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Poor Tavern on the Green. Remakes are never as good as the original, and this one seems to have stumbled at every turn. Critics panned it, its opening chef, Katy Sparks, didn't last long, and neither did her replacement, California icon Jeremiah Tower. Now, to add insult to injury, it doesn't even get to keep the name Tavern on the Green. Jennifer Oz LeRoy, whose father owned Tavern on the Green until he died in 2001, has just won a court case over the right to the $19 million trademarked name. LeRoy plans to take that name down south to Palm Beach and open a Tavern on the Green in nearby Wellington, FL, selling a "whole line of Tavern on the Green products," reports to the Post. Presumably that means T-shirts, totes, and maybe some cake mixes. As for the Central Park original, it will change its name to Tavern on the Park, a name that restaurateur Deal Poll registered for it back in 2009. Poll never sealed the deal for the restaurant, but apparently, the name stuck.
Update: The original story on Page 6 was misreported. Oz LeRoy owns the naming rights for the restaurant outside of New York and plans to use them to open a Tavern on the Green in Florida. The original, however, will get to hold on to its name.
Thank you page6!To be clear I do have the trademark back outside of NYC- no relation to the restaurant in Central Park but wish them luck!
— Jennifer Oz LeRoy (@MissOzNYC) June 6, 2015
Update 2: The Florida outpost will go by Tavern on the Green Polo West, says a release. "The 350 seat restaurant will boast 15 acres of polo fields and an arena that will accommodate evening and daytime equestrian activities." The idea is to take the brand global, eventually. Also, those "products" will be luxury dining goods like glassware, food, and flatware.