John and Yoko in the Oyster Bar

The Oyster Bar at The Plaza, as it is officially known, opened on December 17, 1969, in the space that was originally a staff dining room and later the Hitchcock Pharmacy, the in-house drugstore. Designed in the style of an English seaside pub, with the liberal use of mahogany and etched glass, the Oyster Bar was the least formal of the hotel’s dining rooms (that is, no jacket required), reflecting the casual era that had spawned it. Its relaxed ambience made it the preferred Plaza hangout for the latest breed of American celebrity, the rock star.

One of the most famed rockers, former Beatle John Lennon and his wife, the artist Yoko Ono, were among the room’s regular patrons. In the fall of 1980, photographer Lilo Raymond was engaged to take pictures of the famed couple, who had emigrated to New York a few years earlier and were in the process of making a collaborative recording, later released as Double Fantasy. Raymond spent a day wandering the city with them, and just before repairing to the recording studio, she photographed them having lunch in a favorite haunt.

The inescapable poignance of this picture comes with hindsight, for John Lennon had only several months to live. He would be murdered in front of the Dakota apartment building on December 8, 1980.