Central Park | The New York Observer

Caviar Vus

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:20:15 -0400

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Restaurateur Danny Meyer Not Sure What to Name His New 'Recession Baby'

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:00:00 -0400

“You stopped me right before I could walk in and get too liquored up!” prolific restaurateur Danny Meyer told the Daily Transom as he arrived at the Central Park Conservancy's "Taste of Summer" benefit on Wednesday night, June 3.

An estimated crowd of about 1,000 had turned out to the Central Park Naumberg Bandshell--not only for the open bar--but also to sample fare from some 40 top-notch New York...

Danny Meyer Drops Out of Race for Tavern on the Green

Mon, 18 May 2009 07:35:43 -0400

Popular restaurateur Danny Meyer no longer has his eye on the late Warner LeRoy's illustrious Tavern on the Green in Central Park.

Bids on the city's top-grossing eatery are due on Monday, May 18, but Mr. Meyer, an early favorite for the famous space, has decided to withdraw his name from the competition.

According to a statement from Mr. Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group:

“After careful consideration, we have elected not to submit a...

Aspiring Tavern Takers Converge on Central Park

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:59:47 -0400

A number of prominent restaurateurs (or their reps) turned out on Thursday morning at a meeting for potential bidders on the lucrative contract to operate the iconic Tavern on the Green in Central Park.

"Some big players," noted dapper Capitale owner Seth Greenberg, as he peered around the room at the competition on hand.

Smith & Wollensky founder Alan Stillman and Boathouse owner Dean Poll also attended, alongside representatives of Giuseppe Cipriani, Donald Trump and Danny...

Tavern on the Green: Now Up for Grabs!

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:59:09 -0500

Let the bidding begin!

The city Parks Department on Monday released its long-awaited 42-page request for proposals (RFP) from area restaurateurs seeking to operate the lucrative 25,000-square-foot Central Park eatery "currently known as Tavern on the Green."

A number of big names have been mentioned as possible contenders, including Danny Meyer, Drew Nieporent, Dean Poll -- even Donald Trump! -- though current operator Jennifer Oz LeRoy, daughter of the late legendary restaurateur Warner LeRoy, owns...

Broker: Plaza Redo Makes Me Want To Puke

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:04:17 -0500

From this week's Page Six magazine article titled "Pimping Out The Plaza Hotel":

"You go in there and you want to throw up," sniffs one high-end real estate broker who has sold residences at the Plaza. "The people sitting in the lobby look like vagrants, the service at the Palm Court is rotten, and the prices are atrocious."...

Whatever Happened To 'Central Park North?'

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:52:32 -0500

It's been three years since the Athena Group purchased the lot at 111 Central Park North, occupied then by a low-slung brick building that housed a hair salon and a parking lot.

In the ensuing years, the development company built a glossy condominium tower, outfitting its 88 units with marble countertops, Viking ranges and dramatic views of the Manhattan skyline and Central Park. Jill Sloane, an executive vice president at...

Tavern on The Green Takeover? Trump Lukewarm, Nieporent Reluctant, LeRoy Defiant

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:44:43 -0400

"I refuse to sell the soul of Oz," a defiant Jennifer Oz LeRoy, the alluring 30-year-old owner of Tavern on the Green, said in an interview with Page Six Magazine.

As The Observer reported last year, Ms. LeRoy is facing a potential bidding war over the iconic Central Park eatery--the second-highest-grossing independently run restaurant in the country in 2007--which she inherited from her flamboyant father, the late Warner LeRoy.

Many of the city's most illustrious...

Chanel UFO to Descend Onto Central Park

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:18:02 -0400

If you’re strolling through Rumsey Playfield in Central Park between Oct. 20 and Nov. 9, and you stumble across a grounded UFO, don’t panic. It was sent by Chanel (not the Sci-fi Channel) as a nomadic exhibition of artistic interpretations on its classic 2.55 quilted-style handbag, named not for its price but for its debut month of February 1955. Coming off stops in Hong Kong and Tokyo, the 7,500-square-foot space donut will...

Free Bon Jovi Concert Slated for Central Park

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:45:47 -0400

As the Politicker's Azi Paybarah reported this morning, all New Jersey cheese-rock fans will descend upon Central Park on July 12 for the Jon Bon Jovi concert. It's free but you'll need tickets. Where can you get 'em? We're half way there!

