| The Rainbow Room | |
|---|---|
The Rainbow Room in December 2004 |
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| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 1934 |
| Street address | 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 65th Floor |
| City | New York City |
| State | New York |
| Postal code/ZIP | 10112 |
| Country | United States |
| Website | www.rainbowroom.com |
The Rainbow Room was an upscale restaurant and nightclub on the 65th floor of the GE Building in Rockefeller Center, Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
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The food was loosely northern Italian, and there were cocktails, wines, liqueurs, cognacs, and other drinks available.
The Rainbow Room was designed by French architect Jacques Carlu. He had also designed the Carlu (known then as Eaton's, Seventh Floor) several years prior, an event space/lounge/venue located on the seventh floor of College Park in Toronto. The Carlu is known as one of the world's best surviving examples of the Art Moderne period, where many famous performers of the time, such as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Frank Sinatra performed. It also features a painting by the architect's wife Natacha. The Rainbow Room draws its inspiration from the Round Room in the Carlu.[1]
The Rainbow Room featured a revolving dance floor, a live big band orchestra, and a view of the New York City skyline. Private events were hosted in several banquet rooms. On New Year's Eve, for example, the price of admission included caviar, truffles, champagne, and mixed drinks, and access to the Rainbow Room from dinner through breakfast the next morning. Admission to the 2007 New Year's Eve party was $1600.00 per person.
On the same floor of the GE building was The Rainbow Grill, a separate, somewhat less expensive restaurant with an à la carte menu and that had its own celebrations for main holidays.
The Rainbow Room first opened on October 3, 1934, and was originally conceived as a formal supper club, where the elite and influential of New York could gather to socialize over cocktails, dine on fine cuisine, and dance to the strains of legendary big bands on a revolving floor. Virginia Frymyer-Barnette, mother of Lady Shirley, cousin to both the HRH the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, used to sing and entertain dinner guests during the 1940s.
In 1985, David Rockefeller, the son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., commissioned a $25 million restoration and expansion of the Rainbow Room led by Joe Baum, Arthur Emil, and architect Hugh Hardy.
In 1998, the Rockefeller family passed operations of the facilities of the restaurant over to the Italian Cipriani S.A. family, founders of the renowned Harry's Bar in Venice, as well as several other restaurants in New York City.
The Ciprianis extensively remodeled the grill and fired all union workers, and hired Chef Daniel Kay to run the kitchen operations. In 2003 Michael DiLeonardo, an associate of Peter Gotti, turned state's evidence against the accused mobster. In his testimony DiLeonardo said the Ciprianis gave $120,000 to the Gambino crime family to make union problems at the Rainbow Room disappear. The charges were never confirmed.[2]
In 2008, the Cipriani company filed a brief with the City of New York, requesting that the Rainbow Room be designated a historic landmark. The designation would prevent the Rainbow Room from being converted into office space.[3]
In 2009 the Cipirianis announced that they planned to close the grill although part would remain open as a bar and banquet hall. The Ciprianis' chief operating officer blamed "the current economic crisis in New York and around the world, on top of an ongoing dispute with our landlord." [3] Tishman Speyer said it intended to evict the Ciprianis unless they paid back rent.[4] The two sides settled the dispute, with the Ciprianis' agreeing to give up possession of the restaurant and banquet hall on August 1, 2009. [5] The last night of dancing at the former hot spot took place on June 5, 2009, and the Grill closed its kitchen on Father's Day, June 21, 2009.[6]
As of the Summer of 2011, work has begun on remodeling the restaurant for its reopening.[7]
Actress Joan Crawford made her last public appearance at the Rainbow Room at a party honoring Rosalind Russell.
In his memoir, Kitchen Confidential, chef Anthony Bourdain wrote an entire chapter ("I Make My Bones") about his year and a half in the kitchen staff of the Rainbow Room, describing in detail - both good and bad - the working conditions in an extremely famous and busy restaurant and the numerous dealings normally kept invisible behind the kitchen doors.