The lights have only just gone out and the griddle is still cooling, but the building that had been home to Elaine’s for 48 years may not be long for this world.The Post‘s Lois Weiss hears that most of the bids for the two Upper East Side tenements Elaine Kaufman owned and opened her restaurant in are from developers with designs on tearing them down and building bigger.
Elaine’s is turning into a development site, according to Neal Sroka of Prudential Douglas Elliman, who is marketing the restaurant along with the two occupied walk-ups above it for $9.5 million.
“The people putting in offers now are all developers, who see the potential of the site that has air rights and could include the corner building,” said Sroka. “It’s [now] all about the real estate.”
Still occupied. That could get dicey, as could taller building in this awfully NIMBYist neighborhood. And what about all the literary lions? Will they come out to protest the destruction of their shuttered haunt?
Someday in the near feature, Elaine’s may be no more than one of those bronze plaques.
