“We are here for the indefinite future. There’s no end date right now. It’s tied up in courts but we’re here for now, operating as normal,” a Bryant Park Grill employee told Eater by phone on Tuesday night. Resy still shows availability for bookings, with no blackout dates in sight. A Mother’s Day menu for Sunday, May 9, also pops up on its site.
On Wednesday, Bryant Park Grill sent out a press release that pulls no punches. “Initial court proceedings have revealed the rigged selection process orchestrated by BPC’s Dan Biederman that if approved would: Close restaurant for a year or longer — putting 250 New Yorkers out of a job; use public money to give Seaport a year of free rent while space sits empty; accept $1 million less in annual rent than plaintiff’s bid; and all while overlooking Seaport’s well-documented financial instability and plan to raise prices on New Yorkers,” it reads.
The release also asserts that nonprofit landlord Bryant Park Corp. has allegedly offered “$2 million to Seaport for capital improvements and over a year of free rent — giveaways not offered to Bryant Park Grill or the other finalists.”
Last fall, it came to light that the nearly 30-year-old Bryant Park Grill was being pushed out by Bryant Park Corp. The glass-enclosed restaurant with two outdoor cafes and a huge seasonal rooftop hit the bidding block last year ahead of Bryant Park Grill’s lease expiration date. Jean-Georges Restaurants was the chosen new operator out of 11 candidates, which included the incumbent tenant.
Bryant Street Grill is the crown jewel of Ark Restaurants, a publicly traded hospitality group behind oyster bars in Alabama, burger places in Vegas, and seafood spots in Florida. Ark launched a “Help Save Bryant Park Grill” campaign last fall to salvage its tony restaurant that employs 250.
A December community board battle shed light on the internal drama, with the nonprofit’s executive director Dan Biederman saying Bryant Park Grill has “gotten a little tired” and “this is a business decision.” As a result, Bryant Park Grill’s owner Michael Weinstein sued the park, Seaport Entertainment Group (Vongerichten’s management company), and other affiliated entities in state Supreme Court, claiming the selection process was “flawed.”
Last week, however, Ark’s separate request for an injunction to block an eviction was denied by a judge — giving the landlord the runway to exercise its legal right to do so. Which it will; per an email to Eater on Wednesday, Biederman says: “Bryant Park Corporation intends to abide by the court decision issued last week and will exercise its rights at the conclusion of the current operator’s lease.”
Bryant Park Grill, the Parisian-styled standby next to the iconic New York Public Library since 1995, helped revitalize Midtown park in a big way over the years. It’s allegedly one of the nation’s highest-grossing restaurants, with $25 million in annual revenue.
A new restaurant led by a famous chef with Michelin-starred credentials could generate up to $40 million in sales, Biederman says. That means more revenue for the park, which gets zero dollars from Manhattan itself.
Jean-Georges already has over a dozen New York-based locations, including his namesake, Perry St, Nougatine, JoJo, the Mark, and the Fulton among them. He’s on a NY expansion tear as of late, having recently rolled out Midtown’s power spot Four Twenty Five and debuted buzzy private supper club Chez Margaux, with his first Brooklyn project — a 300-seat ABC trilogy — on the way.
April 30 1:25 p.m.: This article was updated to include additional details.
