Rainbow Room in the 1940’s, although today catering mainly to tourists
The Rainbow Room (currently closed)
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112
The Rainbow Room has symbolized glamor since it opened in 1934, during the Great Depression and has a marvellous view of the city. It is currently closed and a new operator has not been chosen yet.
Cipriani, the last operator, with other catering and restaurant operations across Manhattan and in Europe, complained: “Unfortunately, we are dealing with an uncompassionate and greedy landlord who has not made any efforts to resolve our differences in a reasonable manner”. Tishman Speyer, the landlord, said it had no intention of gutting the Rainbow Room to make way for corporate offices, a move that would be certain to evoke outrage from New Yorkers. “The Rainbow Room is one of our city’s great institutions, and we will immediately begin the process of finding another great restaurateur to operate the space in the first-class manner that New Yorkers and visitors deserve,” said Tishman spokesman Robert Lawson.
According to Tishman, Cipriani, which in theory holds a lease that does not expire until 2013, was four months behind on its $500,000-a-month rent for the space, which includes the bar, the grill restaurant and a business club.
There are several Cipriani restaurants around New York including, Harry Cipriani on Fifth Avenue, Cipriani Dolci in Grand Central, Downtown Cipriani in Soho, Cipriani 42nd Street, and the now closed Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Plaza all of them have a thread that ties them with the original Harry’s Bar in Venice.
Tishman Speyer, co-owners of Rockefeller Center, stated that they are looking for a quality restaurateur to operate the Rainbow Room.
However, I think it would be fair to say, that it would probably be difficult to interest anyone to do this now, with a cited annual rental of $6 million and other additional high operating costs. K.M.
