When the real-estate firm Tishman Speyer was trying to persuade chefs to join what was turning into a murderers’ row of restaurants at Rockefeller Center, it used many of the deal-sweeteners that are standard in the trade: lower rents, prime locations, help with construction costs.

But the firm was also pitching a dream. “You can make Rockefeller Center the epicenter of food for New York City,” one chef said he was told.

Even if you account for standard real-estate hyperbole, it’s still a pretty bold vision. For longer than anyone can remember, Rockefeller Center’s place in the conversation about dining in New York was essentially nonexistent. A lot of people ate there, but nobody talked about it.