Glittery Central Park tourist trap and celebrity banquet hall Tavern on the Green will serve its last mediocre meal on New Year's Eve. Earlier this year, the current operators filed for bankruptcy after their license to run the restaurant was not renewed by the city, and next month artifacts such as silver candelabras, stone sculptures, art nouveau mirrors, and Tiffany lamp shades will go up on the auction block.
It's unclear if the new operator, Dean Poll, will make good on an earlier vow to keep the restaurant open while he makes extensive renovations—the city and the LeRoy family, which held the license since 1975, are locked in a heated trademark dispute over who owns the rights to the Tavern on the Green name. A spokesman for Poll recently told us, "The liquidation of the LeRoy business operations has seen the family and its 500 plus creditors trying to glean every dollar to repay outstanding debts to the detriment of the public and the workers who would prefer a seamless transition to new ownership."
One thing is certain: It's the end of an era, and Tavern—which Wallace Shawn best described in a thinly-veiled allusion as "that always overcrowded café to whose allure all visitors to the park would eventually succumb on even the nicest days, despite the well-known quality of its ambiance and food"—will never be the same, regardless of the name. But does anybody besides the LeRoys really care? Below, a video autopsy from inside Tavern, via The Deal.
