He said a friend suggested it as a wild idea. “It took about a day for me to think seriously about it,” he said. “I was always fascinated by Tavern.”

It is a high-volume place, but so was Stars. He said that years ago, when Nation’s Restaurant News, a trade publication, listed the top-grossing restaurants in the country, Tavern was often No. 1. For many years, Mr. Tower’s Stars was never far behind. The restaurant suffered hard times after the 1989 earthquake; Mr. Tower sold his interest in 1998, and it closed in 2001.

Mr. Tower, a self-taught chef, made his name at Alice Waters’s Chez Panisse and the Santa Fe Bar and Grill in Berkeley, Calif., always refining his technique with fresh ingredients. Stars was the first of a generous style that could be called American brasserie, and it prepared the ground for places like Gotham Bar & Grill and Bar Americain in New York. But while Stars was a culinary trailblazer, Tavern was always more about the dazzle of its setting. “I loved going there, but I don’t remember the food,” Mr. Tower said.

He expects to add more salads and lunch items like a lobster roll. But his plans go beyond the food. “The place is beautiful now, but it has to be loosened up, more flowers, more fun,” he said.

Clark Wolf, a food consultant from California, said: “The idea that Jeremiah would do something in New York is kind of fabulous. There’ll be a lot of delicious food. It won’t be boring. He’ll know how to give the place that sizzle it needs.”

Mr. Caiola and his partner, David Salama, believe that they have bagged a trophy. “The 26-year-olds out there have no idea,” Mr. Caiola said. The partners are hoping that customers who were disappointed in the beginning may return, and that Tavern may attract those who have yet to try it. They refuse to think that it may not work out.

But considering that interlopers take on New York at their peril, suppose it doesn’t? “I’ll have an open ticket to Shanghai,” Mr. Tower said.