The Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant is a seafood restaurant on the lower level of

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...

at 42nd Street and

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History

The restaurant space was first opened as the Grand Central Terminal Restaurant. Although Grand Central Terminal opened on February 2, 1913, its opening was celebrated one day prior, February 1, with a dinner at the restaurant, arranged for Warren and Wetmore along with 100 guests. The restaurant was operated by The Union News Company. It closed briefly for renovations following a 1997 fire. Jerome Brody sold the Oyster Bar to employees in 1999, and died in 2001. Brody chose to sell to staff to preserve the union and employee satisfaction in his transition. As of 2017, all non-union, managerial staff are part of the

Employee Stock Ownership Program Employee stock ownership, or employee share ownership, is where a company's employees own shares in that company (or in the parent company of a group of companies). US employees typically acquire shares through a share option plan. In the UK, Emp ...

(ESOP). The initial group of managers bought a near-majority of the company's stock with a loan between 1999 and 2001. They purchased the remainder between 2004 and 2008. Staff at the Oyster Bar are represented by

UNITE HERE UNITE HERE is a labor union in the United States and Canada with roughly 300,000 active members. The union's members work predominantly in the hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino gaming industries. The union was formed in 2004 b ...

Local 100. In 2016, the

Zagat Survey The ''Zagat Survey'', commonly referred to as Zagat (stylized in all caps; , ) and established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979, is an organization which collects and correlates the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, coverin ...

gave it a food rating of 22/30, "Very Good To Excellent". The Oyster Bar closed for a majority of 2020 during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. It briefly reopened for two weeks and closed again when its underground location failed to attract foot traffic. It then resumed its activities back to normal business from 2021 on.

Architecture

Its architecture features the vaulted,

Guastavino tile The Guastavino tile arch system is a version of the Catalan vault introduced to the United States in 1885 by Spanish architect and builder Rafael Guastavino (1842–1908). It was patented in the United States by Guastavino in 1892. Descript ...

d ceilings common in the era of its construction. The archway in front of the restaurant is also famous for an

acoustical Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

quirk making it a whispering gallery by which someone standing in one corner can hear someone standing in the opposite corner perfectly no matter how softly they speak.

Branches

Two Japanese branches have opened in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. The first, the GCOBR Shinagawa, is located on the 4th floor of Atre Shinagawa in the

Shinagawa Station is a major railway station in the Takanawa and Konan districts of Minato, Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East), Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central), and the private railway operator Keikyu. The Tokaido Shinkans ...

. The second, GCOBR Marunouchi, is located in Marunouchi MY PLAZA near

Tokyo Station Tōkyō Station (, ) is a major railway station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The original station is located in Chiyoda's Marunouchi business district near the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Imperial Palace grounds. The newer Eastern extension is not far ...

. A small branch was located in Terminal C at

Newark Liberty International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport is a major international airport serving the New York metropolitan area. The airport straddles the boundary between the cities of Newark, New Jersey, Newark in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and E ...

, but closed in about 2021.

Gallery

File:GCT OB 2.jpg, Main entrance File:Oyster Bar Restaurant, Grand Central Terminal.jpg, Original decor File:Grand Central Terminal Restaurant 1941.jpg, alt=A large Art Deco garage building, Menu (1941) File:Grand_Central_Terminal_Restaurant_menu_1941.jpg, Menu (1941)

References

External links