| Oak Room | |
|---|---|
_entrance_on_59th_Street%2c_Sept_2017.jpg) Oak Room entrance on59th Street | |
 Interactive map of Oak Room | |
| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 1907 (1907) |
| Closed | 2011 (2011) |
| Location | New York City,New York, New York, United States |
| Coordinates | 40°45′53″N73°58′28″W / 40.76472°N 73.97444°W /40.76472; -73.97444 |
TheOak Room was a bar and later a restaurant in thePlaza Hotel inNew York City[1] that operated from 1907 to 2011. It was distinct from the adjoining Oak Bar.[2][3] As of 2025, the hotel rents the space for private events.[4]
The Oak Room was long a grand, opulent,[3] and elegant[5] space. Designed by Plaza Hotel architectHenry Janeway Hardenbergh in aGerman Renaissance style, the room had walls of English or Flemish oak, frescoes of Bavarian castles (by a painter whose identity is now lost to history),[6]: 52 faux wine casks carved into the woodwork, and, hanging from the 20-foot ceiling, a grape-laden chandelier topped by a barmaid hoisting a stein.[3] In 1971, criticAda Louise Huxtable contrasted the "dignity, scale and period authenticity" of the Oak Room to other more modernized spaces in the hotel.[6]: 14
It was frequented, like the Plaza's other spaces, by the rich and famous.George M. Cohan was a regular; his booth was named Cohan's Corner[7][3] and a commemorative plaque was installed after his death in 1942.[6]: 15 [8]: 78 [9]
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TheOak Bar was closely associated with the Oak Room and adjoined it[6]: 22 but was a separate entity.[2][3] The Oak Bar was established in its current location on the northwest corner of the Plaza Hotel in 1945 when the hotel was owned byConrad Hilton. (This may have represented a re-establishment, as the area may have been part of the Men's Bar between 1912 and 1920.[6]: 50 ) At least part, and possibly all, of the area occupied by the Oak Bar had been the offices ofE. F. Hutton until the 1945 renovation.[6]: 50 [6]: 14
The Oak Bar is inTudor Revival style with a plaster ceiling,strapwork, and floral and foliage motifs.[6]: 14 During the 1945 renovation, a 38-foot (12 m) oakwood bar was installed. and threeEverett Shinn murals were commissioned. The murals remain in place.[10]
It opened in 1907 as the Men's Bar; women would be barred for decades.[3][11] Men used the Men's Bar to talk business, in contrast with the Men's Grill (now the Plaza Hotel's Edwardian Room restaurant), which acted as a social club where business discussion was socially inappropriate.[12]: 47–48 The bar closed duringProhibition (1920–1933) during which time it was known as the Café or Oak Lounge.[6]: 54
The Men's Bar re-opened in 1934 as a restaurant under the name Oak Room.[11] Starting in the late 1940s, women were allowed in the Oak Room during the summers. By the early 1950s, women were allowed inside the Oak Room and Bar during the evenings year-round, though still barred until 3 p.m. on weekdays, while the stock exchanges operated.[6]: 15 [8]: 142 [12]: 55–56 In February 1969,Betty Friedan and other members of theNational Organization for Women held asit-in and then picketed to protest this; the gender restriction was removed a few months later.[3][8]: 142 [12]: 56
The restaurant closed along with the hotel for renovation in 2005, reopening in 2008 after renovations with interior design byAnnabelle Selldorf.[13]
The restaurant closed in 2011 after a dispute between the owners of the Plaza Hotel (various investors led by theEl-Ad Group) and Eli Gindi, owner of the Oak Room and lessee of the Plaza Hotel.[14] The hotel alleged that the restaurant owners had failed to pay the rent, among other matters, but a major point of contention was the "Day and Night" parties held on Saturday afternoons. These events (crucial to the Oak Room's profitability, bringing in $180,000 in an afternoon) were rowdy and featured loud music, and were described by the hotel's owners as damaging to the hotel's reputation and disturbing to the hotel's guests.[1][15]
Although the hotel's Rose Club (formerly the Persian Room) has long been the hotel's premier nightclub and venue for entertainment,[16] the Oak Room has also hosted performers includingAlexa Ray Joel[17] andBrian Newman.Lady Gaga appeared in impromptu performances with Newman in the Oak Room on September 29, 2010[18] (wearing a dress made of hair)[19] and again on January 5, 2011.[20][21]
Several movies and television shows include scenes shot in the Oak Room, including:
Other shows mention or allude to the Oak Room, including:
The Fitzgerald Suite is not a replica of the suite that's in the movie, explained Catherine Martin. 'That suite was based more on the Oak Room than it was an actual suite becauseBaz wanted it [to] have a heavy, oppressive kind of feeling'.