"central park" news and stories

It's official. As we reported here in September, one of New York's swank dining spots (which was known more for its prime location than for its food), Tavern on the Green is now home to four food trucks.

The shuttered restaurant's new residents opened for business in Central Park the New York Post reported. In a space that was once the tavern's "Crystal Room," you can now buy tacos, dumplings, soup, and ice cream.

"We did great today; it was the introduction," food truck owner Leslie Lampert told the Post. "There are a lot of curious parkgoers here. This is nostalgia for me in terms of having Tavern on the Green in my life, personally and culturally. This makes me so proud."

One of New York City's most famous restaurants, Tavern on the Green, which shut down earlier this year, is now in negotiations to reopen . . . as a snack bar, visitor's bureau and retail facility.

It's an admittedly plebian chapter in the restaurant's storied history, having been known throughout the world for its opulent dining areas and incandescent shrubbery. (Let it be said it was also famous for its inferior food, but patrons kept coming for its glitzy décor and Central Park location.)

New York's Tavern on the Green. Photo: Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images

New York's historic Tavern on the Green may get a name change now that a new restaurateur will be running the space.

Dean Poll, who on Friday won a 20-year lease for the historic Central Park restaurant, says he may change the name of the iconic restaurant rather than lease the name from the previous restaurateur, Jennifer Oz LeRoy. Poll has said that while the name "has history," a new one would be "fresh," according to the Associated Press.

Shelley Clark, a spokeswoman for the LeRoy family, told Slashfood on Monday that "anything in this world is possible" in regards to the leasing of the name and that "the family is committed to the brand and determined it will have a future."

The twinkling lights of New York's famed Tavern on the Green could dim this year should the city choose not to award a new lease to the family that operates the Central Park landmark.

The New York City Parks Department on Monday requested proposals for the renovation of the 25,000-square-foot restaurant west of the park's Sheep Meadow near 67th Street.

The restaurant has lured celebrities and tourists alike to its six fabled dining rooms -- including the glassed-in Crystal Room -- since 1976, after restaurateur Warner LeRoy reopened the Tavern following a $10 million renovation. The restaurant grossed more than $36 million alone in 2008, paying the city about $1.2 million for the space.

But it appears the city would now like a "significant renovation" of the restaurant giving it more of a connection to the park itself.