Rainbow Room
Encyclopedia
The Rainbow Room was an upscale restaurant
and nightclub
on the 65th floor of the GE Building
in Rockefeller Center
, Midtown Manhattan
, New York City
.
s, wine
s, liqueur
s, cognac
s, and other drinks available.
. He had also designed the Carlu (known then as Eaton's
, Seventh Floor) several years prior, an event space/lounge/venue located on the seventh floor of College Park
in Toronto
. The Carlu is known as one of the world's best surviving examples of the Art Moderne period, where many famous performers of the time, such as Billie Holiday
, Duke Ellington
, and Frank Sinatra
performed. It also features a painting by the architect's wife Natacha. The Rainbow Room draws its inspiration from the Round Room in the Carlu.
The Rainbow Room featured a revolving dance floor
, a live big band
orchestra
, and a view of the New York City skyline
. Private events were hosted in several banquet rooms. On New Year's Eve
, for example, the price of admission included caviar
, truffles, champagne, and mixed drinks, and access to the Rainbow Room from dinner through breakfast the next morning. Admission to the 2007 New Year's Eve party was $1600.00 per person.
On the same floor of the GE building was The Rainbow Grill, a separate, somewhat less expensive restaurant with an à la carte
menu and that had its own celebrations for main holidays.
, where the elite and influential of New York could gather to socialize over cocktails, dine on fine cuisine, and dance to the strains of legendary big bands on a revolving floor. Virginia Frymyer-Barnette, mother of Lady Shirley, cousin to both the HRH the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, used to sing and entertain dinner guests during the 1940s.
In 1985, David Rockefeller
, the son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
, commissioned a $25 million restoration and expansion of the Rainbow Room led by Joe Baum
, Arthur Emil, and architect Hugh Hardy
.
In 1998, the Rockefeller family
passed operations of the facilities of the restaurant over to the Italian
Cipriani S.A.
family, founders of the renowned Harry's Bar in Venice
, as well as several other restaurants in New York City.
The Ciprianis extensively remodeled the grill and fired all union workers, and hired Chef Daniel Kay
to run the kitchen operations. In 2003 Michael DiLeonardo, an associate of Peter Gotti
, turned state's evidence against the accused mobster. In his testimony DiLeonardo said the Ciprianis gave $120,000 to the Gambino crime family
to make union problems at the Rainbow Room disappear. The charges were never confirmed.
In 2008, the Cipriani company filed a brief with the City of New York, requesting that the Rainbow Room be designated a historic landmark. The designation would prevent the Rainbow Room from being converted into office space.
In 2009 the Cipirianis announced that they planned to close the grill although part would remain open as a bar and banquet hall. The Ciprianis' chief operating officer blamed "the current economic crisis in New York and around the world, on top of an ongoing dispute with our landlord." Tishman Speyer said it intended to evict the Ciprianis unless they paid back rent.
The two sides settled the dispute, with the Ciprianis' agreeing to give up possession of the restaurant and banquet hall on August 1, 2009.
The last night of dancing at the former hot spot took place on June 5, 2009, and the Grill closed its kitchen on Father's Day, June 21, 2009.
As of the Summer of 2011, work has begun on remodeling the restaurant for its reopening.
Actress Joan Crawford
made her last public appearance at the Rainbow Room at a party honoring Rosalind Russell
.
, chef Anthony Bourdain
wrote an entire chapter ("I Make My Bones") about his year and a half in the kitchen staff of the Rainbow Room, describing in detail - both good and bad - the working conditions in an extremely famous and busy restaurant and the numerous dealings normally kept invisible behind the kitchen doors.
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
and nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
on the 65th floor of the GE Building
GE Building
The GE Building is an Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in the midtown Manhattan section of New York City. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is most famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC...
in Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
, Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Cuisine
The food was loosely northern Italian, and there were cocktailCocktail
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients—at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol...
s, wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
s, liqueur
Liqueur
A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage that has been flavored with fruit, herbs, nuts, spices, flowers, or cream and bottled with added sugar. Liqueurs are typically quite sweet; they are usually not aged for long but may have resting periods during their production to allow flavors to marry.The...
s, cognac
Cognac
Cognac is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Geography:Cognac is situated on the river Charente between the towns of Angoulême and Saintes. The majority of the town has been built on the river's left bank, with the smaller right...
s, and other drinks available.
Environment
The Rainbow Room was designed by French architect Jacques CarluJacques Carlu
Jacques Carlu was a French architect and designer, working mostly in Art Deco style, active in France, Canada, and in the United States....
. He had also designed the Carlu (known then as Eaton's
Eaton's
The T. Eaton Co. Limited was once Canada's largest department store retailer. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an Irish immigrant. Eaton's grew to become a retail and social institution in Canada, with stores across the country, buying offices across the globe, and a catalogue...
, Seventh Floor) several years prior, an event space/lounge/venue located on the seventh floor of College Park
College Park (Toronto)
College Park is a shopping mall, residential and office complex located on the southwest corner of Yonge Street and College Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. The Carlu is known as one of the world's best surviving examples of the Art Moderne period, where many famous performers of the time, such as Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, and Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
performed. It also features a painting by the architect's wife Natacha. The Rainbow Room draws its inspiration from the Round Room in the Carlu.
The Rainbow Room featured a revolving dance floor
Performance surface
A performance surface is a flooring suitable for dance or sport. Performance surfaces are normally laid on top of, or are part of, a sprung floor to produce a complete dance floor or sports floor....
