When cabaret experienced its initial rebirth in New York in the early 1970s, most people who chose to invest their money into opening a new club were told by their friends and associates that they were more than a bit insane for choosing to do so. The late Greg Dawson, however, would rebuff this by saying, "Believe me, I'm way more than just a bit insane."

Dawson, who had spent various portions of his adult life as the founder of a successful press representation firm as well as a radio personality and a founder of the Gay Activists Alliance during the wake of the Stonewall riots and Gay Liberation movement, opted in 1973 to open a supper club along with eight business partners, which would be named The Ballroom and stand in a West Broadway location in the then-insignificant Lower Manhattan neighborhood known as SoHo (an abbreviation of South of Houston Street). It was the seeming blink of an eye when, flying almost solely on a wing and a prayer, The Ballroom quickly became one of New York's most glistening jewels in the shimmering crown of cabaret. It hosted such momentous productions as Rosemary Clooney and Margaret Whiting together in their show Bosom Buddies, the launch of the career of a very young Baby Jane Dexter, a song-and-dance act by Joseph Papp, and was the springboard by which Jane Olivor landed her recording contract with Columbia Records and her subsequent discovery by Merv Griffin. Dawson himself produced the series Broadway At The Ballroom there, which was staged by New Faces creator Leonard Sillman, and featured among others a young composer by the name of Andrew Lloyd Webber. After toiling for six years and ultimately buying out his partners in 1979, The Ballroom became a mere shadow of its former self; Dawson was now alone at the helm, facing the inevitable gentrification of the neighborhood and severe rent hikes, and soon found himself forced to close its doors.

Two years later, in 1981, fate stepped in and gave Dawson a second chance. He secured a space, once again in an unlikely location for a supper club (253 West 28th Street near the corner of Eighth Avenue, in the equally-then-unfashionable Chelsea district), but this time, he had a different plan. Chef Felipe Rojas-Lombardi, a disciple of the gastronomic god James Beard, agreed to come on board as a co-owner and unleash a brand-new food phenomenon of which he was the undisputed master, namely Tapas. Loosely translated from Castillian Spanish as "snacks," Tapas brought an entirely new dimension to The Ballroom in the wake of the changing economic and cultural climate of the early 1980s; now, people could not only go to a posh club to see and hear the performances of such legendary singers as Eartha Kitt, Sylvia Syms and Peggy Lee, but in the process they could nibble on soft-shelled crab Catalan style, confit of spinach with sundried tomato and roasted garlic, and Ropa Vieja a la Felipe, not to mention scrumptious desserts and what one critic called "the single finest plum tart in town."

And while the kitchen was wholeheartedly Felipe's domain, Dawson ruled the sumptuous cabaret showroom with a rod of iron, ably abetted by manager Tim Johnson. The Ballroom was a never-ending parade of stars in its heyday. Singer-pianist Blossom Dearie almost immediately set up shop as the early evening attraction several nights a week. Martha Raye presented her very first club act there since the 1930s. Yma Sumac became the toast of New York almost overnight when she did a two-week stint. Jack Gilford's act was sold out for two solid weeks, and soon after, his daughter-in-law Mary Cleere Haran established her own foothold on cabaret's greatness. Singer-comedienne Pudgy was always a favorite, and it was The Ballroom where audiences got to experience the first time that Ann Hampton Callaway did an entire show without accompanying herself on piano. The Ballroom also hosted the long-running musical Nite Club Confidential.

Dawson opted to leave the Ballroom in 1991, pleading weariness for the industry in general, and sold his share of the company to Johnson. He would go on to produce Great American Songbook revues at Rainbow & Stars, the cabaret space at the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center, and later spent his time as an artist in both painting and sculpture, before his demise from liver failure in 2007 at age seventy-three. In September of 1991, however, Felipe Rojas-Lombardi also passed away from heart failure at the age of forty-six. Now alone at the helm, Johnson bravely fought on to keep The Ballroom's flag waving proudly. The club became the home of the Back Stage Bistro Awards for a number of years, as well as the ASCAP/MAC Songwriter's Showcase, and he also began to bravely introduce singers into the club who were slightly less well known than the ones who had graced the club's stage years earlier, but no less stellar. These included the group BETTY, Anita Gravine, Meg Flather, Group Five and the British cult TV star Julian Clary.

It was on March 14th of 1997 that Johnson, then sixty-five years of age, succumbed to a fatal stroke. This officially marked the beginning of the end for the Ballroom. Within a year, the building was razed to the ground. All of those marvelous voices that had once been heard on that stage were now stifled forever. A multi-story parking garage now stands on the site, but there are times when many, many people walk by and stand there straining their ear, aching to hear a faint echo or a fragment of a song. Alas, this is not to be. Still and all, The Ballroom remains one of the many legends that was cabaret's golden renaissance, and its spirit will live on forever in the hearts and minds of all who ever entered its beautiful doors, beneath the green-and-white awning that always seemed to say, "Welcome back! We missed you!"