The Rainbow Room
is a well-known upscale restaurant and nightclub on the sixty-fifth floor of the GE Building in Rockefeller Center, Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
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RAINBOW ROOM TICKETS
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Cuisine
The food is loosely northern Italian, and there are
cocktails,
wines,
liqueurs,
cognacs, and other drinks available.
Environment
The Rainbow Room features a revolving
dance floor, a live
big band orchestra, and what is generally considered an impressive view of the
New York City skyline.
Private events are hosted in several banquet rooms and for special events and holidays elaborate celebrations are organized. On
New Year's Eve, for example, the
caviar,
truffles,
champagne, and mixed drinks are included with the price of admission, for dinner through to breakfast at sunrise. However, it is still expensive; for example, admission to the 2007 New Year's Eve party was $1600.00 per person.
The "
Rainbow Grill" is a separate, somewhat less expensive restaurant with an à la carte menu on the same floor of the building, which has its own celebrations for main holidays.
History
It first opened on
October 3, 1934 and was originally conceived as a formal supper club, 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.
In 1974,
David Rockefeller, the son of
John D. Rockefeller, commissioned a $25 million restoration and expansion of the Rainbow Room led by
Joe Baum and Arthur Emil.
In 1998, the
Rockefeller family passed operations of the facilities of the restaurant over to the
Italian Cipriani family, founders of the renowned
Harry's Bar in
Venice, as well as several other
restaurants in
New York City.
In 2008, the
Cipriani company filed a brief with the
City of New York, requesting that The Rainbow Room be designated a
historic landmark.
In the Media
In his memoir,
Kitchen Confidential
, chef/author
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.
References