According to a press release posted by Brooklyn Vegan, beginning tomorrow, July 2, tickets will be distributed at baseball parks and events throughout New York City. The bulk of tickets distributed at the...

Happy 150th, Central Park! And Many More

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:31:35 -0400

It’s a rainy day, but hopefully the 150th anniversary of the day Central Park’s design was selected won’t be a total washout. In honor of America’s first major public park, the city has christened the 72nd Street Cross Drive "The Olmsted & Vaux Way" after the park's two architects, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.

A few weeks ago, The Observer sat down with the author of Creating Central Park, Morrison Heckscher...

Rent Dispute Forces San Domenico Closure

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:05:48 -0400

The New York Post is reporting [via Eater] that venerable Central Park eatery San Domenico is shutting its doors this summer.

Owner Tony May told the Post's Steve Cuozzo that the nearly 20-year-old Italian institution couldn't reach a new deal with its landlord, who wanted $1 million in annual rent. (The eatery currently pays around $200,000.)

May said the landlord’s latest offer would cost him $600,000 - "but if we stay here at the rent...

A Sultan and a Tech Millionaire Buy (Very) Big Apartments

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:29:30 -0500

The best place to come from, if you want a fair crack at buying really immense Manhattan condos, is either the United Arab Emirates or the Internet.

City records filed this week show that Sultan Ahmed Al-Qassimi, who apparently belongs to the ruling family of Sharjah--Dubai's neighboring emirate--spent $4.95 million late last month on a low-floor apartment at the Robert A.M. Stern-designed Fifteen Central Park West. (Tune into this week's Manhattan Transfers column...

111 Central Park North Sets the Date

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:35:37 -0400

We just got an email invite to the "World Premiere Party" for 111 Central Park North, the luxury condo going up on what you know better as 110th Street. It's on Nov. 15, by invite only, and hosted by developer the Athena Group.

In an era of condo-as-neigbhorhood-changer, 111 Central Park North represents the pinnacle, though it may be a while before we know for sure. Not only does it have to change in New...

Tavern Brass: Sexual Harassment No Longer On the Menu

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:46:18 -0400

More on that Crain's report about sexual and racial harrassment charges levied against iconic Central Park eatery Tavern On The Green.

Court papers assign blame to the famous restaurant's former operations director, Leon Drogy, who allegedly made "frequent sexual comments" to female employees, such as "wanting to 'fuck black pussy' and wanting to know whether 'black pussy' was 'smooth'."

The suit, filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, further accuses Mr. Drogy of repeatedly...

Central Park North: Views from the Final Luxury Frontier

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:07:08 -0400

You waited too long, and now even the top edge of Central Park is ridiculously expensive.

The fancy condo 111 Central Park North opens this fall, and The Observer on Wednesday went inside and up to snap these glorious shots of Manhattan spreading south, courtesy of recent buyer George Hirsch. Will other luxury high-rises join the condo soon?...

Catty in the Hat! Couric Cuts Us Short At Ladies' Luncheon

Thu, 03 May 2007 09:02:36 -0400

Under trolling clouds, some 1,200 ladies sashayed through Vanderbilt Gate on Wed., May 2 to the 25th annual “Hat Luncheon.” Hosted by the Women’s Committee of the Central Park Conservancy, the list of upper-class attendees included Grace Hightower DeNiro, Malaak Compton-Rock, Amy Fine Collins, Blaine Trump, Muffie Potter Aston, and Harper’s Bazaar editor Glenda Bailey.

“It’s this amazing thing that sort of started small, and it really shows the power of women,” said City Parks...

Go, Shorty! It's Your Earth Day

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 15:11:56 -0400

You know the drill: The Prospect Park Audubon Center offers the kids some “interactive exhibits” (let’s hope that doesn’t include that baboon family) with music, crafts and general whoop-de-do.

Back on the island, the Central Park Conservancy opens the Peter Jay Sharp Children’s Glade, a new area at the Great Hill (between 103rd and 106th streets—no cruising, fellas, O.K.?). Rumored to attend the opening-day activities are such park-happy parents as Bette Midler (she...

A Love Letter to New York Friendship

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 20:00:00 -0400

Patricia Volk’s new novel—clever, funny, light—celebrates a precious urban resource: working women in their late 50’s and early 60’s, whose children have left home and who now have the space to reflect on their lives and to look around and catalog the wonders and curiosities of the metropolitan landscape. These women have cast off the blinkered self-absorption of youth; they’ve outlasted the exhaustion of rearing a young family; they’ve yet to be battered by...

