The Berlin Wall of giant topiary animals that blocked the view of Sheep Meadow is gone, too. The Parks Department, determined to end the Tavern’s sparkly isolation, tore down the Crystal Room, which used to galumph halfway across the courtyard. The snaggletoothed slate roof has been to the orthodontist. One of its real joys is seeing the exuberant Victorian building, constructed in 1871 as a dormitory for the grass-munching residents of Sheep Meadow, restored down to the last copper drainpipe. The sommeliers may turn down the thermostat so that red wines aren’t the temperature of a kiddie pool. Somebody may tell the servers not to drop the check while people are still eating dessert.
Tavern on the green how to#
The hosts may learn how to read their reservations screen so they don’t tell a customer he’s the first to arrive and ask him to wait while the rest of his party is already in the restaurant’s inner recesses, wondering if he’s gone for a carriage ride. The chef, Katy Sparks, may rethink some of the overworked, underdelivering recipes. In time, the kitchen may figure out how to get plates on the table while they are still hot. The place reopened just two months ago, which may not be enough time to get a 700-seat Winnebago like Tavern up to highway speed. And you may hear a few teaspoons of added regret when I say that it’s not a good restaurant yet by any measure. So you may detect an extra cup or two of enthusiasm in my voice when I say that under its new management, the building is woven into the life of the park more fully than in its last incarnation, a wedding-cake palace as imagined by a 6-year-old princess with a high fever. I’d let the city keep those fractional pennies if that helped Tavern on the Green live up to its setting.
Tavern on the Green belongs to the city and sits inside the most beautiful public park in which I’ve ever rowed, cycled, struck out in softball, misidentified a confusing fall warbler and illegally consumed alcoholic beverages. Not a financial interest, except insofar as a profitable Tavern is good for the city’s budget, which, in a fractions-of-pennies way, is good for me as a grumpy taxpayer. Tavern should also be the most democratic restaurant in America.Īt these prices? Tower reflected on his own experience in New York.Restaurant critics are supposed to be impartial, but I can’t help feeling some proprietary interest in Tavern on the Green. You've got people coming in expecting an iceberg wedge salad, and some expecting the most wonderful, exotic thing they've ever had, and I think Tavern's all those things. People should be able to go three or four times a week, have a hamburger and a glass of Chateau Lafitte, or have a five-course menu with foie gras and God knows what. "I've never felt Tavern should be leading-edge, next trend kind of food," Tower said. His California-cuisine background is turning out a good match for Gotham, with its emphasis on local sourcing and big, honest presentations. It's solid, straightforward, and skilled. Tower is cooking a highly skilled distillation of the Tavern brand, a blend of American bigness, New York authenticity, retro romance, and just a little fantasy to suit the still-magical surroundings. Tavern's food won't transport you, but it's not meant to.
(Steven M Meyer/Steve Meyer for New York Daily N) Tavern on the Green was fully restored last year after a $16 million renovation.
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