BPG to reconceptualize Hotel du Pont’s ‘Gilded Age’ Green Room

The Green Room, Hotel du Pont’s posh restaurant known for AAA four-diamond French cuisine and lavish decor, has long celebrated “the elegance and grandeur of the Gilded Age.” That period, spanning roughly from 1870 to 1900 and overlapping the Victorian Age in the U.K., has another, less glamorous name in the U.S.: Reconstruction.

The Hotel du Pont is now owned and managed by the Buccini/Pollin Group (BPG), which purchased the DuPont Building (also home to The Playhouse on Rodney Square, offices (including Chemours HQ) and the DECO food hall) in 2017. BPG didn’t specifically cite the growing unpopularity of romanticizing historic opulence without context, but it has announced that, after consulting with the community, The Green Room is being completely redone.

“The Buccini/Pollin Group feels extremely fortunate to be stewards of the Hotel du Pont’s Green Room, Delaware’s only Four Diamond restaurant,” said Dave Pollin, cofounder and president of BPG and chairman of PM Hotel Group in a statement.

“We look at our role as a public trust,” he said. “After consulting extensively with the community, loyal Green Room diners, historic consultants and an incredibly talented culinary team, we believe that the Green Room’s next iteration will honor its unparalleled pedigree while creating a dining experience today’s guests will want to enjoy frequently.”

In a press release, Hotel du Pont described the 100-plus-year-old restaurant’s new concept as “at once steeped in tradition and forward-thinking.”

The last day for traditional service in the Green Room will be Jan. 1. On Jan. 2, the Brandywine Room within the hotel will open as a 56-seat pop-up in its place. That room, overseen by Executive Chef Keith Miller, will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week until the new concept opens its doors in the Green Room space.

The new, reconceptualized restaurant in the Green Room space is expected to open in the spring of 2020.