Fines have been rare, however, with most tavern operators who allow flouting of the law getting off with a warning.
The mayor's announcement came after six months of negotiations collapsed on Thursday between the restaurateur who was expected to become Tavern's operator and the union that represents its 400 former employees.
If you didn't know that Akira Kurosawa's revered YOJIMBO (1961) was a western, you could tell by some of the character names: gunfighter, tavern keeper, brothel operator and coffin maker.
The plan was described in a 57-page spiral-bound proposal — supplied by a person with knowledge of Tavern's operations who was not authorized to make it public — that was submitted to New York City last year by the restaurant's last operator, Jennifer Oz LeRoy.
While Mr. Poll has mainly addressed work rules, pay and other costs, many Tavern watchers — including operators who chose not to pursue its license — said the staff was just not up to the needs of a contemporary fine-dining restaurant.
The fines come two days after the Financial Services Authority said the prominent hedge fund manager David Einhorn and his fund, Greenlight Capital, would have to pay about $11 million in penalties for using confidential information to trade shares in Punch Taverns, the pub operator.
The British regulator's case against Mr. Einhorn arose out of a June 2009 conference call with the management of Punch Taverns, the British pub operator in which Greenlight owned a large stake.
The bid whispers were also heard in the small cap arena with Eldridge Pope climbing 14.5p to 154.5p on chatter that the acquisitive pub operator, Punch Taverns, up 0.25p to 213.5p, will table a 225p-a-share offer.
But in August the city conferred the 20-year operating license for Tavern, starting this year, on Dean J. Poll, operator of the Boathouse in Central Park.
