"tavern on the green" 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."

Tourists toting outdated guidebooks who arrive at New York City's Tavern on the Green only to find that the legendary eatery in Central Park has been shuttered since December will now be able to mollify their disappointment with gourmet dumplings. The city has decided to turn the famed restaurant into a food court, of sorts -- at least for now.

Starting October 15, parents who had always dreamed of treating their kids to lunch at the whimsical wonderland (which New Yorkers often complained was long on fairy-tale drama and short on quality food), will have to content themselves with eating out of food trucks on the restaurant's former terrace instead.

• This Nordic chef is a passionate locavore -- and in northern Scandinavia, that says a lot. (Think weeds. A lot of them.)
• Do want your sommelier to taste your wine for you? Not everyone does.
• Tavern on the Green closed last New Year's Eve. But maybe it was only taking a break?
• Is Kenmare a restaurant or a nightclub? Discuss.
• Here's a happy problem: leftover grilled meat. Let the fun begin.

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.)

There's something about Vegas that makes people open their wallets -- and not just at the roulette wheel. According to the rankings of the top 100 independent restaurants by Restaurants and Institutions, the highest-grossing eatery in the nation is Tao Las Vegas Restaurant & Nightclub, which serves pan-Asian cuisine to Paris Hilton and common tourists alike.

The R&I list breaks it down so we can compare oranges to oranges. There's total sales, the size of the average dinner check, number of meals served, and seats per square footage. And when you look at the numbers, you can see that Tao Las Vegas isn't the top moneymaker by just a little. Its 2009 sales revenues are more than double its nearest competitor -- which, sadly, was the recently shuttered Tavern on the Green, despite the fact that the average dinner check at Tao was only five bucks higher than the Tavern's, and Tao actually seated only about a quarter the number of diners that the Tavern did. So far, the venerable Joe's Stone Crab in Miami Beach is hanging on at third place -- with numbers strikingly similar to the Tavern's.