GRAND IN CENTRAL
New Tavern on the Green tops expectations
The new Tavern on the Green has topped its sales goal despite kitchen turmoil and operating constraints, The Post has learned.
The famed Central Park eatery, which reopened a year ago under Jim Caiola and David Salama, has surpassed the $ 17.5 million in revenue the newowners had projected.
“We’ve already exceeded our expectations,” said Caiola, who won the lease from the city to run the restaurant for20 years. “We are making more money than we are spending, not everyweek, but overall.”
The Tavern drew$ 15.4 million in revenue its first 10 months of operation through February, according to the most recent data available from the Parks Department. Caiola said revenues from March and April have pushed it over the $ 17.5 million mark — even though the bulk came from lunches and dinners in the restaurant rather than private parties, which are more profitable.
“You make more money hosting a party, or around 20 cents on the dollar, compared with 10 cents on the dollar for à la carte dining,” said Allan Kurtz, managing director at Gotham Hall, whowas previously managing director at Tavern on the Green when the LeRoy family ran it. Half of Tavern’s revenues during Kurtz’s tenure, which ended in 2003, came from catering.
The Tavern raked in about $ 30 million six years ago under the LeRoys, but it was also much larger. The city’s renovation pared it down to its 1934 structure, demolishing most of the additions, including the Crystal Room.
While the old Tavern was known for big, lavish parties, the city — responding to complaints from neighbors about loud music and revelry — requires the new owners to limit sellout events and get advance permission fromthe Parks Department to do so.
Those parties still happen, including lastweek, when the Tavern was closed for events twice and once earlier in the month. Since their launch, the restaurant has been closed just five times, not nearly enough to pad Tavern’s coffers.
The first three months of 2015 “were way worse than we thought they would be,” Caiola said of both the restaurant and party business.
In January, Tavern booked just $ 47,381 in private events and $ 63,879 in February compared with $ 614,287 in November and $ 629,902 in December, according to the Parks Department.
“It takes a while to build events,” Caiola said. He and Salama, who hail from Philadelphia, where they own a creperie, have relied on a temporary tent on the south terrace for the past six months to help boost the party business. The winterized tent, which the Parks Department approved, can seat 200 and has been up since November. It’s coming down on Thursday.
“The tent was essential in helping us to not displace the à la carte business,” Caiola said. “Our goal is to have onethird of our revenue come from events.”
The Tavern will likely face more financial pressure next year, with the end of a twoyear reprieve from paying employees union wages. The eatery also is operating rentfree after the city agreed to defer payments for five years.
Tavern’s third chef, John Stevenson, succeeds Jeramiah Tower, who abruptly tweeted his departure Wednesday. Stevenson was a runnerup six months ago and has extensive banquet experience.
Caiola said Tower’s departure was mutual. “We never thought it would be a long” relationship, he said.