Restaurateur and showman Warner LeRoy, who passed away on Friday, leaves a $100 million empire up for grabs among four children and the ex-wife he battled for seven years.
With the stage set for what could be a bitter power struggle, insiders say LeRoy’s youngest daughter, Jennifer, 22, is poised to take the helm.
Jennifer Oz LeRoy – named after the classic movie her grandfather produced – is the flamboyant Warner’s hand-picked successor.
But her two siblings and half-sister are also expected to seek prominent positions in the family business.
LeRoy, who would have celebrated his 66th birthday next month, groomed Jennifer to run both Tavern on the Green and the Russian Tea Room, and she had already assumed major responsibilities as vice president at both legendary eateries.
He told friends and business associates Jennifer was his choice as his successor. “She’s a great, natural restaurateur. She would be fabulous,” he said.
Warner LeRoy has four children: Bridget, 33, from his brief marriage to his first wife, Gennifer; Carolyn Plum, 29, Maximilian Warner, 27, and Jennifer.
All four were partners with their father in the legendary Tavern on the Green, and all have worked at the eatery in various jobs. But only Jennifer has held a top executive post in both restaurants.
Until last year, Max was beverage manager at the Russian Tea Room, but he has since left the restaurant and moved to Los Angeles.
And last month, Carolyn Plum LeRoy married Stephan Moise, a former sous chef at Tavern on the Green, in a lavish ceremony at the Central Park eatery.
She is currently “pursuing a career in human resources,” according to a family spokesperson.
“All four are capable, and all four could take positions of responsibility at either of the restaurants,” an insider told The Post. “But Jennifer is the one who has shown the Warner LeRoy touch. She’s the one who is most like her dad.
“She is the one who has put in the long hours since she was a teenager.”
She has an ebullient personality and looks that have drawn comparisons to Liv Tyler. She also has her father’s spark of creativity and the Warner family sense of style and showmanship, friends said.
But Jennifer will not be given free rein right away.
Warner LeRoy’s company, LeRoy Adventures, which operates Tavern and the Russian Tea Room, will continue to be run by company president Alan Garmise and Vornado Realty Trust honcho Steve Roth, who owns a 30 percent share of the Tea Room and underwrote its $22 million renovation.
A few weeks before the reopening of the Russian Tea Room in 1999, Jennifer LeRoy told The Post about her commitment to the family business. She spoke of working six days a week in starched-white kitchen fatigues coordinating up to 500 food orders an hour at Tavern.
The interview took place toward the end of summer, when the daughters of most New York multimillionaire businessmen were working on nothing more demanding than a tan.
“My friends at the Hamptons are all like, ‘Where are you?'” she said. “They call me Casper because I have no color. But I don’t want to be at the beach. I want to be here.
“I have a boyfriend – and he’s called Tavern on the Green.”
Despite her family’s great wealth and her privileged upbringing, life has dealt Jennifer some real blows.
She grew up in a huge apartment in the Dakota. John and Yoko were neighbors, and her mother of 10 baby-sat for their son, Sean Lennon, who was a regular playmate of the youngest LeRoy child. They even shared birthday parties.
But at the elite Dalton private school, Jennifer battled serious eating disorders – a struggle that continued well into her teens.
She was an accomplished equestrian, but at 16 she was seriously injured in a fall at the Hamptons Classic and never rode again.
She went to Fordham University, but was not an academic success.
Family members say that as the youngest, she may have suffered most from the open warfare that erupted between her parents during their marathon seven-year divorce battle.
Although the divorce was finalized last year and gives Warner LeRoy’s ex-wife Kay a reported $40 million slice of the company, the restaurateur’s death may bring Kay back into a prominent role in the two restaurants.
“Kay always believed she had been cheated of a lot of the credit for the success of Maxwell’s Plum and Tavern on the Green,” said a family friend. “She may feel this is her opportunity to show the world that she was more of a creative partner than Warner gave her credit for.”
Kay was a TWA flight attendant when Warner LeRoy spotted her at the bar of Maxwell’s Plum just 24 hours after its glitzy opening. He asked her to marry him the same night.
It was an unlikely pairing. He was an heir to the Warner Bros. fortune – his grandfather was Harry Warner and Jack was his great uncle. His father, Mervyn LeRoy, produced “The Wizard of Oz.” She, on the other hand, had a disastrous family background: Her father was a petty criminal and her mother committed suicide when Kay was a child.
But it was a successful match for 25 years – until it detonated in the divorce courts. A series of reconciliations were punctuated by sensational courtroom battles that continued until last year.
The years of conflict angered their three children and caused wounds that still have not healed.
The family will gather tomorrow at Temple Emanu-El to mark the passing of the family patriarch.
In addition to the two famous restaurants, which gross $60 million a year between them, LeRoy leaves tens of millions of dollars in property. The LeRoy country home is a 12,000-square-foot mansion with a guest house, tennis courts and a pool on 60 acres of prime real estate in Amagansett.
Walter Rauscher, who worked with LeRoy for decades, says hisboss’ touch will be missed.