High Line Park Spurs Remaking Of Formerly Grotty Chelsea

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 20:00:00 -0400

The mission of the High Line, the future park that will rest on an elevated train platform slicing across 22 Manhattan blocks, is to slow down. The park’s designers want the experience of it to be meditative, a break from hustling urban life. But just beyond its limits—which stretch only as wide as the skinny platform, at 30 to 60 feet—there is a frenzied contrast. Up and down the High Line’s mile-and-a-half stretch, dozens...

Free Food at the Boathouse

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 07:15:34 -0400

$196,000 in free meals were given away by a restaurant under franchise with the city in Central Park, and there's no record of who actually got them, according to an audit from City Comptroller Bill Thompson. An attorney for the restaurant, the Central Park Boathouse, said the meals "are not only common in the restaurant industry, but are integral to the restaurant's business development and financial growth," according to the audit. -- Azi...

The New Yorkerator

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 20:00:00 -0400

Red, White and Kosher Unlike the situation in most department stores, where a free sample of Kiehl’s lip balm or a spritz of Chanel No. 5 is a lavish tease, savvy wine retailers know that generosity is the fastest way to make a sale. Tribeca’s Chambers Street Wines offers a gratis selection of varietals every Saturday; but on March 24, the store will hold its biggest tasting of the year. Nearly 20 winemakers from...

The New Yorkerator

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 20:00:00 -0400

The Decemberists in Central Park In the Summertime!

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:22:21 -0400

Central Park is at its most perfect--its greenest, sunniest, its coolest--when the Summerstage concert series rolls around. This July, the Decemberists (a band made famous by a song named "July, July!") will be headlining a big show with the big Brooklyn act Grizzly Bear. The Fifth Avenue doyennes will love it. Indie rock ahoy! Brief email from Capitol Records after the jump... - Max Abelson THE DECEMBERISTS CONFIRMED FOR SUMMERSTAGE! The Decemberists will perform at Central Park...

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Dodd

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:30:00 -0400

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd may not be able to brag about hosting any massive, sold-out McFundraisers like his competitors Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But that's no reason to feel sorry for him -- at least not tonight. According to a source, the four-term senator will be dropping by singer-songwriter Paul Simon's Central Park West pad for a fund-raiser this evening. No word yet on whether Simon plans to break out his...

The Afternoon Wrap: Tuesday

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 14:14:27 -0400

The greatest thing ever in fake-billionaire furniture will debut by the end of the month. Behold: "Westchester" and "Central Park," two groups of affordable-luxe furniture. Both have been "personally signed off on" by Mr. Donald Trump. [Luxist] It seems that the Department of Transportation's quiet plans to narrow Fourth Avenue (and make Park Slope arteries Sixth and Seventh avenues into one-way streets) has something to do with Atlantic Yards. Frank Gehry probably just wants to...

J.F.K. Party Pad in Carlyle Hotel Goes for $12.5 M.

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 19:00:00 -0500

Billionaire Karen Pritzker, heiress to the Hyatt hotel fortune, has expensive lodging tastes. According to city records, she paid $12.5 million this month for the lordly and infamous two-bedroom duplex penthouse at the Carlyle Hotel. “We acquired an apartment. It’s a lovely apartment,” said her husband, the investor Michael Vlock. “We got it at a price that’s right for us.” That price tag was a relative bargain: The penthouse was first listed in March...

Parlor-Floor Pad in Berwind Sells

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:00:00 -0500

After 20 months on the market, the labyrinthine and ornate parlor-floor apartment in the Berwind Mansion co-op, listed for $9.495 million, has been sold. According to a source with knowledge of the deal, commercial real-estate developer Howard Ronson bought the 110-foot-long space in the 111-year-old mansion, using the pseudonym Twin-828 L.L.C. So Mr. Ronson won’t be moving far: As reported by The Observer, that limited-liability company has already spent $14.45 million on two duplexes...

In This Week's [em]Observer[/em]...

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 04:15:00 -0500

He Wants You to Love Atlantic Yards "Laurie Olin, one of the most noted landscape architects in the country, was holding forth in his firm's library in central Philadelphia. He wants to help us get over our obsession with personal space. So Mr. Olin took on the task for designing the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn." Go to story by Matthew Schuerman. Macklowes Stomp Back Big with Buy "In the last week of January, shortly before Blackstone acquired...

