NYC Eatery Won’t Vacate For New Tenant Despite Lease Expiration

BRYANT PARK, NY — There's a food fight escalating in Bryant Park.

The Bryant Park Grill's lease expires on Wednesday after 30 years, but just as a new restaurant from celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten is preparing to take over, the owners of the Grill are refusing to leave.

“WE’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE," Bryant Park Grill Owner Michael Weinstein told Patch over email Wednesday.

According to a spokesperson for the Grill, the restaurant will remain open on Thursday and even has a Mother's Day menu on its website for May 9, despite the fact that the Jean-Georges restaurant has already signed a lease on the space.

This is the latest development in a saga that started at the end of March when the owner of the Bryant Park Grill sued its landlord, the Bryant Park Corporation, in an attempt to block the termination of their long-standing restaurant lease.

In the suit, Ark Restaurants (which owns the Grill) accused its landlord of holding a "sham bidding process" that skewed the decision process toward a restaurant by celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, which plans to take over the Grill's place.

The restaurateur also argued in the suit that the Bryant Park Corporation rejected the Grill's competitive bid, which was $1 million higher in annual rent than the Jean-Georges restaurant, and is handing over to a company with a "recent record of failure."

However, on April 23, Justice Anar Rathod Patel ruled the owners of the Grill had no legal right to an injunction blocking Jean-Georges from taking over the location, and said the bidding process was fair.

“Bryant Park Corporation intends to abide by the court decision issued last week and will exercise its rights at the conclusion of the current operator’s lease,” said Gil Feder of Loeb & Loeb, counsel for Bryant Park Corporation, told Patch on Wednesday.

Know of a business opening or closing in Manhattan? Email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.