No more splendor. (Getty)

Does anybody want to run Tavern on the Green anymore?

Once the most profitable (if also mocked) restaurant on the planet, Tavern on the Green cannot seem to get any love anymore. Not even Donald Trump wants anything to do with it, nor do most of the two dozen restaurateurs who first checked in on the space. According to  Crain’s, there are six firms vying for control of the once-hallowed haunt, none of whom are especially distinguished.

People familiar with the selection process say about a half-dozen operators are being considered. According to news reports, Legends Hospitality management, a catering venture that specializes in sports arenas, and Beau Monde, a Philadelphia-based restaurant, submitted proposals.

Michael Dorf, CEO of City Winery, said he is on the "short list" of candidates as well. "We are in the running, giving them lots of answers to many questions," he said.

Parks officials, for their part, say only that "the selection process is still ongoing."

City Winery's a great place, but it's not exactly a fount of culinary excellence. As for the other two, it might as well be Yankee Stadium. Actually, the food may well be better there.

It looks like the hope that Tavern would become something worthwhile has been dashed. We’d sooner visit the new Maoz in the park.

Last week, Friends of the High line released a request for offers [PDF] seeking a restaurant operator to move into a new restaurant space being constructed at the Gansevoort Street entrance to the elevated park. The lucky restaurateur will occupy a fancy glass shed designed by Renzo Piano, architect of the neighboring Whitney Museum, and local firm Beyer Blinder Belle.

Entries are due by March 30. Representatives for the High Line would not reveal who or how many operators had applied, but they are hopeful for a strong showing from some of the city's top chefs, many of whom operate establishments within walking distance. The winning respondent will receive a 10-year lease to run the space, though aspects like the design and menu for the restaurant will be created under consultation with Friends of the High Line.

“The new restaurant will activate the concrete plaza below the High Line, providing a new, welcoming space for people to share a meal while also supporting the park itself,” said Friends co-founder Robert Hammond. “We look forward to opening a restaurant that is as unique and special as the High Line.”

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Money hungry. (Getty)

The Parks Department has left a bad taste in the city's mouth—and its coffers.

Yesterday, Comptroller John Liu announced that Parks lost the city $8.8 million by poorly managing concessions and vendors, according to a new audit from the comptroller's office.

No, overpriced  bottles of lukewarm hose water are not to blame, but rather lack of competition for vending licenses and, particularly, the closing of Tavern on the Green.

Officials believe New York has lost upwards of $3.7 million in sales taxes since the beloved Tavern shut its doors in 2009. That's a lot Baked Alaska. In addition to sales taxes, the comptroller estimated that 500 jobs have been lost in the wake of the Tavern's closing, and another $2.2 million in revenue.

On the whole, revenues from concessions have been sliding over the past few years, the press release said, from $52.6 million in 2008 to $39.8 million in 2010. What, is no one eating cotton candy anymore?

Update: The Parks department disagrees with the audit's findings, claiming that the comptroller's definition of "foregone revenue" is flawed. The so-called lost revenue was the result of careful decision making, and that defining the success on finances alone is dangerous.

In its insistence on generating revenue at any cost, this report would have Parks, as the guardian of important City assets, ignore legal obligations and ongoing court proceedings in favor of current revenue, or forego opportunities to obtain large-scale capital investments which result in greater long term income and expanded amenities to the public.

One person who will not be lining up, however, is Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Yesterday, he told the Post at a news conference that "Tavern on the Green doesn't exist at the moment. We have changed that location into a visitors' center and a place for various ethnic food carts. We said we'd give that a year and see whether the public likes that."

Now, Post real estate and food columnist Steve Cuozzo is calling out the mayor for backing down, saying he ruined the Tavern in the first place by letting it go to seed after the LeRoy family bankrupted the place. "Letting Trump revive the place from the ashes would embarrass him, as Ed Koch was when Trump saved the Wollman Rink from City Hall's incompetence in the 1970s," Cuozzo writes. "It would accomplish at a stroke what the city failed to do in two years of pipe-dreaming, proposal-soliciting, finally choosing a new operator -- and then sabotaging him."

Cuozzo also points out that the city's politicians do not want to see the Crystal Room rebuilt because it may have been illegal in the first place, and, alas, that this could finally be what Trump needs to reestablish himself in New York, "a break from his distant casinos, TV celebrity and easy-money global 'branding.'"

