The Oak Room was a bar and, later, a restaurant in the Plaza Hotel in New York City. It is distinct from the adjoining Oak Bar.
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Description and history
Designed by Plaza Hotel architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh in a German Renaissance style, the room features walls of English or Flemish oak, frescoes of Bavarian castles (by a painter whose identity is now lost to history), faux wine casks carved into the woodwork, and a grape-laden chandelier topped by a barmaid hoisting a stein hanging from the twenty-foot-high ceiling. It opened in 1907 as the Men's Bar, closed as a bar during Prohibition (1920-1933) during which time it was known as the Café or Oak Lounge, and re-opened in 1934 as a restaurant under the name Oak Room, maintaining men-only lunches on weekdays until 1969, when Betty Friedan and other members of the National Organization for Women staged a protest. The restaurant closed while the hotel was closed for renovation (2005–2008), reopening in 2008 after renovations with interior design by Annabelle Selldorf. The Oak Room closed again in 2011.
The Oak Room was long a grand, opulent, and elegant space. Critic Ada Louise Huxtable, writing in 1971, contrasted the "dignity, scale and period authenticity" of the Oak Room to other more modernized spaces in the hotel. It was accordingly frequented, like the Plaza's other spaces, by the rich and famous – George M. Cohan was a regular to the extent that his booth was named Cohan's Corner and bears a bronze plaque to that effect.
It was, however, a descent into alleged vulgarity that led to the 2011 closing.
Central to the 2011 closing was a dispute between the owners of the Plaza Hotel (various investors led by the El-Ad Group) and Eli Gindi, owner of the Oak Room and lessee of the Plaza Hotel. Although unpaid rent and other matters were alleged, 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.
Notable performers
Although the hotel's Rose Club (formerly the Persian Room) has long been the hotel's premier nightclub and venue for entertainment, the Oak Room has also hosted performers including Alexa Ray Joel and Brian Newman. Lady Gaga appeared in impromptu performances with Newman in the Oak Room on September 29, 2010 (wearing a dress made of hair) and again on January 5, 2011.
The Oak Bar
The Oak Bar is closely associated with the Oak Room and adjoins and is connected to it, but is a separate entity. The Oak Bar was established in its current location on the northwest corner of the Plaza Hotel in 1945 when the hotel was under the ownership of Conrad Hilton (or re-established – the area may have been part of the Men's Bar between 1912 and 1920). Three Everett Shinn murals were commissioned for the 1945 opening and remain in place, and a 38 feet (12 m) oakwood bar was installed. All or part of the area occupied by the Oak Bar had formerly been the offices of E. F. Hutton. The Oak Bar is in Tudor Revival style with a plaster ceiling, strapwork, and floral and foliage motifs.
In popular culture
In the 1959 film North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant's opening scene was shot in the Oak Bar. The Oak Room appears in the 1981 film Arthur and 1992 film Scent of a Woman. The Oak Room was, in part, the model for the Plaza hotel suite set used in the 2013 film The Great Gatsby. The Oak Room was referenced and staged in the 2015 film Carol by Todd Haynes, when Carol (Cate Blanchett) invites Therese (Rooney Mara) to join her for dinner at the Oak Room, and the final scene takes place in it.
The Oak Room was referenced in the Gossip Girl television series episode "The Goodbye Gossip Girl", when Serena (Blake Lively) texted "Gossip Girl" to meet her at the Oak Room or she would reveal her identity but, instead, the whole class appears. It was referenced in the Mad Men television series episode "The Forecast", when Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) suggested it as a location to meet her love interest, Richard Burghoff, for a date.