I knew I didn't imagine it. The famous old restaurant closed on a day when I was actually in NY. I remember hearing about it on the news that night. This was posted on the door:
I found this article:
Russian Tea Room
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The Russian Tea Room was a famous restaurant in New York City, located at 150 W. 57th Street between Carnegie Hall Tower and Metropolitan Tower. It was opened in 1926 by former members of the Russian Imperial Ballet as a gathering place for Russian expatriates and became famous as a gathering place for those in the entertainment industry.
In 1955, the restaurant was purchased by Sidney Kaye, who, in 1967, left the restaurant to his widow, Faith Stewart-Gordon.
In December 1996, Warner LeRoy bought the place from Faith Stewart-Gordon for $6.5 million and closed it down, much to the despair of New York high society. After four years and $36 million in renovations, it reopened, but it was never the same; it closed with little notice on Sunday, July 28, 2002, after declaring bankruptcy. Warner LeRoy's health was failing, and after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the local economy did not recover quickly enough to make payments on the substantial loans for the renovations.
After Warner LeRoy passed, his estate sold the property for $16 million to the United States Golf Association in December of 2002. The Association had planned to re-configure the property as a dining room and museum in which to showcase its extensive collection of golf memorabilia, but instead they sold the building in 2004 to RTR Funding Group, which now plans to replace the current building with a 29-storey condominium building to be designed by Costas Kondylis."
This was another article:
http://www.sorabji.com/whois/readthestories/2002/10/25/index.html I'm guessing that someone has opened a new place and given it the old name.
www.thebreastcancersite.com
A click for life.
mamie4 5/14/03
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