History
Tao was founded in 2000 by Marc Packer and Rich Wolf at the site of a former coach house used by the Vanderbilt family.[6] The original location, today known as Tao Uptown after a second New York restaurant opened in 2013, partnered extensively with Strategic Group, an event marketing firm and owners of the Chelsea nightclub Marquee owned and operated by Jason Strauss and Noah Tepperberg.[7] Wolf in particular made a noted effort to populate Tao with buddha statues, including a large 12-foot tall and 9,000 pound center statue of the buddha sitting which sits at the center of Tao Uptown.[8] In one of the earliest reviews of the restaurant, The New York Times noted Tao in January 2001 as "not so much a restaurant as a nonstop party interrupted by funny food".[9] Packer, Strauss, Tepperberg, and Wolf later decided to open a Las Vegas location for Tao based on the success of both Tao and Marquee. Bringing in a fifth partner, Lou Abin, who would later go on to found the Bua Group,[10] Tao's Las Vegas location opened in 2005,[11] and by 2011, that location became the highest-grossing independent restaurant in the United States by revenue, earning around $60 million that year.[12] Tao's downtown New York location, which opened near the Chelsea Market in 2013 and features an adjacent nightclub, ranked at third place in 2017.[13] In 2007, the group opened Tao Beach, a daytime pool party on the roof of both the nightclub and the restaurant, and in 2010, Tao Beach was used to film the music video for LMFAO's single "Shots".[14][15] Tao Beach underwent a major renovation in 2020, coincidentally the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and reopened in 2022.[16]
In 2013, Tao opened a second location in the Chelsea neighborhood, referred to as Tao Downtown, after Packer and Wolf beat out multiple competitors to take over the Hiro Ballroom and Matsuri restaurant spaces at the Maritime Hotel, today rebranded as the Dream Downtown hotel.[17] Designed by David Rockwell, Tao Downtown per a 2017 Bloomberg article seats about 1,200 customers every night, and per 2016 figures in Restaurant Week, Tao Downtown is the highest-grossing non-chain restaurant in New York City and third highest in the world with $34 million in sales, only trailing Tao Las Vegas' $47.9 million and Joe's Stone Crab in Miami at $38 million.[18]
2017 was also a year where Tao opened a bistro in Hollywood, Los Angeles, located next to the Dream Hotel.[19] Tao also opened a bistro and nightclub in Chicago that year in the city's River North district, at the Former Chicago Historical Society Building, itself the previous home of many defunct nightclubs.[20][21][22] Tao's most recent new location opened at Connecticut's Mohegan Sun resort, in 2021.[23]
In 2024, a former employee of the group who was terminated in December 2022 entered Tao Downtown wearing a disguise and dumped fecal matter into the koi pond, and subsequently protesting the company by yelling at diners. According to the company, which filed a criminal complaint against the former employee, after her termination, she had engaged in various activities which included harassing other employees and threatening to burn down the group's venues. Tao claimed that the former employee caused $3,000 in damages and sought to ban her 50 yards from all of their property.[24]
