The legendary Oak Room restaurant in New York’s famed Plaza Hotel has class, prestige and an army of conservators to preserve and defend its historical significance.
Balancing the needs of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and the desire to revamp the 100-year-old locale into a space that would attract a modern clientele was no easy feat. But the challenge was met head-on by Joey Allaham, managing partner of the Oak Room and Oak Bar.
Last fall, the renovated restaurant and bar, which began life as a men-only watering hole in 1907, was unveiled. Its overhaul was part of the Plaza’s $400 million refurbishing, a project closely watched by preservationists.
“They care about the space a lot,” Allaham said of the city’s landmark commission. “They’re very careful not to have a nail or anything changed. They’re very dominant. It’s very difficult.”
Allaham said he and his staff learned to pick their battles when it came to dealing with the commission, and a lot of the time they got what they wanted.
Architect Annabell Seldorf, on the other hand, appreciated working within the commission’s restrictions and helping preserve a one-of-a-kind cultural artifact.
“It’s quite nice that you have those restrictions,” she said. “It keeps the place in its entirety intact, and I thought that was very good.”
Seldorf approached the project as one of unifying the original structure with a crisp, modern ambience so that the space would feel comfortable and traditional without feeling stodgy. Her efforts coincided with those of the landmark commission, and she said they pulled it off.
“You can very clearly see which things are modern,” she said, like the copper and glass rods she used in the Oak Room light fixtures. Those modern features worked with the traditional wood paneling “and it sort of lends a very moody light to the room that works really well,” she said.
Of course, maintaining the history of the site was integral to the ambience, so they decided they would take 1942 as the reference point for its design. From there, Seldorf said, she picked up on “the story of oak” by using leather, oak tables and copper to create a rich, earthy palette. She used the same materials throughout to create a sense of cohesiveness between the dining room, which seats 112, and the 73-seat Oak Bar.
“We polished the old and brought in a lot of modern furniture and fabric that is very crisp and modern-looking,” Seldorf said.
She says the juxtaposition of the new, angular furniture with the wood-paneled walls helps unify the old and new and helps to create a dining experience that is simultaneously comforting and interesting.
The Oak Room has a famously ornate plaster ceiling, which is, of course, protected by the landmarks commission. To play off the intricate ceiling, Seldorf brought in a cork floor with an intense geometric pattern.
“I was very pleased that [the commission] was very supportive of everything we were doing,” she said. “They really understood that there was this measure of old and new meeting in a way that would make the place relevant again.”
After the basic environment was set, “then we focused on a lot of the details that make a dining experience fun and interesting,” Seldorf said. “We designed the china to be very simple, and with an iconic ‘O’ for oak.”
Getting the customers to look down at those custom plates is up to chef Eric Hara, who was most recently chef of David Burke Town-house and Fishtail in New York.
“The important thing is to give everybody something to look at besides that ceiling,” he said. “Everybody is always looking up. Hopefully, I can do food that can make them look back down.”
Hara calls his fare for the Oak Room American cuisine with a modern twist.
“I try to take what was and make it into something new,” he said.
For appetizers, Hara makes a bone marrow-encrusted scallop with bone marrow custard. He also does a foie gras peanut butter and jelly that he said is a best seller.
The entrée menu includes ash-cured venison, and for summer he is working on a lobster and sweet-bread pot pie.
“I ‘springed’ it up a little bit with favas, ramps, fresh peas, lobster and sweetbreads,” he said. “I do a nice jalapeño crust on top. It’s a play on a pot pie. More like a nice little light stew with a lattice crust on top.”
Allaham said the menu mirrors The Oak Room’s juxtaposition of old and new, which he pointed out is timely given the demand for comfort food because of the recession.
“Whoever is eating out doesn’t want complicated food,” he said. “It’s not time for that. People want to go back to their roots.”
So they took the menu back to its roots, and picked several dishes to update for contemporary tastes.
“We took the old menu from 1958 and we took maybe six or seven items on it,” Allaham said. “The chef took them and made them better in today’s modern style. People loved burgers then, and they love them now.”
Allaham said sliders are the best-selling item at the bar. The sliders “are a bit more fun now,” Allaham said, “but the [original] idea is still there.”
Another tradition Allaham resurrected at The Oak Room is tableside carving.
“We found the cart that they used to cut the roast beef on,” Allaham said. “It was old and destroyed, so we refurbished the whole thing, and now it’s back and it’s shiny silver and wood. We do specials with it. They used to do only roast beef on it, and now we do all sorts of meat. For brunch and dinner, we do lamb and veal and roast beef, and people like it very much.”
Maintaining the Oak Bar’s traditions is important, because guests have expectations about what they will encounter in such a historic venue, Allaham said.
“People always compare it to the past,” Allaham said.
Despite the challenges presented by the Oak Room’s history, its owner, chef and designer acknowledge that the restaurant’s past also offered advantages that money can’t buy and only a few other restaurants have.
“The thing that’s nice about the substance of the space is that it has withstood the test of time,” Seldorf said, “and to ensure that it is new and vibrant and relevant in 2009 is really what matters. When Joey first asked me to design it, I thought it is really the coolest corner in America.”