New Tavern On The Green Will Get New Name And Look

Gaudy Central Park restaurant Tavern on the Green may be an overpriced tourist trap, but it's still the #2 top earning restaurant in America, grossing $34,221,691 last year alone. But plenty of restaurateurs think they can do better, and when the LeRoy family's 25 year operating license expires December 31st, the former sheepfold may fall under new ownership. The city, which owns the property, also thinks it can do better; as it stands now, the LeRoys are only required to pay 3.5% of their gross receipts to the city, while licensees at other Parks Department properties like the Central Park Boathouse pay up to 16.5%. City Room tagged along during a recent tour of Tavern for potential bidders, and learned that should the LeRoys lose the bidding war, they'll be stripping the place of every last bit of its "fantasyland décor." They'll even be keeping the rights to the restaurant's name, which they've had appraised at a value of $19 million. Given Tavern's notoriously mediocre reputation, you'd think the new owners would be paying the LeRoys to take the name with them on their way out.