Tavern on the Green

Central Park's famed "Tavern on the Green" restaurant will be closing at the end of 2009 after being a New York City landmark (some say tourist trap) for decades. Once America's highest-earning restaurant, the management is now bankrupt, and will be auctioning off all of the restaurant's Baccarat and Waterford chandeliers, Tiffany stained glass, a mural depicting Central Park, the restaurant's name, and anything else of value. The restaurant opened its doors 75 years ago, and the Victorian Gothic building dates from the 1800s when it was a sheephold.

duet wedding

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notes from the bartender files

central park

chimedjudy

flickr4jazz

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ritterbin

visit new york city

BobMacMillan

Ok, so that last pic is a gingerbread house, but I couldn't resist including it.

I never visited Tavern on the Green myself. I've read that the food was quite mediocre, although this restaurant is probably all about the atmosphere and history. Flickr's cuttlefish writes "i think the place looks like liberace's hunting lodge. that doesn't have to be a bad thing, i guess." The demise of the restaurant is a noteworthy loss, and sadly will be putting 400 people out of work. The city does have plans to revive the restaurant (of course, as a less over-the-top version of its former self), under different management and possibly with a different name.

I just realized the irony that yesterday's post was entitled "The Rainbow Room", a play on another famed NY restaurant's name. I hadn't even read of the Tavern's troubles at the time that I composed that post. Weird.