Word got out yesterday that Tavern on the Green may be on the fast track for a new era of pond-side dinner opulence. The beloved Central Park restaurant has been closed for over a year since union and bankruptcy issues shut the doors in early 2010, but it seems to have found a savior in Donald Trump. The real estate mogul announced late yesterday that he’s reached an agreement with the restaurant’s union and its president, Peter Ward, to put up $20 million of his own money to restore the New York landmark.
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.
