We Ask Co-Owner Jim Caiola About the Magic of Tavern on the Green

No public space on planet Earth rivals the lush majesty of New York City’s Central Park.

The best place to wine and dine in this sprawling garden is the enchanting Tavern On The Green. The iconic location is surrounded by a spectacular urban forest of verdant green fields in front and towers of stone, steel, and glass behind. Tavern On The Green has never been duplicated or franchised. The brand has never expanded; it can’t and doesn’t need to.

Way back in 1934, wise minds overseeing Central Park declared that the flocks of sheep living in the huge field called Sheep Meadow needed to be relocated elsewhere for the health and safety of all parties. This exodus left the structure where they and their shepherds were housed in need of a new purpose. The Tavern On The Green was born.

In the early days, wild dance parties were held on the outdoor patio under trees strung with long strands of glittering white lights. In the 1970s, it was an entertainment industry and celebrity hangout. John Lennon lived a brisk walk away on 72nd Street and was the most famous regular. The restaurant made a cameo in the 1984 classic Ghostbusters, when Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) flees into the park to escape from a snarling dog statue that has sprang into demonic life. He hysterically knocks on the glass of the main dining room, startling the well-dressed patrons.

This classic restaurant and bar is just as vibrant and popular today. We caught up with co-owner Jim Caiola to discuss signature cocktails, continuing the Tavern’s iconic legacy and why it needs to be on your list of must-visit best places to drink and dine whenever you’re near midtown Manhattan. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What makes the Tavern on the Green so special and revered by so many?

JIM: It’s the magic of where it is, really. The fact that it was a sheep fold before it was a restaurant makes it really interesting as far as the layout goes, because it was two barns, and they were built in the early 1880s, and then the middle part was built for the shepherd. Then, in the turn of the century, the sheep were moved to Brooklyn, and it was shut down for thirty to forty years. The initial restaurant was what we focused on when we redid it (in 2014).

What are the most popular signature cocktails?

We do the five boroughs, those are by far. We created those when we opened for the five different boroughs of New York. Obviously the Manhattan is a classic. The Brooklyn is really popular. We thought it would be fun to have a different drink for each borough. We also do seasonal cocktails that are beyond those, so the people that are regular go for the seasonal as they change, but everybody has their own favorite.

What’s your personal favorite at the Tavern?

The Queens. It has a bitterness and a sweetness in the vodka. That’s usually my favorite when I’m not drinking French Pernod.

Why should tourists make the time to visit Tavern On The Green?

That’s like asking,’Why should they make time to go to the Empire State Building?’ Sixty million people visit Central Park every year, the most of any place in New York. Tavern On The Green is such an integral part of that. If you’re spending the day in the park, there’s no better place to have lunch or dinner, or bar room fare, or even to-go. It’s really a magical place. At night when the sun goes down and those lights come up in the courtyard, it’s incredible.

Same question but for residents and locals?

The locals use Tavern the most in the winter. They think of the Tavern as like a lodge or a ski resort, where it’s warm and sort of cozy and comfortable. A lot of the business of Tavern On The Green is related to what’s happening in Central Park. So, when Sheep Meadow is packed, that’s when Tavern is packed, too. It really correlates, especially in the daytime. At night, it’s its own destination, which goes back to your point of why: Because it’s great. Because it’s phenomenal. You get a respite from the rest of New York. I love New York, but at Tavern, you could be anywhere in the world, because you don’t walk out into crazy Manhattan. It’s separate from the street noise. There are horses around. You could be in any park in the world.

Ten years from now will be the 100th anniversary of the restaurant. Do you have any special plans cooking up yet?

I don’t yet, but I’ve got time (laughs). We’re really excited about it. On our website, we’ve asked people to write in their stories, and we have so many. I plan to invite a lot
of those people back for the anniversary. Last night, there was a hundred-and-one year old woman there. She went to Tavern for her sweet sixteen. She said that in the years after that when she lived in New York, she would just peek in; she didn’t feel like she could walk in. A lot of it in those days, it was made to sort of feel unapproachable. It was in Beaches (1988) the same era that it was in Arthur (1981). It was also kind of more formal, in the era where formal was cool, whereas now, you know you can’t judge a book by the cover.

Some say a successful business depends on three things; location, location, and location. Being on the border of Central Park in New York City makes Tavern On The Green one of the most desirable locations in the world.

Tavern, even when you approach it, there’s something that happens to you. It’s almost like there’s a spirit out there. I think it’s the history and the amount of people. We do twelve-hundred, fifteen-hundred people just for brunch. So, imagine all of that going on for close to a hundred years. There’s so much energy. The magic comes to anybody even if they don’t know about it.

I tell the story a lot about when I studied at the Actors Studio in the early eighties and Lee Strasberg came one day and complimented me. I took myself to Tavern On The Green for lunch with my friend. I remember we were listening around us, and thought we heard seven languages, but our waiter was from Eastern Europe, and said “No, that’s not Russian.” We realized we were hearing eleven languages.

It was just so unbelievable that I could be sitting there at lunch in the middle of Central Park, hearing eleven different languages and seeing everybody there was celebrating. I was celebrating, but everybody there was celebrating, everybody there was feeling it! I remember saying then, if I were ever to be a restaurateur, this is where it would be. So, I had my eye on Tavern since I was eighteen years old.

The thing about Tavern is, no matter who owns it or in what kind of format they’re using, it is what it is. It’s in the most incredible park. In the early eighties, the park was different. It was so dangerous. What Warner LeRoy (T.O.T.G. owner from 1976 – 2001) was doing – you know the movie Edward Scissorhands, the sculptures? – he purchased all those bushes from the movie. What he was trying to do was close it off, because in his era of Tavern, it had to be almost separate from the park, whereas in my era, we took all that away, buzzed the bushes down, and now you can have access, even if Barbara Streisand is sitting there, or Jane Fonda when she comes in, you can see Jane Fonda. I did not want it to be this quarantined three acres of Central Park.

What’s the best part about co-owning and managing Tavern On The Green?

I get to experience the magic of Tavern on a daily basis. It still delivers to me the monumental feeling that there is nowhere else to go. I can’t do better than that and I don’t want to do better. I think about opening other restaurants or inheriting restaurants that are already closed, but so far, nothing has really captured me the way Tavern has.

Tavern On The Green is located at W 67th Street & Central Park West, New York City, NY 10023-6004. For more information and reservations please visit their website here.

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