[5] Frank W. Darling quit his job as head of Rye's Playland[6] in order to direct the programming for the proposed amusement space.

[15] Rockefeller Center opened an observation deck atop the RCA Building's 67th, 69th, and 70th floors, above the future Rainbow Room, in July 1933.

[22][23] The opening celebrations were attended by a multitude of high-society individuals[23] with "a dazzle of surnames that ran from Astors and Auchinclosses to Warburgs and Whitneys.

He told Arthur Woods, a close associate and the chairman of Rockefeller Center Inc, that he was not "sufficiently familiar with the usual method of dispensing alcoholic beverages in the average high grade club.

"[24] Rockefeller was reportedly discomfited by the performance of Lucienne Boyer, a French diseuse (storyteller) and singer, at the Rainbow Room's opening.

"[18] Formal dress was required except on Sundays, each meal cost $3.50[21] (equivalent to $80 in 2023[28]), and the restaurant even had an exclusive bank of elevators from the lobby.

[21] In contrast, the Rainbow Grill across the hall had a "black tie" dress code with "white linen acceptable in the summer.

[34] Fortune magazine described the Rainbow Room's intended audience as "the nonflashy strata of the upper crust" who avoided such nightclubs as Stork Club or El Morocco.

[38] The Rainbow Room was closed at the end of December 1942 due to World War II, which contributed to the "increasing shortage of manpower" in American civilian life, according to Robertson.

[34][38] The Rainbow Room was used for private events, including a 1947 dinner in which Nelson Rockefeller launched a furniture-designing contest,[39] as well as a 1949 fundraiser for The Salvation Army.

[42] The restaurant reopened to the public in 1950, initially only as a cocktail lounge that shuttered at 9 p.m.[34][43] The Rainbow Room was closed again in 1965, this time for renovations.

[48] In January 1975, the Rainbow Grill had to close temporarily due to a rising lease[49] but reopened the following month when new management took over the operation.

[53] As one of these components, the Rainbow Room was closed for a $20 million restoration and expansion that brought the restaurant's floor area to 4,500 square feet (420 m2).

The artist Dan Dailey created "Orbit", an 8-by-15-foot (2.4 by 4.6 m) glass mural, for the western wall behind the stage,[56] that was eventually moved to the Toledo Museum of Art in 2017.

[62] The Ciprianis extensively removed the Rainbow Room's northeast and southeast seating terraces, replaced fabric decorations, and added wall mirrors.

[66] In 2003, Michael DiLeonardo testified in a tax-evasion case involving mobster Peter Gotti, in which he said that Ciprianis gave $120,000 to the Gambino crime family to make union problems at the Rainbow Room disappear.

[67] A year later, the Ciprianis sued 30 Rockefeller Plaza's landlord, Tishman Speyer, for the latter's plan to place metal detectors at the lobby entrance to the Rainbow Room's elevator bank.

[71][72] The Ciprianis' chief operating officer blamed "the current economic crisis in New York and around the world, on top of an ongoing dispute with our landlord".

[66] Subsequently, Tishman Speyer announced that the Rainbow Room would reopen in late 2014, with a new executive chef and management team, after undergoing a full restoration.

[79][80] After being restored by Gabellini Sheppard Associates, the Rainbow Room reopened to the public on October 5, 2014, with Tishman Speyer as the new owner and operator.

[84] The Rainbow Room's only public operating hours were on Sunday mornings and afternoons, and on Monday nights; the rest of the time, the restaurant was used for private celebrations.

[97][98] John R. Todd, the main consulting architect, attributed the terrace layout of the Rainbow Room to one of Harrison's designs.

[97] Schmidt, a one-time apprentice of Elsie de Wolfe, contributed to the design of the interior decor, such as the furniture, curtains, and elevator doors.

[97] Entrance to the Rainbow Room is from the west, and two small staircases from the western wall extended to the northeast and southeast so as to avoid the rotating dance floor.

[21] There are mirrors in the alcove, the eastern and western walls, and around the stage, which were intended to reflect the activity of the room in both the figurative and literal senses.

[106] This stems from its legacy as a lunch club, where New York's more elite and influential figures could gather to socialize over cocktails, dine on fine cuisine, and dance on the revolving floor.

[11] A 1965 New York Times article stated that the dinner choices included "coquille joinville, steak marchand de vin, and parfait au liquers".

[110][111] In 2014, the New York Post's Steve Cuozzo wrote that the "well-turned out breakfast favorites" included "marvelously runny scrambled eggs, honey-baked ham, smoked salmon, sweet-spicy chicken sausage", and French toast.

The restaurant itself was described as having a "curious surprise" in the form of "a feeling of intimacy, for all the expected splendor, partly because of the encircling sweep of Manhattan lights through the tall windows 65 stories above the street.

[117] In December 2014, after the restaurant's reopening, Zachary Feldman of The Village Voice described the space before 2009 as a "drab husk of its former self" and praised the New American supper cuisine with live acts as evidence that "the Rainbow Room has bounced back better than ever".