The owners of the hot and trendy restaurants Torrisi Italian Specialties and Parm are among the restaurateurs sniffing around the dessicated corpse of Tavern on the Green, which the Parks Department showed off to potential operators today. "We’re taking it all in," Torrisi co-owner Zalaznick told City Room during the tour this morning. "The question is how casual they’ll let the restaurant be. It used to be a pretty formal place." During the tour and Q&A that followed, the Parks Department let it be known that they do indeed want the new iteration of Tavern to be casual and accessible. The city is spending $10 million to renovate and shrink it, and the Wall Street Journal reports that Assistant Parks Commissioner Betsy Smith made it clear that the new Tavern should be "a moderately priced restaurant" that's not as "fanciful and glitzy as before." more ›

The mess that is the once-and-future Tavern on the Green continues to be messy. As the city awaits bids for new restaurateurs to take over the fabled Central Park eatery a trickle of new info the project has come out. As the city implied in its Request For Proposals for the space, they are taking it back to the basics. The 1940s basics. more ›

And the next chapter in the never ending saga of Tavern on the Green begins! After its brief stint as a boozy food truck parking lot the storied Central Park restaurant is going to be a restaurant again. In theory. The Parks Department today released a Request For Proposals for a new operator for the space. Once the city is done doing some more construction on the space (which does not include the return of the late Crystal Room) it could be a "a high-quality casual restaurant, outdoor cafe and bar" by 2013! more ›

An official necropsy performed on Charlie, the 15-year-old draft horse that collapsed and died in Midtown in October, showed no direct cause of death. According to the ASPCA, which performed the necropsy at Cornell, Charlie's liver showed signs of scarring, and the agency wrote they "cannot rule out recent toxin exposure, abnormal heartbeat or allergic reaction," but that the horse was in "good nutritional condition," when he died. more ›

Humans aren't the only ones who are pushed beyond their physical and mental limits to feverishly "enjoy" the holidays: it's the busiest time of the year for New York City's carriage horses. Yesterday afternoon a carriage horse apparently collapsed at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue. Though a spokesperson for the Carriage Association of New York told the Daily News, "No horse collapsed," the video below, submitted to Win Animal Rights, clearly shows a horse on the ground and its handlers struggling to help it stand up. more ›

A pedestrian who was sued by a cyclist that struck her in Central Park this summer has countersued. According to the lawsuit obtained by the Post, 28-year-old Meghan Rohan alleges that 46-year-old Sabine Von Sengbusch had "total disregard" when she hit Rohan and shattered her elbow. more ›

A cyclist dares to challenge the behavior of a pedestrian in Central Park, and the New York Post cannot BELIEVE the injustice. 46-year-old Sabine von Sengbusch is suing 28-year-old Meghan Rohan after von Sengbusch's bike struck Rohan after she allegedly walked into the bike lane near 69th Street and East Drive. Rohan shattered her elbow, but the cyclist is claiming the accident caused her "great physical pain and mental anguish." Maybe Rohan can use the Frisbee Defense? more ›

Dogs: They're running amok in Central Park, and cyclists are getting hurt! If you think it's a joke, just talk to 51-year-old Nancy Chilton, who was biking in the park in July 2010 when a dog darted out in front of her. The two species collided, and Chilton was catapulted over the handle bars. She was wearing a helmet, but the accident still hurt her head, and doctors had to remove part of her skull. (She also fractured her pelvis, spine and sustained permanent hearing damage.) "I wouldn't have survived," she tells the Wall Street Journal. It's unclear if the dog made it, but we're guessing it stayed at the scene and was not charged. more ›

The Daily News' police sources claim that a man groped a little boy in a bathroom at a Central Park playground yesterday morning. According to the News, "The boy was leaving the bathroom at Ancient Playground, near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, about 9:15 a.m. when a man grabbed his buttocks and fled." more ›

The police say a man was mugged and slashed in Central Park around 12:30 this morning. According to the Post, "The man, described as in his 30s and dressed up in a tuxedo, had lost his glasses and “couldn’t see properly,” according to one cop at the scene. As the man stumbled by the rink, he was jumped by a group of men who sliced him in the hand with a knife, and then stole his wallet and an iPod, the officer said. The muggers fled." more ›

