Reports: Tishman Speyer Looks to Reopen 30 Rock’s Rainbow Room Early Next Year
By Billy Gray August 7, 2013 8:00 am
reprintsNBC staffers are hungry. For a sorely needed ratings bump, yes. But also for a private dining room conducive to power lunches.
It looks like the Peacock Network is in luck: 30 Rock owner Tishman Speyer reportedly plans to reopen the 65th floor Rainbow Room shortly after the New Year.
Tishman Co-CEOs Jerry and Rob Speyer look to be reopening the storied Art Deco restaurant and event space without the help of an outside operator like Cipriani, which previously managed the space. Rather, the Speyers will run the Rainbow Room themselves and are currently accepting contract bids from restaurant product and service suppliers.
Steve Cuozzo in The New York Post reported that those suppliers were contacted not by Tishman, but rather an unnamed third party. “It doesn’t even look like a management contract in the traditional sense,” a source told the Post. “Rather, the Speyers’ plan is to run it themselves with the help of some top restaurant professionals hired for the job.”
The Rainbow Room received landmark status last fall, nearly four years after Tishman evicted the Cipriani family and the restaurant closed. The Post reported that ownership is currently consulting with Las Vegas-based restaurant planner Elizabeth Blau on how to restore the restaurant, opened in 1934, to its former glory.
Representatives from Tishman could not immediately be reached for comment.
