The increasingly toxic struggle to control the popular Bryant Park Grill is leaving a bitter taste for hungry visitors to the iconic Midtown oasis.
The nonprofit Bryant Park Corporation (BPC), which manages the park, is booting longtime Grill operator Ark Restaurants in favor of world-famed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. But Ark owner Michael Weinstein says he won’t vacate the glass-enclosed eatery and two small outdoor cafes despite their leases expiring this month, as he presses a court case seeking to overturn the decision.
Weinstein told The Post he has no intention of shutting down the Grill and its satellites as “long as we’re in litigation.”
Weinstein ran the Grill for 30 years. He’s suing the park corporation, Vongerichten’s management company Seaport Entertainment Group, the Parks Department which has the final say over an operator, and the New York Public Library, whose main building abuts the Grill’s space and has an advisory say.
His state Supreme Court filing says the corporation’s “flawed” selection process was designed to choose Vongerichten from the outset and that BPC president Daniel Biederman sought to run the park as his “personal domain.”
But in rejecting Ark’s separate request for an injunction to block its ouster last week, Judge Anar Rathod Patel basically called Ark and Weinstein sore losers, saying, “Mere dissatisfaction with a competitive outcome does not constitute bad faith.”
Following Patel’s ruling, “The park intends to exercise its right to proceed to an eviction” of Ark from the site, Biederman said.
Bryant Park Grill, at the park’s eastern end, has 4,900 square feet indoors and nearly as much space on the roof for alfresco dining. It’s one of the nation’s highest-volume restaurants with $25 million in annual revenue.
The BPC issued a request for proposals to take over the leases for the Grill and the small cafes last year, in advance of their expirations this spring.
Eleven would-be operators submitted proposals. The corporation chose Seaport Entertainment Group (SEG) because it believes Michelin-starred, internationally famous Vongerichten would bring greater prestige and greater revenue to the park over time, even though SEG would pay less in rent at the outset than Ark was paying.
SEG’s proposal “presents the best combination of operating record, financial strength, and creative talent in the food and design field,” Biederman told Community Board 5.
According to Ark’s court filing, Vongerichten’s team might need to close the Grill for 10 months or longer for a redesign — to which the BPC would contribute $2 million, which Ark called “improper” as it was not offered to any of the other applicants.
But no shutdown is imminent. Biederman told The Post, “Weinstein is pulling a wide variety of legal moves to over-stay his lease, so he’ll probably stay there for spring and maybe summer months.”
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