The River Palm Terrace is a semi-swanky restaurant that is just minutes across the river from NYC. (I was there once for a corporate dinner for a previous job.) IIRC, it's actually a pain-in-the-neck to get to, as it is situated amongst a bunch of hilly and narrow streets near the Hudson River.
He probably wanted some place that met his "standards" but was conveniently close -- and also conveniently out of the eye of NYC photographers.