No Vacancy for Stephen Ross’ Related at Amsterdam Inn

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:00:00 -0500

Steve Wiebe has been hearing the same question repeatedly: “Is the bar closing?” His patrons have good reason for asking. Mr. Wiebe’s Westside Brewery Co., located at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 76th Street, is just about the last business left on the block. Apart from the bar, only the low-budget Amsterdam Inn directly above it remains in operation on this side of the street. Both the hotel and tavern are staying put,...

Billionaire Flowers Seeks $23 M. Flip for Old Lycée Mansion

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:00:00 -0500

Billionaire J. Christopher Flowers has put the East 73rd Street mansion he bought just three months ago on the market, with a $6 million markup. He was halfway through renovating the 87-year-old mansion at 12 East 73rd Street when he listed the building with broker Sami Hassoumi, a managing director of Brown Harris Stevens, for $23 million. It’s actually been a long time since Mr. Flowers first decided to buy the house. According to...

The NY Historical Society's 'Trojan Horse' vs. Mass Emailing

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 08:17:35 -0500

Whenever an email comes our way with the title THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S TROJAN HORSE: JUST SAY "NO!", our interest is officially perked. Apparently, Landmark West is launching a letter-writting campaign to "save our skyline (SOS)" from the looming tower atop the NY Historical Society. Here's their alarmed message in full: In our last email, we reported on the New-York Historical Society's weak attempt to hide the 280-foot elephant in the room at a so-called...

Sam Joseph Zarou II

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 19:00:00 -0500

9:54 a.m. 7 pounds, 6 ounces New York Presbyterian Julie Zarou, 31, who until last spring was the director of special events at the Institute of Culinary Education, has cooked up a beautiful, blond, fair-skinned and big-eared son with her husband of five years, Sam Zarou, 34, a trader with Tullett Prebon. In an apparent reference to Dumbo, “we call him Baby New Ears,” said Ms. Zarou, who arrived at the hospital five centimeters dilated and...

Is $22.5 Million A Bargain for 64th-Floor Apartment at Time Warner Center?

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:08:27 -0500

When Manhattan Transfers broke the story about Verna Harrah's sale at the Time Warner Center, the listing broker said her apartment "sold for close" to the $25 milion price tag. But according to newly filed city records, the buyer (listed on the deed as the Armstrong Family Trust) got quite a discount. The closing price was $22.5 million--which bought a nice living room on Central Park, a family room overlooking the Hudson, a foyer of...

Who is Buddy Fletcher?

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 07:00:00 -0500

When the name of Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher unexpectedly surfaced last week on the list of candidates for comptroller, it caused a ripple, with one lawmaker telling me he "will be hard to say no to." He's a Harvard-educated, black millionaire philanthropist with plenty of financial experience. Just the sort of outside financial expert Eliot Spitzer's people were looking for. But what about the political background of this man who could soon be the state's top...

The Zeckendorf Family

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

To be born a Zeckendorf is to try to avoid the fate of your father.

It all started with William Zeckendorf Sr., the real-estate mogul’s real-estate mogul, whose greatest fault lay in being years ahead of his time. He assembled the parcel on which the United Nations rose in 1947 and also built the Roosevelt Field shopping center on Long Island, the Century City complex in Los Angeles, and several urban-renewal projects in...

The Zeckendorf Family

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

To be born a Zeckendorf is to try to avoid the fate of your father. It all started with William Zeckendorf Sr., the real-estate mogul’s real-estate mogul, whose greatest fault lay in being years ahead of his time. He assembled the parcel on which the United Nations rose in 1947 and also built the Roosevelt Field shopping center on Long Island, the Century City complex in Los Angeles, and several urban-renewal projects in Philadelphia...

Daily News Joins Tom Wolfe: No On 980 Madison Tower

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 07:57:40 -0500

Stop the tower, save the park. So sayeth the Daily News in a stern editorial on Monday regarding developer Aby Rosen's plans to plunk a glass condo tower atop 980 Madison Avenue. The 355-foot, 18-unit tower would loom over Central Park, according to the Daily News, putting "the privilege of 18 multimillionaires over the interests of 25 million commoners who visit the park annually." The Landmarks Preservation Commission is mulling a vote that could stop...

