Tavern On The Weenie

Central Park’s famed Tavern On The Green, which recently closed in bankruptcy despite being the second-highest grossing restaurant in the country, is going to have a new life. As a snack bar and souvenir stand.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg envisions an unexpected, humble but most likely temporary destiny for the closed, bankrupt, once-glittering Tavern on the Green restaurant: a snack bar, visitor center and retail store. The mayor’s announcement came after six months of negotiations collapsed on Thursday between the restaurateur who was expected to become Tavern’s operator and the union that represents its 400 former employees. In a statement, the mayor said that the city would solicit proposals “from anyone that wants to reopen it as a restaurant,” adding that “during that period, which will last several months, we’ll use the venue as a visitor center and snack bar, similar to the successful Central Park Dairy, and also a retail shop.”

Earlier this year the restaurant’s opulent fixtures and artwork were sold at auction.