Café des Artistes was a fine restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

 at One West 67th Street in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 and was owned by George Lang

George Lang (restaurateur)

George Lang was a Hungarian born American restaurateur.Lang was the only child of Simon Deutsch, a tailor, and Ilona Lang. He grew up in this "modestly prosperous" Jewish family in Székesfehérvár, Hungary where he practiced violin...

. He closed the restaurant for vacation at the beginning of August 2009 and decided to keep it closed permanently while away, announcing the close on August 28, 2009. His wife, Jenifer Lang, was the managing director of the restaurant since 1990.

History

The restaurant first opened in 1917. Late in 1985 there was a fire in the kitchen but they were able to reopen.

It was a popular spot for many celebrities because of its privately secluded yet hip atmosphere.

In early September 2009, shortly after announcing it was closing, Lang filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection claiming debts of nearly $500,000, some of which is owed to a union benefit trust. He is also facing a lawsuit from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union

Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union

The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union , was a United States labor union representing workers of the hospitality industry, formed in 1891. In 2004, HERE merged with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees to form UNITE HERE. HERE notably organized the staff of Yale...

 Welfare Fund.

In 2011, a new restaurant, The Leopard at des Artistes, opened in the location. Like its forerunner, it caters to the upper echelon of New York society.

The Murals

The restaurant's famous murals, retained in the new restaurant's 2011 renovation, were painted by Howard Chandler Christy

Howard Chandler Christy

Howard Chandler Christy was an American artist and illustrator famous for the "Christy Girl", similar to a "Gibson Girl".He was born in Morgan County and attended early school in Duncan Falls, Ohio...

. There are six panels of wood nymphs - the first of which were completed in 1934. Other Christy works on display include paintings such as The Parrot Girl, The Swing Girl, Ponce De Leon, Fall, Spring, and the Fountain of Youth.

Now, although the lovely nymphs still flit and dance, when one looks around the restaurant, one sees strategically placed mirrors where there used to be unbroken mural. The explanation has to do with real property landlord-tenant law.

In the 1960s, a dispute arose between the outgoing tenant and the landlord over who had rights in and to the murals. Under the common law, assuming the parties had not agreed otherwise, fixtures, i.e., accessions that had inured to the realty so that their removal would cause material harm to the freehold, would become property of the landlord upon the termination of the lease.

The parties settled the dispute, each presumably unwilling to run the risk of receiving nothing because of an adverse judgment; however, in all likelihood, the murals were not fixtures, and were the property of the tenant. In any case, per the settlement terms, the tenant was allowed to take and keep several of the murals, but the majority of the murals remained in the restaurant, and the landlord replaced with mirrors those sections that the tenant took.

External links

• At Cafe des Artistes, the Host's Enthusiasm Is Contagious