Bidding and Bluffing in The Oak Room

An anonymous restaurateur dishing to Vanity Fair on developer El-Ad's efforts to drum up interest in the Plaza Hotel's swank Oak Room and Oak Bar [via Eater]:

“They said, Well, if you don’t take it, Danny Meyer [owner of Manhattan’s Union Square Café and Gramercy Tavern] is going to take it. And then I’d call Danny Meyer and he’d be like, I don’t want that place. I told them I might look at it, but there’s no way I’ll take it.… And then they’d say, O.K., [renowned chef] Jean-Georges [Vongerichten] is going to take it. So I’d call Jean-Georges. It’s like they’re too stupid to realize that it’s a small community of restaurateurs. And I can just pick up the phone and ask them!”