Yesterday, veterans from the New York chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) marched to Zuccotti Park in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. We're told that on November 11, Veteran's Day, Occupy Wall Street will march in solidarity with IVAW to Central Park— and one occupier we spoke with today said some protesters are planning to take over the space as their new tent city—with igloos. more ›

A man described by the FDNY press office as "middle-aged" fell off Belvedere Castle in Central Park yesterday, breaking an ankle and sustaining a "mild head injury." There are varying reports on the accident, which happened around 5 p.m. The Post reports that "an adventurous but careless photographer" fell 15 to 20 feet while scaling the castle walls to get a better shot. NBC New York says he "climbed over the gate because he dropped his cigar" and broke both legs in the fall. But we like DNAinfo's take best: more ›

So Mayor Bloomberg is finally going to do something about all that crap in Zuccatti Park but that isn't enough for one intrepid reporter. See, CBS's Marica Kramer is really worried about all that manure those carriage horses keep pooping out around Central Park. So worried, in fact, she confronted Hizzoner about it yesterday and the results, in which Bloomberg is even more abrasive than usual, are as magical as you'd hope. more ›

To be courteous, they put their tops back on, but the police remained confused and "spent some time on their walkie-talkies, conferring with their superiors," only to find out that the topless lasses were telling the truth. more ›

Someone bring Gwyneth Paltrow a wine cooler! (Can we call her Sir Gwyneth Paltrow now? Gender aside, it just seems fitting?) Anyway, the actress just Tweeted: "Shooting in sunny central park. Reminds me of my youth. Whatever happened to bartles and jaymes? Could rock one of those things." more ›

Fans of buying booze from fancy food trucks, your days are numbered. Earlier this year the SLA granted liquor licences to the food trucks currently parked where the Tavern on the Green's Crystal Room once stood, but the experiment will not be long lived. Crain's, which has a lock on the Tavern beat, reports that the Parks Department has decided not to renew the trucks leases. Their last day will be October 15. more ›

After 44 long days, the strike at the Central Park Boathouse is over. And it only took a week more than previously expected. It seems that deputy mayor for economic development Robert Steel took time away from his Connecticut mansion to help work out a deal between Boathouse operator Dean Poll and New York Hotel Trades Council. “I want to congratulate Dean Poll and the New York Hotel Trades Council for reconciling their differences andcoming to an agreement that is good news for the Boathouse, its employees and the City," Steel said, announcing the resolution. The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed but since the restaurant will now be a Union shop it doesn't sound like Poll really won. more ›

Something is happening at the late Tavern on the Green space, but even the city isn't quite sure what. The food trucks that have been operating there (with booze!) for the past eleven months are about to see the end of their leases and the city is doing studies on the historic space's "current conditions." But what the future holds for the legendary corner of the park is up in the air. “As of now there are no plans in place for specific uses,” a Bloomberg rep told Crain's. more ›

The nearly month-long strike outside the Central Park Boathouse may finally be coming to a close...and it looks like the union side of the battle may be the winners. No deal has been signed yet, so things could still go wrong, but it currently looks like Boathouse boss Dean Poll has not only agreed to rehire 18 fired workers, he also seems to ready to recognize and negotiate with the New York Hotel Trades Council union. Soon, sub-par overpriced fare in a stunning setting can be yours again—without the guilt of crossing a picket line! more ›

18-year-old Westchester resident Jesse Wasserman, better known as the "Boarding School Bandit" after his tenure at the tony Vermont Academy, was sentenced to 16 months in prison yesterday for his role in a string of Central Park armed robberies last summer. "I am very sorry for what happened to these innocent victims," Wasserman said, "I was not in my right mind." DNAinfo reports that the judge gave Wasserman youthful offender status, meaning that his records will be sealed after he serves his time. Wasserman's accomplice, Alex Greene, who allegedly brandished the firearm during the robberies, has yet to be sentenced. more ›

The 65 Central Park Boathouse employees who walked off the job on August 9 in protest against the restaurant's labor practices are getting some heavy-hitting support from the federal National Labor Relations Board, which oversees union matters. more ›