Shuttered CPS eatery looks downtown as auction begins

 
Furniture and equipment at the jacket-only Central Park South Italian restaurant San Domenico are up for auction between 3 and about 5 p.m. today.

The Post reported that the restaurant’s rent was about to go from $200,000 a year to $600,000, and the restaurant’s owner told New York magazine that its $4 million in annual revenue wasn’t enough to afford a steep rent hike.

The restaurant will be in good company at its new location, with restaurants like Eleven Madison Park nearby.

Auctioneer Michael Amodeo said restaurateur Tony May and daughter Marisa May are bringing “very little” from the eatery along Central Park to their new downtown restaurant.

Amodeo expects to auction off tables, chairs, kitchen equipment at the cash-only affair, held in the restaurant at 240 Central Park South. The auction follows a two-day tag sale.

Restaurateur Tony May and daughter Marisa May decided after 20 years this month to pack it in and move downtown to 19 East 26th Street, across from Madison Square Park. They are giving the restaurant a new name, SD26, when it opens next spring. 

SD26 will more than double their seating capacity. Tony May told New York magazine that the new dining room would accommodate 350 diners, and it would have a 100-person private dining room plus a 75-person lounge. That compares to 150 seats in the Central Park South dining room. SD26 will have a market where it sells what it cooks.

Until the opening of its new location, San Domenico is still catering.