NYC can keep right to tavern’s name

March 11, 2010|Associated Press

NEW YORK — New York City can keep its Tavern on the Green and eat there, too.

Yesterday, US District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum settled the biggest question in a legal dispute between the city and the longtime operators of the landmark eatery in Central Park. The restaurant closed on New Year’s Eve following financial problems.

The debt holders of the bankrupt restaurant had sought to stop the city from using the name in the future. The city wanted the court to declare it the rightful owner of the name, which has been valued at $19 million.

The judge sided with the city, saying it had licensed the facility and retained extensive control, including the right to regulate the times and manner of operation and to terminate the license if it found the restaurant was being operated unsatisfactorily.

Cedarbaum noted that Tavern on the Green has been a famous name associated in the public mind with a restaurant in the city’s Central Park since 1934.

Until it closed, the restaurant had been operated since the 1970s by Tavern on the Green Limited Partnership and LeRoy Adventures Inc.

Last August, the city awarded the license to restaurateur Dean Poll, who hopes to open in the spring after delivering on a pledge to spend $25 million refurbishing the space.

A court-ordered auction of the glitzy decor of the restaurant recently generated millions of dollars to help erase the prior owner’s $8 million debt.

A lawyer for LeRoy Adventures did not immediately return a request for comment.

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