A Last New Year’s Eve Toast for Tavern on the Green

And so there was a last waltz. With formidable revelry and not a few tears, some 1,700 New Year’s Eve celebrators paid $125 to $500 a person for the privilege of welcoming 2010 with a last, vast, rollicking hurrah for the landmark restaurant in Central Park.

It shuttered after 4 a.m. Friday for at least six weeks before facing an uncertain future: a new operator, a new décor and possibly even a new name.

“Obviously there is sadness here, but I think Warner would be very happy about how we finished this,” said Michael Desiderio, Tavern’s chief operating officer, referring to Warner LeRoy, the legendary restaurateur who reinvented it in 1976. “He gave a wonderful gift to New York, so in a way, this is a celebration.”

Shelley Clark, a spokeswoman, said that Jennifer Oz LeRoy, the 30-year-old chief executive of Tavern, was too distraught to attend, explaining that it would have been unseemly “for her to be celebrating when so many people would be out of work.”