The Algonquin's Oak Room Is Dead

For my money, the Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel was one of the most sophisticated spaces in all of New York. I felt like an absolute New Yorker there wherever I slipped behind a white-tableclothed table, my back to the paneled wall, tucked into my Martini and waited for the show to begin. No one every misbehaved in that room, and everyone dressed to the nines. Grace, politeness and ebullience reigned effortlessly. 

I saw many great artists there. Diana Krall, long before she became famous and musically uninteresting and Mrs. Elvis Costello. The late, lamented chanteuse Mary Cleere Haran. Married jazz cats Jessica Molaskey and John Pizzarelli. Once saw Skitch Henderson in the audience.

My chances of catching further legends are gone. The New York Times reports that "After a 32-year run the Oak Room, the fabled supper club and cabaret at the Algonquin Hotel on West 44th Street in Manhattan, will no longer operate when the hotel reopens in May after an extensive renovation, the Algonquin’s general manager, Gary J. Budge, announced on Thursday. He cited declining audiences in spite of 'top-notch performers.'" Gary J. Budge. What a name. Sounds like the husband of the New Yorker's famed Old Lady from Dubuque (a creation of New Yorker Harold Ross, who used to hang at the Algonquin).

Even though it was renovated just four years ago, the Algonquin has been undergoing another  extensive renovation since the start of 2012. A year or so ago, the hotel joined the Marriott network's "Autograph Collection." We're to expect "some exciting changes to our guest rooms and lobby." If the closing of the Oak Room is one of those exciting changes, I dread to discover what they're doing with the rest of the lobby.  

The Oak Room began as the Oak Room Supper Club in the 1930s. It closed down when WWII broke out. It didn't reopen until 1980.

Tasteless Owner, Jerky Hoteliers Screw Up Oak Room's Return

For years, New York waited for the reopening of the Oak Room and the Oak Bar, storied oases of cosmopolitan style and history. In 2008, after a lengthy renovation, the public was finally allowed to enjoy these beautiful rooms within the Plaza Hotel again. And now, due to incompetence and bad taste on a huge scale on the part of the owners of the Plaza and the Oak Room and Bar, the joint may close again by July.

Eli Gindi, the owner of the Oak Room and Bar, and a real estate developer best known for owning Century 21 (classy!) has mishandled the place from the start. The restaurant was poorly reviewed. The bar offered bad service and poorly made, expensive cocktails. And the tone was all wrong. The atmosphere felt tacky, nouveau riche, touristy. Gindi started losing money, so he resorted to bottom of the barrel tactics. There was once a drink named after Mel Gibson. (Now there's a touch of elegance!) There were tableside burlesque shows. And then Gindi struck gold with "Black and White" Saturday afternoon parties, in which young yahoos with money to burn bought bottles of Cristal and whooped it up. No Truman Capote ball, these. But they brought in a lot of money. However, the Plaza management didn't like it. It was bad for the hotel's image, said the pot to the kettle. A hotel that lets in people like Charlie Sheen and his sundry porn stars and prostitutes. Lease negotiations broke down, and the Plaza sued the Oak Room operators for millions. Now the Oak Room will likely close on July 31.

Why does the Plaza attract the attentions of classless schmucks? Remember: Trump used to own it.