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Bryant Park Grill’s Operators Are Suing to Prevent a Jean-Georges Takeover
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Last October, the people behind the 30-year-old Bryant Park Grill rang the emergency bells: Help save our restaurant. The operator, the publicly traded company Ark Restaurants, learned that it was likely getting the boot to make way for celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Seaport Entertainment. The Bryant Park Corporation (which leases the space) revealed in January that it was awarding the restaurant to the latter group. Now, the end is near. Ark’s lease for the Porch, an outdoor space, expires today. Its lease for the Grill is up at the end of April. But its CEO, Michael Weinstein, isn’t going down without a fight. Today, Ark filed a lawsuit against the BPC over “a sham bidding process” that favored “an inferior bidder” in Vongerichten and Seaport.
In its complaint, Ark argues the court should uphold the group’s “rights to a lawful and proper bidding process” and declare that “Bryant Park belongs to the people” and is not the “private property” of BPC and its president, Dan Biederman. “Dan has made Bryant Park his own little fiefdom,” Weinstein says. “He did 26 million bucks in revenue in the park last year. It is no longer a public park, it’s a business.” The BPC (originally the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation) was founded in 1980 and by 1983 had proposed an $18 million redevelopment of the park that included a security force and “huge glass restaurant.” It was a celebrated transformation, even as people raised concern about the public-private partnership. Today, “Manhattan’s Town Square” offers woodcock watching and an online store with $550 vintage park chairs, and hosts the crowded, Bank of America–sponsored holiday market. Ark has been involved since 1995 when it opened the Bryant Park Grill. It’s one of the country’s top-grossing restaurants, and combined revenues for its three park businesses — which also include the Porch and Bryant Park Café — amount to $28 million a year.
In 2023, the BPC posted a request for proposals from restaurateurs interested in leasing the spaces. While Biederman — who has no comment on the litigation but “looks forward to welcoming Seaport Entertainment Group” in the coming months — says that 11 restaurants were seriously considered, Ark alleges that “it had become clear that BPC were positioning Seaport to prevail.” The suit also alleges that the Seaport bid offered $1 million less in annual rent, while also receiving extended operating hours and $2 million toward planned renovations. Biederman himself has seemed to back up this allegation: “This city and others very often go for the highest rent offer, and we said, can we afford not to do that?” he said in a December meeting of the local community board’s parks and public spaces committee.
Vongerichten is one of New York’s most famous chefs, and his cachet allows him to charge high prices. (A six-course dinner is a steep $298 before tax and tip — a step below the priciest restaurants in the city.) It’s obvious why any landlord with a prime location might want to do business with him, given his pedigree. But Ark says Vongerichten is only the public face, and that the restaurant will be run by Seaport Entertainment, which it argues “has no record of operating a successful New York restaurant.” The two partnered on the Tin Building, a splashy, expensive revamp of the old Fulton Fish Market building. At the time, the cost to build it was touted as $194 million, although it’s unclear how much of that went to rebuilding the pier. More pressing is the fact that the operation has lately been losing Seaport Entertainment over $100,000 a day and shedding labor. Ark’s 250 employees at the Bryant Park Grill will undoubtedly need to look for other jobs, as the restaurant will close for at least a year of renovations.
“You’re doing a deal with Seaport, you’re throwing out 250 employees, and you’re accepting at least $1.2 million, $1.4 million less in rent. Who does that?” Weinstein says. “It’s a disaster for the park.”
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