A farewell toast to the Plaza's Oak Room

[Eve]

From today’s Times; Little Olde New York gets littler and littler:

At least once a year for a decade, Nancy Bowes has left her home in Michigan and journeyed to the Plaza Hotel’s celebrated Oak Room restaurant for dinner and a taste of history. She likes to visit over the holidays, when small Christmas trees flank the room’s French doors, strings of lights brighten the place, and delicate white-painted branches cover the large carved pillars that rise solidly from the rear of the room. On Tuesday evening, Mrs. Bowes accompanied her sister and niece, Oak Room first-timers both, for a pre-theater dinner. “It’s a legend,” she said.
Soon that’s all it will be. The Oak Room is closing in January, along with two other restaurants at the Plaza, the Oyster Bar and One C.P.S., which itself had replaced the old Edwardian Room.

Opened in 1907 as a men-only bar, the Oak Room was designed by the hotel’s architect, Henry J. Hardenbergh, to celebrate the joys of drinking. (The original chandeliers, topped by miniature barmaids hoisting steins, still hang from the 20-foot ceilings.) F. Scott Fitzgerald used to drink there; so did the composer and actor George M. Cohan, who held court at a reserved corner table. Closed during Prohibition, the Oak Room reopened as a restaurant in 1934, looking more or less the same as it does now. The double French doors open onto yards of polished oak paneling, punctuated by three large murals, each depicting a Bavarian castle. Waiters in formal attire glide back and forth with plates of salmon fillet and chateaubriand.

During the dinner hours, a few customers paused on the way out to say goodbye to staff they have known for years. “I know people who were kids,” remarked Adel Fathelbab, the restaurant’s headwaiter, who has been at the Plaza for 19 years and at the Oak Room for eight. “Now they become adults, and they bring their kids. I know a lot of generations.”

[Telemark]

I’ve only been there once, while visiting a friend in NYC we stopped by for drinks and a snack before a night out. It was expensive, but nice. I’m glad I made the effort to get there now.

[partlycloudy]

When I was little, my dad took us to the Oak Room and told the maitre’d (or whoever) that his dad helped build the Oak Room, and could he just show his kids? They let us in no prob, touristy clothes and all. Of course we just walked through, didn’t eat or anything. Maybe not such a big deal, but at the time we felt very mischevious - in a good way.

Sad to hear it’s closing.

[Creaky]

Oh, man, that is sad. I’m sorry to see it go. I had a fun/scary time there once.

When I was 18 years old, three of my girlfriends and I went to the Oak Room and proceeded to rack up a huge drinks bill. I mean, we realized when the check came that we really didn’t have the money to pay. I don’t know what the hell we were thinking, but after several scotches, you kind of forget about money and stuff…

The waiter was not amused.

We ended up calling one of my friend’s fathers (not my father, for God’s sake; I’d have never been nineteen years old). Her father paid via telephone, I guess with a credit card.

My friend’s dad never mentioned it when we got home. Neither did we. I think he knew the mortification was lesson enough. It was.

But now it’s funny. Really. I swear.

[picunurse]

My key chain is still the brass one from our door key at the PP. Dinner in the Oak Room changed my view of what dinner should be. Too bad it had to go the way of so much of our finer side.

[Cartooniverse]

@picunurse

My key chain is still the brass one from our door key at the PP.

–satirical hat on–

@The Plaza Hotel

The Oak Room has been closed chiefly to help defray a series of cost-overruns that have pushed the infamous hotel to the brink of bankruptcy. Most notable amongst these is the habit many patrons have of stealing the solid brass keychains that are used to hang the room keys from.

Management has pleaded with our patrons for more than 20 years to suppress the urge to take them as souvenirs but alas, to no avail.

" The price must be paid for the selfishness of a few. It is a sad day indeed for all of the cultured world. Petite larceny is it’s own punishment "

–satirical hat off–

Cartooniverse