DENVER Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group has developed a menu for the restaurants that CNN will run in Denver and St. Paul, Minn., during the Democratic and Republican parties' respective national conventions.
In each city, CNN has arranged to take over the operations of a restaurant for the duration of the conventions. Each will be rechristened and redecorated as a CNN Grill, a concept developed by Civic Entertainment Group. The CNN Grill in Denver will be housed in what usually operates as a restaurant called Brooklyn’s. The St. Paul outpost will occupy what is otherwise the Eagle Street Grille. The Democratic convention runs Aug. 25-28. The Republican convention is scheduled for Sept. 1-4.
CNN is apparently one of two television networks that will temporarily branch into the restaurant business during the Democratic convention here. Fox News is taking over Braun’s Bar & Grill in what will be rechristened The Fox Experience, which will also be the headquarters for the network’s media operations, according to press reports. The Denver Post reported that the kitchen would be manned by Scott Latham, a former caterer to such rock bands as Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band and Metallica.
The networks said they intend to use the restaurants as a cross between a hospitality suite and backdrop for broadcasts. The concept of a limited-run restaurant was used by CNN in 2004. During the Republican convention in New York City, the broadcaster ran the “immensely successful” CNN Diner, according to a statement released by the network’s Atlanta headquarters.
The CNN Grills will be open to the public only for dinner, but will also host private breakfasts, according to press reports. The menu is expected to feature riffs on the signature dishes of restaurants operated by Union Square Hospitality Group. Those eateries include Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, The Modern, Shake Shack, Eleven Madison Park, Blue Smoke and Tabla. The company was founded in the mid-1980s by Meyer, who worked as a county-level field director in the 1980 presidential campaign of independent candidate John Anderson.
All of the network-affiliated restaurants are apparently bipartisan.