By Carol Tannenhauser
Closed for more than a year, Tavern on the Green, one of New York City’s most storied restaurants, located within Central Park at West 67th Street, will reopen on Thursday, April 29th, with its indoor and outdoor spaces limited to 50% capacity.
In another nod to normalcy, reservations are recommended.
“We will open for a festive dinner at 5pm…with live music in the Courtyard,” the website announced. “Full lunch service will resume, and our to-go window will open beginning Friday, April 30th at 11am. You will now be able to order to go directly from our website and pick up your order at the to-go window.”
What you won’t be able to do is have your daughter’s Sweet Sixteen at Tavern on the Green, or celebrate your nephew’s elementary school graduation. “…even if this appealing outdoor dining set-up attracts passersby and the returning trickle of tourists, the restaurant will still miss what Steve Zagor, a restaurant consultant, said is the bulk of its business: large events,” Crain’s wrote.
“Chef Bill Peet now oversees the kitchen….From the to-go window of the reopened restaurant, which had been open before the pandemic, he will serve dishes such as veggie frittatas and cheese plates. Tavern on the Green converted its South Terrace, which used to be part of the events space, and added a beer garden to the front.”
The building that houses Tavern on the Green was originally designed and constructed in 1870 by Calvert Vaux, one of the co-designers of Central Park, to house the sheep that grazed in the nearby Sheep Meadow. In 1934, then-Parks Commissioner Robert Moses evicted and banished the sheep to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, in order to build the restaurant. Later, under cover of night, he turned a popular section of the park into a parking lot for it. (Props to Joni Mitchell.)
But “Moses may have left a previously unappreciated legacy: beautiful and large areas for eating outside, including a flagstone terrace where he imagined couples dancing to music from an outdoor orchestra,” Crain’s said.
It may yet come to pass.
For hours and to make a reservation at Tavern on the Green, click here. For COVID-19 safety measures, click here. Here are the menus.
The to-go window is a fantastic idea. You never know when you might need to grab some charred octopus & chorizo in a hurry while fleeing the hell-hounds of Gozer.
I would love to see them bring back the sheep too! That would surely draw a crowd, bah!
Now I certainly will be going green!
I used to be a fan until the new owners turned the seating into cafeteria style seating, which I’m not a fan of especially for the type of mid to higher end restaurant it purports to be.
The name is Calvert Vaux, not Calvin.
Thank you! Fixed.
What will the menu comprise, once this establishment reopens? Thanks