Tavern Fail?". The New York Times. p. D1. Retrieved September 17, 2009.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  19. ^ Collins, Glenn (September 9, 2009). "Tavern on the Green Requesting Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection". The New York Times. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
  20. ^ Collins, Glenn (December 8, 2009). "Lions and Tigers and Debt: Auctioning Off Tavern on the Green". The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  21. ^ a b c d "NY's Tavern on the Green reopens as visitor ctr.", AP, October 15, 2010 (video)
  22. ^ a b Gould, Jennifer (January 27, 2011). "Donald Trump to ask City to allow him to reopen Tavern on the Green". NYPOST.com. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
  23. ^ a b Collins, Glenn (October 9, 2009). "City Wants Tavern's Trademark Name". The New York Times.
  24. ^ Fickenscher, Lisa. "Back-up name chosen for Tavern on the Green", Crain's New York Business, November 19, 2009. WebCite archive
  25. ^ Glovin, David; Jeffrey, Don (March 10, 2010). "N.Y. City Wins Right to 'Tavern on the Green' Name". BusinessWeek. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
  26. ^ Collins, Glenn (March 10, 2010). "Judge Rules the City Owns the Name Tavern on the Green". The New York Times. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
  27. ^ Rubinstein, Dana (March 10, 2010). "City Beats LeRoys for 'Tavern on the Green' Name". The New York Observer. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
  28. ^ Walder, Noeleen G. (March 11, 2010). "Court: Rights to Tavern on the Green Name Belong to New York City". New York Law Journal. Retrieved June 30, 2010. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  29. ^ "Awards and Accomplishments" at Tavern on the Green Website.
  30. ^ "Barilla Hosts Marathon Eve Dinner"
  31. ^ "The City Is Sweet and Muggers Are Merry;" from The New York Times, November 10, 1989. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
  32. ^ "The Theatre; byline: Mimi Kramer" from The New Yorker, November 20, 1989. Retrieved on 2013-02-02.
  33. ^ "'Prince' dethroned after critics turned It into frog;" from Boca Raton News, November 14, 1989. Retrieved on 2013-02-02.
  34. ^ [1]
  35. ^ Collins, Glenn (October 15, 2009). "A Reprieve for Tavern on the Green". The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  36. ^ The Flintstones at IMDB.
  37. ^ Scott, A.O. (June 16, 2011). "A Home Invasion by the Antarcticans". The New York Times.
  38. ^ Pihl, Tommy (June 14, 2011). "Mr. Popper's Penguins - About the Production". Jim Carrey Online.
  39. ^ a b Greydanus, Steven (June 16, 2011). "SDG Reviews 'Mr. Popper's Penguins'". National Catholic Register.
  40. ^ "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow" lyrics at Lyricstime.
  41. ^ "24 Hours to Live" lyrics at Lyricstime.
  42. ^ "30 Rock: More Donaghy Secrets Uncovered". Hulu. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
  43. ^ Central Park Movie Locations
  44. ^ Bette Midler as a Selfless Mother in Tear-Inducing Stella


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