Is Graydon Carter eyeing Elaine’s?

Graydon Carter and Elaine’s restaurant at 1703 Second Avenue

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Is Graydon Carter interested in taking over Elaine’s? According to the Daily News, the Vanity Fair editor, along with restaurateur Ken Aretsky, had “made overtures” to the legendary Upper East Side eatery’s late namesake, Elaine Kaufman, before her death last year. But Diane Becker, the longtime manager to whom Kaufman left the 1703 Second Avenue restaurant in her will, said nothing ever came of the talks and that the famed media watering hole is “not for sale.” But Aretsky, who runs Aretsky’s Patroon On East 46th Street, was cagey when asked about whether the idea is totally off the table. “I have nothing to say,” he told the Daily News, and sources gossiped that some kind of confidentiality agreement may be to blame. Carter, who co-owns the Waverly Inn and Monkey Bar, wasn’t reached for comment but took a look at the restaurant as recently as the fall, other sources said. [NYDN]