The Oak Room was a bar and, later, a restaurant in the Plaza Hotel in New York City. The bar was open from 1907 until its closing in 2011. It was distinct from the adjoining Oak Bar.
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, 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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. Three Everett Shinn murals were commissioned for the 1945 opening and remain in place, and a 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.
The Oak Room was seen in the Gossip Girl episode "The Goodbye Gossip Girl", when Serena texted "Gossip Girl" to meet her at the Oak Room or she would reveal her identity but, instead, the whole class appears.
Other shows mention or allude to the Oak Room, including:
In the 1959 filmNorth by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant's opening scene was set in the Oak Bar.
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 is the setting for the final scene in the 2015 film Carol by Todd Haynes, when Carol invites Therese to join her for dinner there. The scene was not shot at The Oak Room but, like the rest of the film, in Cincinnati.
The Oak Room is mentioned in the Mad Men episode "The Forecast", when Joan Harris suggested it as a location to meet her love interest, Richard Burghoff, for a date.
