New York City is called the concrete jungle for a reason, but you’d never expect to step off the elevator in the Empire State Building and find wilderness waiting for you on the observatory deck — that is, until this week’s Rainforest Cafe pop-up on the 86th floor. What started as an April Fools’ Day joke from the Empire State Building on social media became a reality after a massive response from fans online.
“After the social media buzz from that April Fools’ joke, we wanted to get here and expose people to Rainforest Cafe a little bit if they’ve never seen it. So we brought some of our vegetation and retail, although this is Empire State Building exclusive retail that we have here for this four-day event,” said Earl Milczark, regional vice president of Rainforest Cafe parent company Landry’s, Inc.
Visitors can walk around the observatory and take photos with mascot Cha Cha the frog while sampling some Rainforest Cafe dishes in the tropical setting. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 3-6 and tickets are available on the Empire State Building website.
“It’s really fun to do something different in this market. It’s a different work environment, for sure. Quite a view,” Milczark added.
