AND Tavern on the Green makes three. Last week saw the closing of the huge Central Park restaurant, making it the city’s third iconic, landmark-venue eatery to be shuttered over the past year. Remember the Rainbow Room and the Plaza Palm Court? Only the Palm Court seems poised to come back to life. The Rainbow Room’s in indefinite limbo. And although Tavern is supposed to reopen soon under one name or another, its state of suspended animation likely augurs a prolonged absence for diners, partygoers and employees.
That all three served food either dismal, overpriced or both matters mainly to culinary nitpickers. Even in decline, they embodied glamorous, heroic New York, and served as postcard-image settings for generations.
The word “landmark” is thrown around cheaply, but it has real legal and historic meaning for the trio. Tavern’s buildings are a designated city landmark; the Rainbow Room is in a landmarked skyscraper, and the Palm Court is the rare interior restaurant space landmarked in its own right.
All were woven into the city’s celebration fabric. New Yorkers who claimed they never went to Tavern flocked there to weddings, graduations, bar mitzvahs, movie and Broadway opening parties, pre-Marathon pigouts, and innumerable other events that made it an indispensable part of the New York spectacle.
The 64th-floor Rainbow Room at 30 Rock never lost its magic, even after the Ciprianis turned it mostly into a catering joint and let its Art Deco beauty deteriorate. Its removal from the ball-andbanquet scene has meant less joy for everyone, from anniversary-commemorating couples to hedge fund kings.
The Palm Court, too, had special meaning. But for 12 months, guests and visitors entering through the Plaza’s main doors on Fifth Avenue have seen only forlorn empty tables under the stained-glass ceiling. Here’s what’s happening and what’s not — and what we’re betting on.
scuozzo@nypost.com
PLAZA PALM COURT
According to Shane Krige, general manager of the Plaza, the Palm Court should reopen this spring. “All agreements are signed among the major stakeholders,” he said. They are Elad, the real estate company that owns most of the building; Fairmont, the hotel outfit that manages the Plaza; Local 6; and Kingdom Holding, the investment firm run by Saudi Prince al-Waleed, which owns 49.9 percent of the Plaza.
“Our goal is to make it in the spring,” Krige said, acknowledging that the closing was “unfortunate.” He’s obviously eager to get the Palm Court back on its feet as soon as possible, but the property’s Byzantine internal politics can’t be making it easy. Exactly why the Palm Court closed in December 2008 remains a mystery. Krige said only that a new agreement on the “operating structure” should pave the way to its relaunch.
It will serve breakfast, lunch and tea, but at night will be used only for private events.
As for food, it will be “impeccable, competitively priced and will be representative of the Plaza,” Krige said. No word on hiring a “name” chef — a job few might want after Didier Virot’s shortlived tenure in 2008.
* REOPENING ODDS: 75 percent (but maybe not by spring).
TAVERN ON THE GREEN
Don’t necessarily believe cheery predictions that new license-holder Dean J. Poll — who, in fact, doesn’t yet have a license — will reopen it by March, as has been reported. Even if he can, it would be only a portion of the old Tavern and not likely include the big Crystal Room, which Poll pledges to completely redesign.
Poll previously told us his $25 million in planned capital improvements could take four years to finish. Before he can even begin, Poll, who runs the successful but non-unionized Central Park Boathouse, must first complete a brutal negotiation at Tavern with Local 6 that’s just starting. Then he has to “finalize” a deal with the city that’s barely initialized, and refill the house with tables, chairs and decorations now that the old ones are being auctioned off.
Our questions to the Parks Department, which selected Poll to succeed Jennifer LeRoy, were shunted to the city’s legal department, where senior contract attorney Howard Friedman danced around them.
When will a deal be signed? “We are confident that an agreement will be finalized soon.”
Would Poll forfeit the license if a deal isn’t completed by a certain date? “We are confident a license agreement will be finalized with Poll.”
A rep for Poll said he “wants to reopen as soon as possible, potentially as early as March 1, but the date is contingent on reaching an agreement with the union.” Poll believes he’s “days away from final agreement with the city.”
* REOPENING ODDS: Zero by March; 50 percent for one or two rooms by year’s end. Let’s pray.
RAINBOW ROOM
The biggest question mark. Not only the Rainbow Room, but the former Rainbow Grill and a bunch of smaller party rooms on the 64th and 65th floors show no sign of revival nytime soon. A rep for landlord Tishman Speyer, which has the Stuyvesant Town mess on its hands, said only: “Tishman Speyer remains firmly dedicated to finding another great restaurateur who will operate the Rainbow Room in the first-class manner that New Yorkers and visitors deserve. We are taking the time to find the right partner, but our commitment is unwavering.”
* REOPENING ODDS: Fourth and very long.