Results tagged “leroy”

Would a Tavern on the Green by any other name fare just as well in Central Park? The NY Times digs into the latest debate over the restaurant's name, which is reportedly appraised at $19 million.

Just days after failing to win the right to continue running a mediocre overpriced tourist trap in a 19th century Central Park sheepfold, Tavern on the Green is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. CEO Jennifer Oz LeRoy tells the Times it's "our only alternative given the current situation." In four months, Central Park Boathouse owner Dean Poll will take over the location, and in the meantime Tavern will attempt to burn appease some 20 creditors, such as the New York Hotel Trades Council, which is owed $1,778,764. Tavern also owes the Parks Department—which declined to renew its lease—$76,923, and one imagines LeRoy's gonna love shrugging off that one. Meanwhile, the dining industry paroxysm is even hammering celebs like Mario Batali—the Crocs-wearing chef was a partner in the far-out seafood restaurant The John Dory, which just went belly up after nine months. The landlord is now suing Batali for $75,000 back rent. Oh, and Café des Artistes, the Lincoln Square restaurant that just closed after 90-plus years, is also jumping on the bankruptcy bandwagon. Expected to be screwed in that filing are the restaurant's employees, who are owed $116,471 in benefits through their union.

The Parks Department, which controls the lease to the notoriously mediocre and tacky restaurant currently known as Tavern on the Green in Central Park, has finally stepped in to yank the place back from Jennifer Oz LeRoy, who inherited the business from her late father Warner. As promised, Parks officials are now seeking potential operators with "imaginative and thoughtful proposals that will respect the architectural intent of the original building and its location within the park landscape." Last year it was rumored that Donald Trump, Nobu owner Drew Nieporent, and Danny "Shake Shack" Meyer were "circling the restaurant like vultures." But it's doubtful that LeRoy, whose grandfather Mervyn produced The Wizard of Oz, will let go without a fight; her father brought the place back from the dead in 1974, and she recently promised Page Six that she will "refuse to sell the soul of Oz." Of course, the only catch is that it's not hers to sell.

There have been several Free Tibet protests happening around town this month; one of them even featured city council member Tony Avella. While Tibetan protesters are routinely beaten, imprisoned and even killed by police in China, police brutality is something you might be surprised to see in New York City, unless of course you've attended demonstrations over the years and experienced it first hand. During a Free Tibet protest near the UN on March 14th, some NYPD officers were documented threatening, arresting and clubbing activists seemingly without provocation. In the below video it appears the protesters do nothing more than carry flags, walk on the sidewalk and chant. Yet officers identified as Leroy, Delgado and Serano, and others are depicted clubbing them even when they're down.