NEW YORK -- Tavern on the Green, once America's highest-grossing restaurant, is singing its culinary swan song.
Those items include lavish decorative elements on the Crystal Room ceiling, chestnut paneling, brass lettering for The Bar and six banquettes."We're going to bring the park into the restaurant," said LePatner, by eliminating the thick shrubbery around the premises to reveal Sheep Meadow, where the animals grazed until 1934, housed in the 19th century Victorian Gothic shed that is part of the restaurant.A New York magazine reviewer once asked, "So what if the Eisenhower-era menu is strictly an afterthought?"The first 1000 customers who came to the counter were given a sample of Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Polish after their make-under experience.Creating a Twitter account isn't the same thing as flinging open the files, but it's a start. Just as you may never have known about your co-worker's obsession with early '90s R&B in the preFacebook era, maybe social media can illuminate some of the dusty corners of the federal government.Poll also plans an outdoor cafe, bicycle racks and new public restrooms.After explaining the hoops he jumped through to launch the NOAA YouTube channel, Carothers loaded it up, showing the seminar attendees a video of deep-sea creatures. "We have a shot of some nice critters. Isn't he cute? This nice little shrimp?"But in government agencies, where civil servants and agendas are correctly outside the influence of whoever resides in the White House, the online revolution is moving a bit more slowly. On a rainy fall day, some 100 agency workers gathered under sparkling chandeliers in the ballroom of Washington, D.C.'s Willard Hotel for a day-long seminar on the finer points of using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even virtual worlds such as Second Life."You can personalize your avatar to look similar to yourself, although I don't know many people that do it exactly the same. I'm much thinner, younger, have flowing black hair," said Paulette Robinson, an assistant dean at National Defense University who goes by Paulette Darkstone in Second Life. She logged in to show the audience one of the virtual meeting places NDU has set up.It would be her last time at the old Tavern on the Green, and she got sentimental."[The Obama administration] is definitely leading the way. [But] I would argue it probably would have happened regardless," Dennis Papula, director of the Information Technology Policy and Compliance Division at the U.S. General Services Administration, tells me. The GSA is a bit of a gap-filler agency- formed in 1949, it manages federal buildings, sets procurement and travel policy, and administers government Web sites. Papula (who joked at the start of his panel that he is the "token guy in the dark suit and red tie") says GSA is the first agency he knows ofthat has come out with a comprehensive social-media policy.While it's laudable that agencies want to enter the 21st century, some questions remain: Why should anyone care if Federal Emer- gency Manage- ment Agency employees have a presence in Sec- ond Life? Would anyone want to befriend the Transportation Security Administration on Facebook? Does anyone really want to read the GSA's Twitter updates? (Boredom in 140 characters or less: "Save money this fall with these no-cost and lowcost energy-saving tips.")But that astronomical sum wasn't enough to keep the landmark restaurant out of bankruptcy court. Its $8 million debt is to be covered at an auction of Baccarat and Waterford chandeliers, Tiffany stained glass, a mural depicting Central Park and other over-the- top decor that has bewitched visitors for decades.A spokeswoman for the company running the auction said the LeRoys couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday, but people close to 31- year-old Jennifer LeRoy said she feels heartbroken over the closure and betrayed by a city that pulled the lease to a business her father turned into a New York icon.Recently, as many as 1,500 meals could be served a day, with dinner entrees costing $26 to $42 on a menu heavy with meat and potato dishes, plus standard seafood and a few forays into foreign fare such as risotto.The seminar, put on by the nonprofit Potomac Forum, was billed as an introduction for civil servants to the ever-expanding world of social media-online tools (such as YouTube for videos, Twitter for short updates, Flickr for photos, Facebook and MySpace for social networking) that anyone can use to create and share content.The problems government agencies face as they start using social media are the same issues faced by any organization that wants a significant online presence: dealing with comments, coming up with content, and striking the right tone. FEM As Jod i Cramer described the agency's comment policy without missing a beat: "If people say, 'FEMA, you suck,' we'll post it. If they say, 'FEMA, you f- ing suck,' we won't."Maybe government is getting the hang of the Internet after all.Hanging over the main Crystal Room, an all-glass dining area, is a century-old chandelier made of green glass, said to have been owned by an Indian maharajah. Two elk decked with red and green ornaments stand at the entrance, and outside is a huge King Kong topiary.She came for lunch a few days after Christmas, whose green and white colors fill the Tavern's year-round wonderland of lights, flowers and ornamental curved bull's-eye mirrors.The blog has provided a way for the TSA to rapidly respond to its critics- of which there are many. When a mother's account of having her son taken from her while going through airport security began making rounds in the blogosphere, Burns posted a response. "As a father of two small children, I empathized with her about the alleged circumstances," Burns wrote. However, he also posted a full video of the woman's screening, which showed that her account was, in fact, false.The LeRoys lost to Dean Poll, who operates the stylish Loeb Boathouse restaurant overlooking the Central Park lake and offered to invest $25 million on Tavern renovations. The city awarded him a 20-year license in August, citing his significant capital investment and vision; the new Tavern will incorporate green building technology while a conservatory-style dining space will complement the original Victorian architecture.The LeRoys, employing more than 400 unionized workers with full benefits, couldn't match that. As the recession hit, they accrued more than 450 creditors.Former Tavern mogul Warner LeRoy, befitting his heritage as son of a producer of "The Wizard of Oz," searched the globe for the whimsical goods after he took over the Tavern's lease in 1973. He died in 2001, leaving the business to his wife, Kay LeRoy, and daughter Jennifer LeRoy.Barack Obama, widely heralded as the first ""Internet president," is inseparable from his BlackBerry and delivers a weekly address on YouTube. The White House has its own Flickr stream. Senators now duke it out via Twitter. (The Supreme Court, or at least its Web site, seems firmly moored in the late 1990s.)A judge has scheduled a hearing on the disputed items for Jan. 11.As the end of the family's operating license approached, the city sought competing bids.Getting agencies to use social media is also increasing the availability of government data- a rich source that's already being tapped. Everyblock, a start-up site that was recently acquired by MSNBC, syncs up city government data with news feeds and street-level maps. When Google expanded its popular Google Earth mapping and aerial-images feature to the oceans, it used NOAA video.While the government is scrambling to adjust to emerging technology, that technology might have to do some adjusting to government (and its myriad regulations). Federal IT is required by law to be accessible to those with disabilities and "frankly a lot of the services themselves aren't accessible," Papula says. "If you're blind, and you use a screen reader, if a page isn't coded right, it can't make sense ofthat." If social-media sites are forced to comply with the government's standards, accessibility would likely increase.The dazzling decor was once a backdrop for private milestone events as well as public celebrations from film productions and political gatherings to the special carb-loading dinner on the eve of the New York Marathon.
"When I was little," she said. "I remember getting tears in my eyes when I looked at all the lights and colors."
Author: Verena Dobnik Associated Press
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