, a live big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
, and a view of the New York City skyline
Skyline
A skyline is the overall or partial view of a city's tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers in front of the sky in the background. It can also be described as the artificial horizon that a city's overall structure creates. Skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint of a city, as...
. Private events were hosted in several banquet rooms. On New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
, for example, the price of admission included caviar
Caviar
Caviar, sometimes called black caviar, is a luxury delicacy, consisting of processed, salted, non-fertilized sturgeon roe. The roe can be "fresh" or pasteurized, the latter having much less culinary and economic value....
, truffles, champagne, and mixed drinks, and access to the Rainbow Room from dinner through breakfast the next morning. Admission to the 2007 New Year's Eve party was $1600.00 per person.
On the same floor of the GE building was The Rainbow Grill, a separate, somewhat less expensive restaurant with an à la carte
À la carte
À la carte is a French language loan phrase meaning "according to the menu", and used in* A reference to a menu of items priced and ordered separately, i.e. the usual operation of restaurants * To order an item from the menu on its own, e.g...
menu and that had its own celebrations for main holidays.
History
The Rainbow Room first opened on October 3, 1934, and was originally conceived as a formal supper clubSupper club
A supper club, in general, refers to a dining establishment that also functions as a social club. The term may describe different establishments depending on the region, but in general, supper clubs tend to present themselves as having a high-class image, even if the price is affordable to...
, where the elite and influential of New York could gather to socialize over cocktails, dine on fine cuisine, and dance to the strains of legendary big bands on a revolving floor. Virginia Frymyer-Barnette, mother of Lady Shirley, cousin to both the HRH the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, used to sing and entertain dinner guests during the 1940s.
In 1985, David Rockefeller
David Rockefeller
David Rockefeller, Sr. is the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family. He is the youngest and only surviving child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and the only surviving grandchild of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. His five siblings were...
, the son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. was a major philanthropist and a pivotal member of the prominent Rockefeller family. He was the sole son among the five children of businessman and Standard Oil industrialist John D. Rockefeller and the father of the five famous Rockefeller brothers...
, commissioned a $25 million restoration and expansion of the Rainbow Room led by Joe Baum
Joe Baum
Joseph Harold Baum was an American restaurateur and innovator responsible for creating the country's first themed restaurants, including masterpieces such as The Four Seasons Restaurant, Windows on the World, and the restored Rainbow Room...
, Arthur Emil, and architect Hugh Hardy
Hugh Hardy
Hugh Hardy is a leading American architect born in Majorca, Spain in 1932. He is best known for his work designing theaters, performing arts venues, public spaces, and cultural facilities across the United States....
.
In 1998, the Rockefeller family
Rockefeller family
The Rockefeller family , the Cleveland family of John D. Rockefeller and his brother William Rockefeller , is an American industrial, banking, and political family of German origin that made one of the world's largest private fortunes in the oil business during the late 19th and early 20th...
passed operations of the facilities of the restaurant over to the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
Cipriani S.A.
Cipriani S.A.
Cipriani S.A. is a privately owned international corporation based in Luxembourg that owns and operates luxury restaurants and clubs around the world including Harry's Bar in Venice and formerly the Rainbow Room in New York City....
family, founders of the renowned Harry's Bar in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, as well as several other restaurants in New York City.
The Ciprianis extensively remodeled the grill and fired all union workers, and hired Chef Daniel Kay
Daniel Kay
-Movie career:He has produced such shows as Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares and Chopped.-References:...
to run the kitchen operations. In 2003 Michael DiLeonardo, an associate of Peter Gotti
Peter Gotti
Peter Gotti, also known as "One Eyed Pete", "Petey Boy", "One Eye" , is a New York mobster who is the former boss of the Gambino crime family and the older brother of deceased Gambino boss John Gotti.-Background:...
, turned state's evidence against the accused mobster. In his testimony DiLeonardo said the Ciprianis gave $120,000 to the Gambino crime family
Gambino crime family
The Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963...
to make union problems at the Rainbow Room disappear. The charges were never confirmed.
In 2008, the Cipriani company filed a brief with the City of New York, requesting that the Rainbow Room be designated a historic landmark. The designation would prevent the Rainbow Room from being converted into office space.
In 2009 the Cipirianis announced that they planned to close the grill although part would remain open as a bar and banquet hall. The Ciprianis' chief operating officer blamed "the current economic crisis in New York and around the world, on top of an ongoing dispute with our landlord." Tishman Speyer said it intended to evict the Ciprianis unless they paid back rent.
The two sides settled the dispute, with the Ciprianis' agreeing to give up possession of the restaurant and banquet hall on August 1, 2009.
The last night of dancing at the former hot spot took place on June 5, 2009, and the Grill closed its kitchen on Father's Day, June 21, 2009.
As of the Summer of 2011, work has begun on remodeling the restaurant for its reopening.
Actress Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
made her last public appearance at the Rainbow Room at a party honoring Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
.
In the media
In his memoir, Kitchen ConfidentialKitchen Confidential
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly is a New York Times bestselling non-fiction book written by American chef Anthony Bourdain....
, chef Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Michael "Tony" Bourdain is an American chef, author and television personality. He is well known for his 2000 book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, and is the host of Travel Channel's culinary and cultural adventure program Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.A...
wrote an entire chapter ("I Make My Bones") about his year and a half in the kitchen staff of the Rainbow Room, describing in detail - both good and bad - the working conditions in an extremely famous and busy restaurant and the numerous dealings normally kept invisible behind the kitchen doors.