Overview
You know the name — you've heard of the people — and now the doors to Elaine's, New York City's famed night spot, are finally open. And no one, not even Elaine herself, is standing guard at the door.
Elaine Kaufman's creation certainly came from humble beginnings. Forty years ago the now legendary restaurant on Eighty-eighth Street and Second Avenue was deemed too far uptown for anyone of importance to frequent. It was there that Elaine served, catered to, and nursed young starving writers and artists of the day.
As these customers grew and matured into Woody Allen and Norman Mailer, Andy Warhol and Jack Nicholson, Elaine's grew with them. By the time these artists were deemed legends, well, Elaine's had already become legendary.
A. E. Hotchner was there at the beginning, is still there today, and has a table reserved for tomorrow. There is no better person than "Hotch" to tell the story of Elaine's. He was there for every bit of it.
They're all inside: Jackie O., Truman Capote, Frank Sinatra, Liz Smith, Joan Rivers, Lauren Bacall, Judy and Liza. The stories are all here. The night Jackie came to dance. The night Sinatra snubbed The Godfather author, Mario Puzo. When Sinatra's ex-wife, Mia Farrow, asked Michael Caine to introduce her to Woody Allen. When George Steinbrenner was turned away at the door the night his Yankees beat the Mets in the Subway Series.
Everyone Comes to Elaine's is more than a story about New York City. It's more than a story of celebrities. This is the story of a "family" with a domineering mother who will stop at nothing to protect those dearest to her. This is an American saga.
Elaine's is amicrocosm of the people and events of the last forty years, from the sixties, when Beatles and Stones held forth there, to the start of the twenty-first century, when painful wakes were held for the regulars who perished on September 11. Just as Gertrude Stein presided over her salon in Paris in the twenties, Elaine now presides over hers.
So pull up a seat. You're invited. Everyone comes to Elaine's. Enjoy!
About the Author:
A. E. Hotchner is one of Elaine's most loyal regulars. An award-winning writer and author of numerous books, including King of the Hill and The Man Who Lived at the Ritz, he is also the longtime business partner of actor Paul Newman in Newman's Own. He lives in Westport, Connecticut.
Synopsis
You know the name — you've heard of the people — and now the doors to Elaine's, New York City's famed night spot, are finally open. And no one, not even Elaine herself, is standing guard at the door.
Elaine Kaufman's creation certainly came from humble beginnings. Forty years ago the now legendary restaurant on Eighty-eighth Street and Second Avenue was deemed too far uptown for anyone of importance to frequent. It was there that Elaine served, catered to, and nursed young starving writers and artists of the day.
As these customers grew and matured into Woody Allen and Norman Mailer, Andy Warhol and Jack Nicholson, Elaine's grew with them. By the time these artists were deemed legends, well, Elaine's had already become legendary.
A. E. Hotchner was there at the beginning, is still there today, and has a table reserved for tomorrow. There is no better person than "Hotch" to tell the story of Elaine's. He was there for every bit of it.
They're all inside: Jackie O., Truman Capote, Frank Sinatra, Liz Smith, Joan Rivers, Lauren Bacall, Judy and Liza. The stories are all here. The night Jackie came to dance. The night Sinatra snubbed The Godfather author, Mario Puzo. When Sinatra's ex-wife, Mia Farrow, asked Michael Caine to introduce her to Woody Allen. When George Steinbrenner was turned away at the door the night his Yankees beat the Mets in the Subway Series.
Everyone Comes to Elaine's is more than a story about New York City. It's more than a story of celebrities. This is the story of a "family" with a domineering mother who will stop at nothing to protect those dearest to her. This is an American saga.
Elaine's is a microcosm of the people and events of the last forty years, from the sixties, when Beatles and Stones held forth there, to the start of the twenty-first century, when painful wakes were held for the regulars who perished on September 11. Just as Gertrude Stein presided over her salon in Paris in the twenties, Elaine now presides over hers.
So pull up a seat. You're invited. Everyone comes to Elaine's. Enjoy!
Publishers Weekly
The daughter of working-class Jewish New Yorkers, Elaine Kaufman barely graduated from high school, but for some 40 years she has owned and managed one of the most exclusive nightspots in Manhattan: Elaine's. As Hotchner (Papa Hemingway) puts it, what "Rick's place was to Casablanca, Elaine's is to New York." Soon after Elaine bought the old neighborhood bar at 88th Street and Second Avenue in 1963, she welcomed writers as her favored clients, allowing them to run tabs and make her place their second home. Authors George Plimpton, Pete Hamill, Hotchner and others were among Elaine's earliest customers-but as word spread, the tables filled. After the writers came their agents and editors, and then glitterati of all persuasions. As Hotchner explains, the food has never been the point (sometimes it's quite inedible, he indicates). But the atmosphere is everything, and the atmosphere is pure Elaine. Young men just starting out could eat at Elaine's and find their first agent, sell their first play or be consoled over their first failures. As for young women, well, Elaine's nastiness was notorious, reports Hotchner. Writers' wives were treated, according to Nora Ephron, "as if they were temps." "Women were not welcomed at early Elaine's, except as d cor," Jules Feiffer remarked. Why? Perhaps Elaine herself needed to be "the principal female attraction," as Gay Talese put it. Readers offended by Elaine's misogyny may savor the account, near the end, of her disastrous attempt to lose weight and get a husband. Hotchner isn't known for writing fluff, but this reads like an extended glossy magazine feature, dripping with famous names and celebrity photos, full of dish-but leaving readers with little appetite. Photos. (On sale Mar. 30) Forecast: This titillating tribute to a New York City landmark is bound to attract local and national media coverage, culminating in respectable sales. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.