Tavern on the Green gets interim trustee

March 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Trustee has named an interim trustee for New York's storied restaurant Tavern on the Green on Thursday, a day after a U.S. bankruptcy judge converted the company's Chapter 11 case into liquidation.

Jill Mazer-Marino, a counsel with Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein in Garden City, New York, will oversee the liquidation of Tavern on the Green.

Last month, Tavern on the Green's unsecured creditors asked Judge Alan Gropper to convert the case into a Chapter 7, saying efforts to liquidate the restaurant in a manner that could result in a material recovery had run into a "brick wall," largely due to "pervasively pernicious conduct" by the City of New York.

Liquidating assets under Chapter 7 can be considerably cheaper as the assets sale are overseen by a trustee and the estate benefits by avoiding fees paid to consultants and lawyers.

The order approving the conversion follows a decision by U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, who ruled that New York City has the right to use the name "Tavern on the Green" for its restaurant, rejecting arguments by the restaurant's outgoing operators that they owned the name. [ID:nN10142994]

Tavern on the Green, known for its sparkling chandeliers and painted murals, was a favorite place for tourists and celebrations of special occasions.

It filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 10, 2009, and ceased operations on Dec. 31 after the LeRoy family, which had been operating the restaurant since 1976, lost a bid to renew its Tavern lease.

The cases are In re: Tavern On The Green Limited Partnership, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Nos. 09-1513 and 09-15450. (Reporting by Santosh Nadgir in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)