Yet the mayor seems to get something about the city, if not the Tavern, that Cuozzo and Trump don't.

In the video, Bloomberg goes on to say that, "Keep in mind, when Tavern on the Green was built, there weren't a lot of restaurants and people were afraid to walk around the city. We live in a completely different world today; we have 20,000 restaurants in lots and lots of neighborhoods. We don't have very many restaurants in parks. We'll have to see."

The first point is more than fair: Do we really need Tavern on the Green anymore, and even if we brought it back, would it be successful? Not only has the city changed but so has the foodie culture of the country and the world. Our chefs, Tom Colicchio, Mario Batali, David Chang, April Bloomfield... You get the idea.

Yet whether or not anyone would actually go to the Tavern seems moot, since the mayor's second point is actually wrong. There are more restaurants in city parks than ever before, from Shake Shack in Madison Square Park to the concessions of the High Line to the lobster pound planned for Brooklyn Bridge Park. At a time when budgets for parks continue to shrink, shouldn't any investment be welcome?

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

Trump's motive for putting in so much money, he explained to The New York Times, is to make it "the highest-grossing restaurant on the planet."

“Everyone wants this to happen,’’ Trump said yesterday, “and nobody else but me can do it, because I’m the only one who has the money.”

If that's the case, more power to him. Tavern on the Green was an important part of New York luxury that we'd be glad to have back.

Plus, it gave us this great scene from Ghostbusters, with a crazed Rick Moranis banging on the doors of the eatery's famed glass walls. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrRudfWIKmA

Click for What Twitter Taught Us: Pauly D Preps For Italy By Tweeting in Some Kind of Foreign Language

nfreeman [at] observer.com | @nfreeman1234

Dude bidding on Mosque site also created a complex called "Chess City." In Russia. Kinda like Legoland...except...worse. 

Vinnie and Angelina get paid less than the other Jerz Shore "talent" for appearances. Angelina getting short-shrift makes sense, but Vinnie is a visionary of our time and should be respected as such. 

Tavern on the Green is back, except now it's food trucks. Related: the apocalypse has arrived.

Fashion Week visual assault: look on ye mighty outfits, and despair.

Why would the mayor let a world-famous New York City institution die?

Well, on top of supporting Bloomberg for a third term when some other labor bosses didn't, Local 6 President Peter Ward has backed the mayor's land-use initiatives. Bloomberg clearly sees these unprecedented, often worthy, ambitions as his chief legacy -- and he's been willing to appease any power broker who'll back his agenda

....

The mayor evidently saw Tavern as expendable when it came to keeping Ward happy. So when the city put out its request for proposals to run Tavern last year, it required the next operator to hire back at least 90 percent of its bloated, underused workforce.

...

No wonder that of more than 100 prospective operators who expressed "interest," Poll was one of only three, including LeRoy, to submit actual bids. The others couldn't justify the multimillion-dollar investment needed to redesign the place (another city requirement) as long as Tavern's 400-odd employees remained subject to the union contract.

Read the whole delightful screed here.

Philippe Petit will teach tightrope walking in Williamsburg this summer. [NYP]

Condo sales are on the rise. [WSJ]

Want to read an awful account of Hiram Monserrate's date with the woman he abused? [NYDN]

The KGB tried to recruit NYPD spokesman Paul Browne. [WNYC]

Cuomo goes after two Brooklyn landlords who discriminated against would-be black renters. [NYP]

Annie Leibovitz tapped for another fashion ad campaign. [WWD]

Wal-Mart is, for some reason, trying to escape association with that trampling death on Long Island. [NYT]

UES carriage house, former studio to Richard Avedon and currently owned by Nicholas Sarkozy's half brother, hits the market. [WSJ]

Heat wave precipitates stink wave. [NYT]

LeBron James will announce his decision tomorrow. [NYP]

Turns out it's not just the city's image that's suffering. It's also all those out-of-work waiters.

More here.

drubinstein@observer.com

Here's the typically bombastic Mr. Trump speaking to The New York Times:

"If I could help the city and the city wanted me to get involved, I could be open" to running Tavern. He added: "It really is a special place. Only a person with a lot of money can rebuild and resurrect Tavern. And I have a lot of money."

Meanwhile, Cipriani company COO John Higgins, told the Times, "We are very much interested."

drubinstein@observer.com