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| Visions & Revisions |
A Protégé No More
Jennifer Oz LeRoy
02/01/2007
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The will also alerted you to some surprise
debt.
There was a building loan of about $15
million from a partner, Vornado Realty, on the Tea Room. It had to be paid, and
I got a little over $15 million for it. That was a huge accomplishment. I had
people telling me the building was worth $6 million and to file for bankruptcy.
But I kept saying, "I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do." And thank God.
Moments like that are building blocks of confidence.
And now you’re expanding the Tavern brand for the first
time.
We’re opening a restaurant near West Palm
Beach in Wellington, Fla. We had interest from Las Vegas and Atlantic City. But
the first thing to do was to have the original Tavern running tip-top. It is the
highest-grossing restaurant in the country, with about $37 million in annual
revenues.
So business in New York is improving?
Revenues are steady. We’ve put a lot of
money into it. I put $1 million into the kitchen in 2002. All the chandeliers
have been repaired; all the murals are new.
After 9/11, there was a drop in banquets and parties. Now it is
about evenly distributed—$18 million in private events is incredible for one
location. People think it is a huge space, but it isn’t. It is 27,000 square
feet, but 13,000 is kitchen.
I wouldn’t be expanding if I weren’t confident of where we’re
at with the business. We are more than ready. The new spot is the Equestrian
Club by Tavern on the Green. It is a private country club, a different feel from
the original Tavern. Wellington is becoming like the Hamptons. People go there
from November to April. The horse show is on a 300-acre property with 5,000
horses—the top horses, the best competitors and the wealthiest people. You have
the owner of Nextel, Bruce Springsteen and so on. There are tremendous amounts
of charities and events. They need a place like this.
Do you have a home there?
I rent every year, but I’m going to buy at
the end of the year. The investment possibility is just tremendous.
We’re partnered with Wellington Equestrian Partners. They want
to turn the town into a 12-month community. They have a future project to build
condos, hotels and a convention center. They bought a [restaurant] and asked if
I wanted to see it. I had fantasized about this place, but it had never been run
the way I thought it should be. This is my dream. I am a passionate rider and I
love to go to Wellington. I’d go to parties, and people would say, "I wish you
were down here to cater it," and I thought, "Why aren’t I?"
What kind of investment is it for you?
We’re 50-50 partners, putting in about $2
million each. The real thing for us is the partnership we’re establishing and
the possibility of being hospitality partners in the future. The only hotel down
there right now is a Hampton Inn. I’d love to be involved in a hotel project. I
also fantasize about reopening Maxwell’s Plum.
Photograph by Thomas Hart Shelby.
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