5 Fun Facts About Tavern on the Green

Photo by Eric Medsker

Tavern on the Green is the final landmark a runner passes during the TCS New York City Marathon, as the renowned building sits right at the race’s finish line. The fabled restaurant became New York Road Runners’ newest contributing partner in 2019, and is a preferred restaurant of the TCS New York City Marathon. 

But how did Tavern on the Green become famous, and how did it become part of the marathon’s iconography? Here are five fun facts about the restaurant and its place in New York City and New York City Marathon history.

1. Baa-ack to the Beginning

The Tavern on the Green building was designed by Calvert Vaux, who also co-designed Central Park itself with Frederick Law Olmsted, and built in the 1880s. Vaux created the building to house the 700 sheep who grazed on what is now known as Sheep Meadow, the 15-acre expanse of grass directly across the park’s West Drive from the restaurant. 

In 1934, the sheep’s home became a restaurant. Forty years later, it closed, but reopened in 1976 after a $10 million renovation. It closed again in 2009 and served as Central Park’s main visitor’s center for two years. The restaurant’s current, more casual incarnation opened in 2014. 

There are no longer any sheep in the restaurant (nor on the menu, unless a sheep’s-milk selection makes an appearance on a cheese plate), and their grazing ground is now home to legions of sunbathers, frisbee throwers, and tired runners in nice weather. 

Two sheep do appear on the restaurant’s crest, pictured above, as a nod to its ovine origins.

2. Presiding Over the Finish, and Providing Carbs

Only 55 runners crossed the New York City Marathon finish line outside Tavern on the Green in its inaugural year, 1970. For the race’s first six incarnations, runners approached the finish line from the north. In 1976, the first year the marathon expanded to all five boroughs, the approach was changed, bringing runners to Tavern on the Green from Columbus Circle to the south. Two thousand runners finished in 1976. 

This year, more than 50,000 runners will cross the finish line. Tavern on the Green will host a pre-race dinner for marathoners on Saturday, November 2. During the marathon itself, Tavern on the Green will entertain race VIPs.

3. I've Seen that Building Somewhere...

Tavern on the Green looms large in New York City pop culture. In “Ghostbusters,” released in 1984, Rick Moranis’ character Louis Tully runs from a demon and tries to enter Tavern on the Green, but cannot find a way inside. He yells for help, but to no avail, and is subsequently attacked by the demon on the restaurant’s patio. 

At the end of the 1987 movie “Wall Street,” Charlie Sheen’s Bud Fox argues with Gordon Gekko, the film’s villain played by Michael Douglas, in Sheep Meadow, then walks into Tavern on the Green to remove the wire he wore during the confrontation. 

Some of the topiary pruned by the title character in the 1990 movie “Edward Scissorhands” was on permanent display at Tavern on the Green until the mid-2000s. 

In a 1997 episode of “Seinfeld,” George Costanza attends a New York Yankees ball in Tavern on the Green.

Title character Kimmy goes on a date at Tavern on the Green in a 2015 episode of Netflix’s “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” where she and her date discuss how the restaurant played a role in “Ghostbusters.”

4. A Taste of New York 

When Tavern on the Green reopened in 1976 after its splashy renovation, then-Mayor Abe Beame ate what was then the largest ice cream sundae in the world there: 7,250 pounds of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream. 

If you want to eat in style like Mayor Beame, albeit on a smaller scale, there is a brownie sundae on the current Tavern on the Green dessert menu. You can also enjoy a slice of New York cheesecake, a piece of carrot or funfetti “birthday” cake, espresso creme brulee, and several other delicacies.

5. Yes, There's a Dress Code

Diners at Tavern on the Green are encouraged to follow a “smart casual” dress code. Alas, running clothes are not allowed in the main dining room—sorry, marathoners. You can eat in the restaurant’s Tavern to Go Outdoor Seating Area in your gear, however!