(Caitlin Thorne)
SWINGIN’ ROOM: The city hopes bestowing landmark status on Rockefeller Plaza’s Rainbow Room will draw a new tenant to the iconic site. (
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The Rainbow Room has found its pot of gold.
The famed former supper club — where Marlene Dietrich sipped cocktails to big-band music and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor gossiped with Broadway insiders — is officially a landmark.
The landmark status was approved by a unanimous vote of the City Council Land Use Committee yesterday, setting the stage for formal approval by the full council today.
Landmark status is rare for the interior of a building. Usually, the city awards landmark status only to entire structures
When the Art Deco restaurant opened in 1934, it was the first eatery in the city to be located in a high-rise setting — the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
“It’s a great historic space with unbelievable views and right now it’s looking for a tenant, somebody to take over,” said Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Queens), who is on the Land Use Committee.
“It’s been an historic restaurant for many years now. One of the nicest views you’ll ever see anywhere in the world, and it’s been the home to many famous evenings throughout the history of New York.”
Committee Chairman Leroy Comrie (D-Queens) called it “an iconic room, a special place, a tourist attraction.”
The upscale restaurant and nightclub was shuttered in 2009 after a nasty landlord-tenant dispute between Tishman Speyer, which owns Rockefeller Center, and the Cipriani family, which was running the Rainbow Room at the time.
The Ciprianis filed for landmark status in 2008, and then announced they would close a portion of the restaurant.
Tishman Speyer said the Ciprianis owed back rent.
The two sides eventually agreed that the Ciprianis would give up the restaurant in 2009, and the city is now seeking a new investor for the spot.
The restaurant, which lured the city’s rich and famous, underwent a massive $25 million restoration and expansion in 1985.