Conan O. Buyin'

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Conan O’Brien has signed a contract for a corner penthouse at the Majestic, according to a source with knowledge of the deal. The Web site of the Stribling brokerage lists Mr. O’Brien’s new place for $9.95 million—but there was no word yet what the everlastingly droll Late Night host paid for the apartment.

According to city records, he already has a place in the building, which you will know as one of the...

Conan O. Buyin’

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Hightower's $3.44 M. Hobby

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Though Grace Hightower and her godly husband Robert De Niro just paid $20.9 million for a 15-room Central Park West apartment last month, she has also bought a $3,440,000 limestone townhouse at 516 East 89th Street.

“She’s going to gut it and renovate it,” said listing broker Beverly Feingold, a vice president at Halstead. “It could just be a hobby! I don’t know.” City records list the buyer as GH Trust and “Grace...

Sunday in the Park With–Park!

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 19:00:00 -0500

P eople magazine executive editor Jeannie Park has bought a 166-year-old Washington Square Park brownstone for $5.1 million. It was a bargain: The five-story townhouse at 109 Waverly Place was first listed in July 2005 for $200,000 more.

Ms. Park, who is a founding president of the New York chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association, did not return calls to her office. And the listing broker, Amanda Sawyer, said she had been...

It's the Turkey Parade! We Have C.P.W. Seats, But Will Stars Wave?

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 19:00:00 -0500

We celebrate the holiday shopping season slightly differently at our house. Instead of storming the Short Hills Mall at 6 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving, we scream at celebrities. Allow me to explain. My mother lives in a fifth-floor apartment on Central Park West. A number of years ago, we discovered that she wasn’t just at the perfect altitude to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons go by, but also to attract the...

It’s the Turkey Parade! We Have C.P.W. Seats, But Will Stars Wave?

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Events for November 11-13, 2006

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 13:00:00 -0500

On Saturday, the Veterans Day parade travels up Fifth Avenue, beginning at 23rd Street at 11am. The World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program holds a conference on the health effects and available services for WTC responders and families at DC 37 Headquarters. A gala to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research will be held at the Waldorf. Nassau County honors six Tuskegee Airmen at their Veteran's Day celebration at the American Air...

Everybody Loves Eliot

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 06:39:47 -0500

Spitzer got up early today. He was jogging out of Central Park and onto Madison Avenue at six in the morning when he ran into some journalists. He joked to a CBS reporter that the closer he came to being governor, the more people told him what to do. He showed up at the school on 81st and Madison at 7:00 to shake hands and vote with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Then he attended to...

Monday: Spitzer! Shakira and Pink Floyd! Larry or Sergey?

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 03:30:10 -0500

Real estate don't lie A Google founder is headed to a $30 million apartment at 15 Central Park West. Sadly, New York isn't sure if it's Larry Page or Sergey Brin. Plus, Arnold Rothstein's Franconia is selling its roof. (New York Magazine) Eliot Spitzer happens to have a dad who's built up $500 million-worth of real estate. (That's half a billion dollars.) Among his jewels are 1050 and 800 Fifth Avenue, the Corinthian on East...

Robert DeNiro's $20.9 Million Bargain

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 09:31:13 -0400

A bargain for Bob [Universal] Earlier this month, The Post reported that Ms. Eve Weinstein (ex-wife to mogul Harvey) had sold her renovated 15-room apartment at 88 Central Park West. [It] had an asking price of $25 million since it was first listed last February. But sources tell us it went to contract for somewhere closer to $23...

Monday: Private School Kids Like Expensive Apartments, Trump Likes Expensive Bathroom Fixtures

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 07:00:12 -0400

The Donald makes another pronouncement. The Times says that New York children "now know what is prized and what is not" when it comes to real estate. Isn't that excellent news? Enter Bellmarc's Julie Freeman, who caters to the kind of client that is "looking for a splendid apartment on Central Park West so that her children will be comfortable entertaining." (New York Times) Some more early-morning vulgarity: Donald Trump takes credit for starting the...

Being Spike Jonze

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Indie-darling filmmaker Spike Jonze just bought an apartment at the Forward Building—the new Lower East Side condo that’s turned from a center of lefty Yiddish culture into a home for hip Hollywood.

According to the deed, Mr. Jonze paid $2,647,450. What distinguishes his 2,590-square-foot eighth-floor apartment? “Slamming river views,” said celebrity broker Michael Bolla, who’s marketing the building. “Dead-on river views.” Other slamming tidbits include a Poliform kitchen, a massive living...