Elaine’s Restaurant
1703 Second Ave., New York, NY 10128 near 88th St.
Tel.+1 212-534-8103
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat, 6pm-2am; Sun, 5pm-1am
Credit Cards: All Major
Prices: Moderate-Expensive

The food at Elaine’s has always been barely passable, however that is not the point of the excursion to eighty-eighth Street, players from stage and screen, writers, power-brokers, intellectual types hang there. Bobby Short took my girl friend and I around the corner to smoke a joint—I am a drinker not a smoker but I took a drag anyway! This is a fun place where a lot of people mingle and the buzz is high. I used to drop by whenever I was in the city just for the hell of it.
In the low-lighting of the bar people look good, even at elbow to elbow distance, and the dining rooms are lively especially later in the evening. Elaine Kaufman, the owner, can be snarly, though she is not afraid to pick up a glass and make a drink if necessary, and will usually greet customers if she is not too engaged in conversation with other guests. You can become drunk, get unruly—no one will notice—it’s that type of place.
Elaine’s is an American-Italian joint, but there is only one of them like this in NYC; or anywhere else in the world for that matter.