Creditors riled over Tavern “mishandling”

While the city has long been focusing on who will operate the famed Tavern on the Green — which could become “Tavern in the Park” — the restaurant’s 452 creditors have been focusing on something else: the $8 million they’re owed. The creditors, which include a labor union and individual investors, say that the city has left them out of the Tavern morass. “New York City has completely disregarded the interests of Tavern’s creditors,” Norman Kinel, the creditors’ committee lawyer said. Kinel contended that the city has not only generated bad publicity for the restaurant, which could hurt business he said, but also botched the restaurant’s renaming process. “The city is trying to steal the Tavern name for the benefit of [the new owner, Dean Poll] as a result of its own mishandling of the matter,” Kinel said. Because of the city’s management of the tavern conflict, he added, “the public erroneously seems to be under the impression that Tavern has shut down.”